The brisket that would not bark


 
Lynn Dollar

Lynn Dollar

TVWBB Emerald Member
Yesterday, I had a 10 hour conversation with the fire in my Old Country Brazos. I bought a 12.6# prime brisket from Sams and smoked it Central Texas style, cept I used pecan instead of post oak.

Trimmed the brisket Friday evening, and this one was an oddity, it had a flap of meat on the point. I'd not seen this before and debated cutting it off, but it was sizeable. I left it on.


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Then got up at 4 am Saturday, and first thing I pulled it out of the fridge to let warm to room temp, then lit a chimney of charcoal which I had already prepared. I slathered the brisket with mustard and then applied kosher salt and 16 gauge black pepper.

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And it begins, waiting for the smoker to come up to temp and having coffee and getting ready to take notes on the cook. Yeah, I'm nerdy, I record cooker temps every 15 minute along with when I add splits, etc. I enjoy being up this early, its sort've like being at the lake, cept there's no water :D

I got the brisket on at 5:30 .

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On this offset, I cook either of two temps. First one is " small split " temp, which is 275 to 300. And second one is " very small split " = 250 to 275 . A small split is 12 to 14" long but about 2" X 2" diameter. A very small split is about 8" long , really a large chunk.

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Started with " very small " and tried to hold the temps down, but I got to the four hour mark, and this thing was not very dark, not dark at all. But I put a IT probe in and it was at 161, right in the stall. I'm wondering then , what went wrong. Was my smoke too clean ? Did the tuning plates I added reduce air flow and restrict bark development ?

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No diff at 5 hour, or 6 hour, and at 7 hour I was really worried. I'd turned it around by then, and that flap of meat was now curled up. The meat was coming out of the stall and this was a time to wrap, but it had very little bark.

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Not much diff at 9 hours and finally at 10 hours, I pulled it and wrapped it, let it set on the counter for about an hour.

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But something happened

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The flat was perfect, moist, passed the " drape test " and the " tug test " and most important the flavor test

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The point could've stood more time on the smoker, so is the problem with the two muscles of the brisket, get one done, and the other is not. I also could've trimmed more fat, I erred on the side of leaving too much. And I needed to render more of the seam fat ................ But it was good

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I thought the flap of meat, that I debated on cutting off, would be crunchy goodness, but it wasn't . It had a great crunchy bark but was tough and chewy. It had to be from some other muscle than the point.
 
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That's one unbelievable brisket. You knocked it out of the park! I gotta cook brisket on my offset soon. Maybe when it cools down in the fall!
 
I use two digital temp gauges, one at the stack end of the brisket, the other at the firebox end. The stack end averaged 267 and the firebox end averaged 253 .
 
BillSmith said:
Great pictures and notes! What made you use the offset smoker over the WSM?
Click to expand...

Central Texas brisket needs to be smoked with wood, not charcoal and chunks.

Yes, I started with a chimney of charcoal, but that was only to get the smoker up to temp and get a coal bed started. After the first hour, its a non factor, from then on its pure wood.

And there's a definitely flavor diff when smoking with a good clean fire from wood on the offset.
 
I agree on the flavor from the wood and since I lack an offset cooker I have achieved the same results with my 22" WSM using 6-8" oak wood chunks similar to your photo that I make quickly and easily with my small chain saw from our firewood stack :)
 
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