Trouble! todays brisket smoke


 
M

Mike in Sonora

New member
all, been awhile, good to be back

the intent was to follow the "Brisket - Smoked & Oven Finished" recipe at http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/brisket1.html

here is the day so far, more to go but wondering if anybody has any thoughts, feels like things are falling apart on me as the day goes on.

22.5 wsm
17lbs kingsford briq
minon start

the beast in question is a 10lb brisket from the butcher shop, trimmed about 1.5lbs off the cap. more than the 1/4 to 1/8" left on top. simple dry rub applied after pulling the brisket from the fridge, trimming it, rub, and onto the top grill

cook log so far, hope it formats out as readable, if not I'll try to edit it up:

time lid temp meat temp lid vent/bottoms notes
07:25 0 43 100/100/100/100
07:39 175 43 100/20/20/15
07:50 200 - 100/20/20/0 front cover loose gap from probe lead
08:02 210 51 100/20/0/0 closed up vents due to gap noted above
08:17 225 62 100/20/0/0 moved prob wire output down to joint in bottom left corner of front cover
08:31 235 77 50/0/0/0 temp spiked after reworking side cover, grrr
09:00 215 - 50/50/0/0
09:17 225 118 50/0/0/0
10:25 228 147 20/0/0/0 turns out lid temp is 35* high, now measuring on probe 2 stuck into lid vent, 85* meat temp rise in 2hrs
11:26 212 157 20/0/0/0 lid temp 190
11:39 214 158 20/0/0/0 flip, lid temp 195
12:15 213 159 20/0/0/0 lid temp 195


in the 2hrs between 8:17a and 10:25 I had an internal temp rise of over 80*. didn't seem out of whack until I took the temps between 9:17 and 10:25 wherein I realized that the actual lid temps had to be higher than indicated. So I took probe 2 on my maverick and stuck it about 4-5" into the top vent, closed the other vents off.at the 225 lid temp indicated the known good maverick probe showed 260*. this thing has always cooked real fast so I'll need to come up with a better thermometer setup going fwd, but that's an issue for later. I'm getting little if any smoke out of the wsm at this point.

I got up early to get this on so that it would be ready after resting from coming out of the over around 6:30p tonight. Now I'm rethinking and considering just letting it smoke to 205* and pulling it. The other option is to let it go on the smoker to 180 and finish it in the oven.

concerned that the quick spike in temp followed by a big slow down will dry it out.

thoughts on how you might proceed with this? could use some options and opinions. thanks in advance

Mike
 
I usually smoke brisket at a slightly higher temp if you're going for low and slow. My lid temp is usually around a consistent 225 throughout.

A meat temp of 205 sounds about right; however, I always check for fork or probe tender before pulling.

I would open the vents a bit to bring the temp up a little. Cooking it a little faster shouldn't hurt anything.

I actually have a lot more experience with PP and ribs......hopefully someone else will chime in here.

Good Luck!
 
Mike,

A similar thing happened to me with my ecb, a couple big prolonged spikes and then cooler temps later, after which I did have to finish it off in the oven. I'd try to get the internal temp on the high end of the finishing range to help render as much fat as you can, maybe baste a couple times. At least with an oven you'll be sure what you're cooking at for the finish. Rest well and thinly slice, it won't be the death knell by any means, maybe not the best but certainly won't kill it.


Zac
 
That was not a spike. Hardly a blip. Imo, 260 is a better temp to cook at if one is cooking low/slow. Me, I prefer cooking at 325-375.

Regardless, drying out has nothing to do with spikes or cooktemps. Drying out comes from overcooking - period.

Finish in the oven or not. Your choice.
 
I've sort of done what has been suggested, I've opened it back up, internal temps up 225*-ish on the probe. disregarding the lid thermo for now. at 164* now and I'm coming thru the infamous plateau at the moment but starting to climb out of it slowly and start increasing the vent openings slowly. think I'm going to leave in on the grill till the end shooting for a 190* finish, ***, I've got its twin in the freezer and can cook that on Sunday with new found knowledge. tritips, skirt steaks, and sausage going on the performer in a few hours as backup/snacks/leftovers/something to cook
 
Mike, one of the biggest problems i see is you have to many different temp checks. Check temps in one place only and adjust to that. I always go with lid temp, never worry about grill grate temp etc...imo 275 is about the perfect temp to smoke a brisket if going low and slow, if going HH let it rip, 325-350 range is good. And like K said dryness only comes from over cooking, 100% true.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Noe:
Check temps in one place only and adjust to that. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

agree, but... this thing has always cooked so fast in the few times that I've used it. Once I thought to throw a probe into the top vent then things settled down. Will do that from this point fwd.

Initially I was just looking to confirm that the temp/vents were in the 250ish range.

looking at the graph I can see that I was never in trouble, was hard to pick that same feeling off the spreadsheet I was using when I saw the meat temps climb so quickly this morning. Good lesson all around, still more to go, hoping for a happy ending... vertical red line shows temps from vent probe, previous temps from lid therm

brisket.png
 
There's nothing unusual happening with your smoke. 10 degrees is no spike - as long as you're within 25 degrees of your target temp everything is fine. You're cooking meat, not running a precision temperature setup.

Your 10 pound brisket is pretty small, so the meat temp looks just fine; every brisket I've done ALWAYS seems to come up in temperature too fast it seems like. It's obviously too late now, but you could have foiled it and finished it either in the oven or returned the brisket to the smoker. Your wood chunks are all used up by now, but the meat won't take any more smoke anyway (140 is about the limit), so that's not a problem either.

So how did it turn out?
 
turned out ok, nice flavor.

things I'd do different:

- more rub, much more rub, not much bark but good enough.
- longer smoke, should have taken it to 200-205, pulled it at 5pm at 190. 7p would have been better I think.
- ignore the lid thermometer, go with a probe or a candy therm in the vent till I get to know the smokers personality better.
- had trouble finding the seam between flat and cap. but just pulled it apart in the end

>You're cooking meat, not running a precision temperature setup.

lol, in my head I was, I'll know better next time

thumbs up in the end, the cute blonde that I invited over for dinner strapped the feedback on and went to town on the brisket, she liked it better than the tritip and the skirts. sausage was overkill at that point so will get them on the performer tonight.

thanks everybody for chiming in, learned a lot that will help me next time, appreciate it

ignore the mess on the counter, it was mayhem at the moment and I took a quick unstaged photo.
photo-4.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top