My First Brisket Cook...


 
J

J. Ray Silva

TVWBB Fan
...is now history.

And I have to say it went a lot better than I anticipated. The only glitch I had was getting carried away with the rub and it had a heavy pepper taste to it.

As far as tenderness it was good. Like buttah on the point end, and a little resistance on the flat. When I carved it, the meat performed the pull test with very little effort. Just like you see
on tv. :cool:

I smoked a select 11.84 lb. packer from Stater Bros.. I started at 11:30 p.m. and noticed the smoker was only at 144 degrees an hour later. I found the top vent shut. After fixing that embarrassment, the smoker was at running temp (250) within the hour.

By 3:00 a.m. the brisket was at 170 and finally had the color and crust I wanted. I wrapped it. I didn't do it for the time savings as the meat was moving right along. The meat was stiff as hell and I was afraid of ending up with a dry brick.

I was expecting this thing to go till 10 a.m. or noon, and was really surprised at how fast it was cooking. All my thermometers checked out so, I just went with it.

By 6:30 a.m. the Maverick woke me and told me I was 3 degrees from my target temp. I spiked it with my Thermapen and the temp was exactly what the Maverick said it was.

I waited till it hit 205 and yanked it. I put it in the cooler in a towel and let it rest.


Its nice to have done a brisket cook, as all the unknowns and anxieties are out of the way.

The next time I will wrap earlier and definitely work on a more palatable rub.

All in all, I'd say it was a 9.0 out of a 10. I'm happy and cant wait to slay the next brisket I do.

Thanks to all who have contributed their experiences and shared tips on this forum. I read most of them, and I know they helped me get the results I did.

Jack
 
Congrats Jack! I did my first brisket over Memorial Day and was pleased too. Looking forawrd to making some adjustments/improvements next time.

Chris
 
Congratulations. One thing I would mention is don't cook to a specific finished temp. This one turned out fine at 205 but the next one may be a crumbly dried out piece of expensive chilli meat. Always cook to probe tender not finished temperature.
 
Thanks for the advise. Much appreciated. I will set my check temp alarm lower next cook. How high have you had to go on a brisket?
 
Here is something else to think about besides not cooking to an internal temp, if you pull the meat off and wrap it immediately after removing, the meat will continue to cook which can also result in a over cooked end result. If the meat is probe tender to your liking let it rest for a few minutes unwrapped to stop the cooking process, 20 minutes usually works.
 
Thanks Don,

I actually vented the foil till the brisket was at 175 before I put it in the cooler, but left that part out of my original post. Re-reading my post I can see where it appears I took it off the grill and stuffed it in the cooler.

My bad!

I also left out some other details like how half my brisket got injected and the other half didn't.

It seems you can't use the plastic type injectors like a harpoon without them breaking. I also left out the

part where my Maverick woke me up every hour on the hour till 5:30 a.m. because it kept losing its signal.

I have never had that problem in 5 years of using it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top