Tips on improving my brisket


 
B

BJPirt

New member
Hi Guys,
I treated myself to a 18.5 WSM over Christmas and cooked a brisket for New Year's Day yesterday. It came out a little on the dry side so I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on getting it more moist next time. Here's are some more details:
- It was actually about half a brisket, the flat I think (new to figuring out my meat cuts)
- I salted it the previous day and just coated it well in pepper before smoking
- I half filled the charcoal container and then tipped in a full chimney on top which pretty much filled it
- I've got the maverick thermometer and the temperature was mostly stable around 235F but went as high as 265F and as low as 210F before settling back
- I filled the water container and there was still a little water in it when I removed the meat
- I cooked it until the internal temp was 203F - this took around 10.5 hrs
- When I took it off I wrapped it in foil and let it rest for an hour in a gently warmed oven

One thing I regret not doing is collecting the juices because they would have made an awesome jus but I learned that for next time :-) How do you guys do this best? Do you put it in a foil container or do you put one below it? The meat wasn't completely dry, but there certainly weren't any juices running out of it and when you cut a slice the surface would dry out from evaporation as you put it on your plate. Still, it was a delicious piece of meat and we all enjoyed it, but I'd like to get my brisket perfect! In any case, here's a photo so you can see the results of my labour...

4Hgw7eR.jpg


Did I just overcook it? Or did I miss something that would have kept it moist? Any suggestions gratefully received!
Happy New Year,
Ben
 
Hi Ben, & welcome. (Another UK-er.....yay!!)>

It appears you over-cooked it mate. (IT 203F). In my experience, I wouldn't go above 185-190F IT.

It will always continue to residually cook after you've pulled it and wrapped it. Also, I wouldn't salt the meat beforehand, as that draws out a lot of moisture.

Anyway, it looks tasty, and a good dollop of horseradish wouldn't go amiss. :)

Happy New Year to you too, & look forward to your future smokes.
 
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Thanks Tony,
I feared that might be the case. I think I was swayed by this page on Amazing Ribs where he talks about "magic happening" at 203F :-) will definitely try lower next time and salting later in the process. One thing I did notice was that the "stall" seemed to happen at a higher temp than the 165F that I've seen mentioned elsewhere. Mine sat at 180F for a good few hours not budging.
Thanks for the tips,
Ben
 
No probs Ben.

I s'pose there are no "hard & fast" rules in this game. Just guidelines. And I'm sure we've all made a hash of it at some time or another.
In my book, "If you can eat it, it aint ruined!"

There are some very, very knowledgeable folks here, who can help you out without baffling you with science.
Practice makes perfect Ben. Good luck mate.
Tony.
 
The picture looks awesome! It's VERY hard to get a flat to turn out moist. I've done a lot of briskets to 203 based on that article. Most of them turned out pretty good. However, as a lot of people on this board will point out It's best to learn to probe for doneness typically at around 190. This means sticking a probe or skewer into the meat and feeling the resistance. Like soft butter is the typical phrase used. I've taken them off as early at 193 and as late as 203. My stalls tend to happen higher. I think it has to do with relative humidity and barometric pressure.

You may try wrapping at some point to get more moisture. I typically don't like to as a purist but it does work. Leaving on the fat cap (trimmed to 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch) can help. If you render it just right that fat is delicious and when you bite into the whole piece makes up for some of the moisture.
 
Hi Dustin,
Thanks for the advice - I think the key learning point from this is that I can't just rely on the internal temp alone, I need to manually check it. This time I was using the leave in probes for the maverick which I'll do again next time to spot the end of the stall but will start manually checking for tenderness after 190.

I'd wondered about wrapping it too though like you I think I'd rather avoid it if possible.

In any case, I just sliced off some of the meat, quickly put it in some hot gravy and the whole family had delicious beef sandwiches for lunch so really not complaining :-) The gravy certainly made up for any dryness of the beef and it was just falling apart - delicious. Served with a lashings of horseradish of course, TonyUK!

Cheers,
Ben
 
^^^
Phtt!
Was there anything really to worry about Ben? :D
Sounds like you had a great result all round to me! Chuck a sarnie this way, if you don't mind. ;)
A little tweaking here & there, and you'll have it down-pat in no time.
:)
 
Ben,

I just did my 3rd brisket overnight New Years' Eve (a 12.5 lb packer this time). Best brisket I've ever made! Not going to go into too much detail about what I did (may do a full blown post about it later today), but here are the key things I think helped me which were different from my last cook (in no particular order of course):

1. I eliminated the sugar from my rub.
2. Set my IT alarm at 185 F and started probing there. I think I pulled the brisket around 189/190 F, but I honestly stopped looking at the meat temp at 185F.
3. Let the brisket rest unwrapped for about 30 minutes before foiling and placing in a cooler for about 2 hours before slicing.
4. Kept my temps between 225 & 255, though it did climb as high as 269 at one point because I forgot to turn the alarm on my thermometer back on.

For me, I assumed that I overcooked my two previous attempts. Turns out I was right! If I had any advice I'd say next time don't change too much at once. Maybe try to cook to a lower temp then probe for doneness (which takes some time to figure out exactly what that means, no matter how we describe it in words you still can't know what that feels like until you actually feel it). My guess is that will get you a lot closer to where you want your end product to be.

Good luck with the next one!
 
Brian,
Sounds tasty! It definitely sounds like I just overcooked it - will definitely start probing at a lower temp next time.
Thanks for the tips!
Ben
 
I usually agree with Meathead, but not in this case. Brisket is done when it's done, not when it hits a certain temp (203), and you don't necessarily have to pull it off once it hits 205. Long story short, the breakdown of the connective tissue is a function of time AT temperature. A good illustration of this is melting a whole stick of butter in a pan. You can do this on low and it will take a little while. If you kick the flame up to medium, the stick will melt faster. If done carefully on high, it's even faster. If you were to measure the temps once the butter is fully melted, you'd find that the one melted on low would be at a lower finished temp. Medium would be a bit higher. The butter melted at high heat would be even hotter.

Same thing basically occurs with brisket. At lower cooking temps, the brisket needs more time for the connective tissues to breakdown and render and the finish IT will be lower. At higher temps, the connective tissues will breakdown and render faster and the finish IT will be higher.

To conclude, IF you could magically hold your chamber temp spot on at 225 for the entire cook, a brisket might be done when it hits 200. If everything about the cook remained identical but your chamber temp was 250, the same brisket would finish faster, but the finished IT might be 205. If your chamber temp was 300 or more, finished IT might be 208 or even higher. (These temps are completely made up to illustrate the point.)

All that said, there are other factors that also determine what the internal temp of the brisket will be when it finishes, such as marbling, grade, humidity, yada, yada, yada. With all this in mind, I pull my briskets when they are done, which is when they are probe tender.
 
DaveW said:
I usually agree with Meathead, but not in this case. Brisket is done when it's done, not when it hits a certain temp (203), and you don't necessarily have to pull it off once it hits 205. Long story short, the breakdown of the connective tissue is a function of time AT temperature. A good illustration of this is melting a whole stick of butter in a pan. You can do this on low and it will take a little while. If you kick the flame up to medium, the stick will melt faster. If done carefully on high, it's even faster. If you were to measure the temps once the butter is fully melted, you'd find that the one melted on low would be at a lower finished temp. Medium would be a bit higher. The butter melted at high heat would be even hotter.

Same thing basically occurs with brisket. At lower cooking temps, the brisket needs more time for the connective tissues to breakdown and render and the finish IT will be lower. At higher temps, the connective tissues will breakdown and render faster and the finish IT will be higher.

To conclude, IF you could magically hold your chamber temp spot on at 225 for the entire cook, a brisket might be done when it hits 200. If everything about the cook remained identical but your chamber temp was 250, the same brisket would finish faster, but the finished IT might be 205. If your chamber temp was 300 or more, finished IT might be 208 or even higher. (These temps are completely made up to illustrate the point.)

All that said, there are other factors that also determine what the internal temp of the brisket will be when it finishes, such as marbling, grade, humidity, yada, yada, yada. With all this in mind, I pull my briskets when they are done, which is when they are probe tender.
Click to expand...

BJ- I cooked a flat yesterday and got a similar result. connective tissue had not broken down all the way and it was a little dry. I pulled it off at 204 degrees and rested for 45 minutes. I was cooking between 225-250 the whole cook. I started probing at 190 and I think I should of let it rock a few more degrees.

DaveW- I have never really heard/thought about your point on pit temp to finished internal temp. I am going to have to think about that next time I am cooking a brisket.
 
The only thing I would add is that I like to pull my brisket out when it reaches 165 IT and wrap it in non-waxed brown butcher paper. Then I place it back on to finish out. This helps to keep the brisket moist. The paper allows the brisket to continue to take on smoke. I learned this from Aaron Franklin in Austin Texas. His videos are on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmTzdMHu5KU
 
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Thanks for all the helpful comments guys. Looking forward to using some in my next brisket.

Ended up finishing it off by shredding it and putting it in a little beef broth, tomato puree and dark sugar and having it in tacos. Delicious! The smokey flavour really came out nicely.
 
BJ...

DaveW gave some great information. As he mentioned, grade is just one of the determining factors. As one moves up the grading scale, one will generally find the IT reached when tender to be lower.

Generally speaking again... a higher grade piece of meat will not only have more intramuscular and intermuscular fat but more importantly, collagen proteins that are less developed than lower grade meats. Those collagen proteins thicken and toughen as the animal ages as well as with increased muscular activity. The higher grade meat animals are more likely raised in less stressful environment while also having less physical activity. The end result is more of that fat and less thick and tough collagen development and less elastin development.

The elastin protein are those tough, unchewable connective tissues such as silverskin and tendons.

Collagen and elastin proteins start to contract about 140 degF IT. During this phase, water is rung out of the muscle structure. As IT increases to about 160 degF, the collagen proteins start melting. The thicker and tougher collagen proteins will require a temperature in the plus 200 degF range to complete this melting process.

As you might suspect, I enjoy the science behind bbq. It's the art behind bbq that eludes me ;)
 
The flat is leaner...did you want to inject it with something next time?

I have learned that you want to set the bark before you wrap..,although I want to try butcher paper the next time I can get any!

Some of my best briskets were not wrapped be took forever to cook. The bark was beautiful. Recently, I have been wrapping due to time constraints...

The min thing is the probe test...place it in the flat and see how it feels.
If it
S soft with no resistance, pull it off and let it rest. I keep the point cooking at this time, as I want to render the fat and get it to the same point where it feels like butter...
 
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