My meat is dry


 
E

Eric Larson

New member
I went to a good BBQ joint last week and was surprised by how moist the meat was. It made my meat seem dry. It's not terrible, it's not bone dry, but it could be better.

I use an automatic temperature control system to hold it at 225. I foil wrap the water pan without any water -- as someone suggested to help avoid interfering with the ATC.

I'm cooking briskets and pork butts. I cook them at 225 and then usually wrap them in foil and finish in the oven. The pork butts I inject with an apple juice/vinegar solution. I mop both the pork butts and briskets in the same solution 2-3 times during cooking. I usually finish them in the oven, wrapped in foil. I let the meats rest, still wrapped in foil, for about an hour.

Should I mop more? Should I add water to the water pan? Should I trim less fat from the meat (I usually cut off the fat cap and any large, external chunks of fat)?

Thanks
 
About whole packer brisket, i have stopped trimming all the fat cap. I remove all ge fat cap just belowe the point section. I leave entire under the flat to protect it.
This has made better flat than before, but not really the best. I always use water for the first part of smoking than i move to butcher paper to finish.
For butts well wr don't have piek butts just pirk shoulder. I always have cooked great pulled pork except ladt time when I removed all the fat cap and i didn't foil. I won't do anymore. If I foil maybe I can remove the fat cap. If i don't foil i can't trim the fat cap.
I always cook at 250F ish.
 
I definitely wouldn't trim off the fat caps. Leave about a 1/8 to 1/4 of and inch. I don't trim shoulders at all typically. For brisket, I just trim it down and get rid of the hard fat inbetween the sidesof the flat and point. If you are wrapping with foil you could put some braising liquid in there, no more than a 1/4 of a cup.

To me, bbq needs that fat. The worst butt I've ever cooked looked great in the package and when I pulled it out it was completely over trimmed.

The only other think I think is to vent the meat before resting to stop most of the carry over cooking and keep you from over cooking it.

Some of it may just be the quality of the meat.

You're cook temp is fine. I've been edging up closer to 250 but I don't think there's going to be enough difference there to matter.

Single biggest thing is just knowing when its done and not getting it overdone.
 
What Dustin said !

That moisture you see in long haul cooked meats is mainly denatured collagen, otherwise known as gelatin, and not water. Ok... some water. Neither mopping nor using water in the pan adds moisture to the meat.
During the stall, there's one way traffic happening where water is being released from the meat. No mopping or moisture from water in the pan can overcome this.
 
if you over-cook or under-cook your BBQ it will be dry. You can overcome some of this by adding finishing sauce/sauce to the pulled/sliced product. But moisture inside the meat is almost solely a function of cooking to the proper finish, and not overcooking (moisture evaporates, meat is dry and crumbly) or undercooking (moisture is not yet released, meat is tough and chewy).
 
I'd say you're messing it all up finishing in oven ! Secondly mopping is one of those things you do for a particular style of bbq specifically ribs in my opinion. Don't mop you could very well be destroying the bark that retains all the moisture . Don't foil a butt or brisket .. I used to... There's no comparison ... Read my old posts and you'll see me saying the opposite ...
 
Eric, I think the most important thing is what Dave and Dustin pointed out: nail the cook finish. Don't undercook. Don't overcook.

Regarding brisket, I don't cook them enough to be an expert, but I do have in my notes not to cook em too slow. You want to cook it faster than it can dry out, if that makes any sense. Don't "warm it to death." I wouldn't smoke em under 275 unless foiling, and I mean on time, not as an afterthought. 275-300 and wrapping with BP has become my brisket method of choice.

With pork butts, I know what works for me, but I honestly haven't smoked them that slow without water in the pan and would like more info. How's your bark ending up? How much fat is left when you pull? How big are the butts you're smoking? Bone in?

As to what HAS worked very well for me when cooking real slow on the wsm: 16 hrs or so for 9-10 lb bone-in butts (7 pounders seem to end up drier!), injection or no injection, no mopping, water in the pan, some or no fat trim, FAT DOWN majority or all of cook, relative short holding time after the cook. With the ATC or without it, no water in the pan cooks seem to go better if I cook the butts a little faster to keep the bark from drying out.
 
Thanks for all the tips. On my next smoke, I'll either leave all the fat or trim very minimally.

When I finish in the oven, it's usually because I want to smoke something small like ribs, sausage, or chicken and I open the smoker more frequently. When in the oven, I always rap in foil, so I figure there's no difference between finishing in the smoker and finishing in the oven; though I suppose the smoker would have somewhat better temperature consistency and accuracy, though I don't think enough to make much of a difference.

The pork butts I do are usually around 6.5 pounds a piece, before trimming, with the bone. I don't think I've ever seen a pork butt much larger than 7 pounds.

Dave, cooking the brisket at a higher temp before it can dry out doesn't logically make sense to me, but I'll give it a shot.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Now I just need to fire up the smoker.
 
Leaving the fat or cap on won't make your meat more moist. If it's dry, it's overcooked. Spritzing won't help. Injecting a brisket will add moisture but butts have enough collagen that they don't require it. Since you're foiling, let the meat rest until it drops back around 140F. It should re-absorb some liquid (especially brisket).

Worst case, make a good finishing sauce.

Good luck.
 
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