urgent brisket question


 
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DavidSF

TVWBB Member
Hi,
I am currently smoking a 3.75lb brisket. It has been smoking for only about 2 hours. The smoker temp has been 225-250. The brisket meat temp is 151. My plan was to take the brisket out at 160, wrap it in foil with some water added on top, and smoke until 180. I thought it would take at least 6 hours to reach this stage. It looks like I'll be there in another hour. So my question is, how important is the smoking time? It's a small brisket I know. Therefore, should I stick with my plan of taking it out at 160 even though it's only been smoked for 3 hours or should I turn down the smoker temp and smoke for another few hours at 160?

thanks!
David
 
David,
I'd go with your plan. As many here have said, time is only an estimate. Let the meat tell you when it's done. Since the piece is small it is also probably thin and won't take nearly as long as a thicker piece. Many here talk of the fork test, that is, at some point, no matter how low the cook time has been, if it is fork tender it is done. If a probe can be inserted with little or no resistance, it's done.
Let rest and go at it. Others, I'm sure, will be here with some tips pretty soon
 
OK will do. As it turned out, after turning down the smoker temp, the meat never quite reached 160 so I'm still smoking. I've now been smoking for 3.5 hours. The smoker temp is back up to 240 so I'm expecting the brisket to reach 160 in the next 30 minutes. One thing I was worried about not smoking long enough was the absense of the all important smoke ring. I will be disappointed if there's no smoke ring. Do you know how long it takes for the smoke ring to form?

thanks,
David
 
Since you are going low and slow,I don't believe that 3.5 hours for a 3.75 lb piece is out of line. They say that brisket, low and slow, takes an ESTIMATED 1.25-1.50 hours per pound. As for the smoke ring, I understand that it forms during the early part of the cook, say the first hour to hour and a half. Others with more experience can be more definite. Don't worry about the smoke ring, you'll get one if you used adequate smoke wood. If you are going to regularly cook smaller briskets, you might want to check out the forum discussions on high heat brisket cooks. Hit the FIND tab in the forum section and search. There is plenty of good information on the subject there. I find that the more I worry the better the cook turns out. It's only meat, you have a plan, it will be good. Enjoy. The more you use the cooker, the more proficient you'll get. Let me know how things turned out.
You might want to insert the probe in different places as I understand that with brisket, probe temps can be all over the place because of the nature and thiness/thickness of the meat

Dave
 
I think that people get confused with timelines.

A tough cut of meat will take a while to complete the rendering process.

Cooking low and slow will still require the brisket to render at a pace pretty much equal to that of a packer or even a full flat.

At those temps you are probably looking at 2 hours per pound minimum. The larger cuts will take an an hour plus.

The smoke ring forms early on.

Foiling at 160 will speed up the cook.

Add a little fluid to the foil and pull when fork tender.

Let it rest before slicing.

Good luck.
 
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