Overshot temperature on my brisket :(


 
D

Dave Cluck

TVWBB Fan
I started another brisket last night and just before putting it on I thought I'd go ahead and insert the ET-73 meat probe. As it turns out the probe wasn't placed properly, whether due to jostling around as I transfered the meat onto the grate or my ineptitude. The alarm went off at 189 and I set up the cooler and foil, went out to grab the brisket, brought it in, flipped it over onto the foil and noticed that the probe partially exposed about an inch up from the sensor tip. I pulled it out (normally I leave it in) and re-inserted it into the center of the flat again. The temperature immediately shot up to 198!
icon_frown.gif


I finished double wrapping it foil, wrapped it in towels and stowed it in the prewarmed cooler. My question is, given that I need to keep this beast warm for another 2 hours (trim and serve time) should I try to prevent some of the carryover cooking by opening the lid of the coooler or take some of the towels out? I'm still monitoring the temperature and in the past 15 minutes or so it's down to 196.. Is this brisket going to end up being mush?

~Dave
 
Actually this one turned out to be rather dry in the flat area not covered by the point. There never was any carryover rise in temperature even though I kept it insulated in the cooler as I always do. It steadily dropped over the course of two hours until I sliced/chopped it. There was some liquid in the foil, but not any more than I've seen with more successful briskets.

This isn't the first time I've failed to get any sort of rise in temperature when foiling and storing in a warmed cooler. Is this indicative of something I'm doing wrong? Or is carryover a hit or miss sort of affair?

~Dave
 
Precisely. And that there was significant moisture loss (hence the dryness) contributed to the lack of a temp bounce too.
 
The lack of moisture inhibiting carryover makes sense to me. The past two briskets I've done (including todays) I've shot for a higher grate temperature than previously (245 to 250) to see if I could get good bark formation. I haven't found any sugar based rubs that I've been wild about on brisket.

I suppose I need to adjust by either dropping my grate temps back down to the 230 to 240ish mark or start foiling towards the end of the cook. Live and learn. Thanks, K and K.

~Dave
 
I don't think the temp had anything to do with dryness. I take my briskets to 200, no foil until I put them in the heated cooler. Never had a dry one. But, I'm guessing that is the quality of the piece of meat to begin with. Win some, lose some.
 
I'm gonna agree with Harold, I've been getting some flats here in London that look good at first, after cooking you can tell that there wasn't much fat in the meat in parts, those were the dry bits.

I saw some great cuts of meat, striated with fat in Paris last weekend. I think its called paleron there, at least it looked like it, but at 18.00 euros/kilo !! I decided not to buy any. Still, I might have to try some of the specialty butchers here in London and try a rare breed brisket this summer.

morgan
 
Brisket is going to be more difficult to achieve a consistent result over the pork butts. But practice and the right technique will always help you out in the end product.
 
I'm thinking that it was the temperature that I cooked it at (250ish at the grate/275ish at the lid) combined with the 10 degree overshoot from my intended target internal temperature of 190. Had I stayed at 225ish at the grate and still overshot as I did, I'm thinking there might have been less moisture driven out of the unprotected flat region. Does that theory sound plausible?

I'm not discounting the variances brom one brisket to another. This brisket might very well have been destined to be as dry as it was no matter what. I did save the drippings and added some to each of the food saver packets before freezing in the hopes that this might help when reheating.

Eating a chopped point sandwhich right now.. yummm.

~Dave
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>I'm thinking that it was the temperature that I cooked it at (250ish at the grate/275ish at the lid) combined with the 10 degree overshoot from my intended target internal temperature of 190. Had I stayed at 225ish at the grate and still overshot as I did, I'm thinking there might have been less moisture driven out of the unprotected flat region. Does that theory sound plausible? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sure does.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top