Night Train Brisket... 2nd attempt.... PRON

Ok so last weekend i set out to do the night train and i farked up. Wasnt tender. so this week i did it again. One thing i tested was my oven. it was 10 degrees less than i set it at when reading the temp at the grate level. so instead of setting the oven to 175, i set it to 185. my thermometer read 175 at grate level the whole cook.


got my 5 lb brisket flat....




rubbed it down with salt and pepper...




foiled it up and sealed the edges tight....




put a sign on the oven so nobody went snooping around and opened it.





broiling the fat cap to make it crispy!!! u can see the little bubbles on it from teh sizzling.




resting for 15 minutes...



probed it... sliced it... felt it... pulled on it... plucked it... tried to remember...





sliced a few pieces at 1" to play with it... the rest i sliced thinner to have for dinner the way i like it.



dinner plate...





RESULTS AND THOUGHTS:

the brisket was juicy. the brisket was nice and fork tender. i sliced it perfectly. when tugging it came apart. i think this was the tenderness i was looking for.

HOWEVER:
when i was probing it, by no means did i feel that the probe was just sliding in. it might slide in for a 1/4 inch but after that it had resistance. i guess i will look for this.

bc in the past i have made briskets and i keep them on until that probe will slide into the brisket as if it was sliding into thin air but when i slice em up they are dryer than a boot. uck... and not very tender... i think they were underdone. but at the same time, the probe slide in easier than it did here.

so i will look for the probe to feel like it did here (even though i dont feel taht this was sliding in like butter)



any thoughts? tips? thanks for looking.

---k--- said:

Timely post. After producing a few okay briskets, I was thinking about trying this experiment.

Your first photo of the big thick slices looks very dry. I'm guessing this is just the camera not capturing the moisture since you said it was juicy.

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ok maybe juicy was teh wrong word. when i think of 'juicy' i think of a steak medium rare with juices coming out.

this was nice and moist. moist meat. when i ate it, it didnt feel dry, it fely moist and good.

im just still not sure why my probe didnt just slide in like it was going into melted butter.

Q-Dat said:

Dirty, if I may, I think I can shed a little light. I used to think that "goes in like butter" meant how easily the probe slides through the meat. Now, I have a different understanding. To me it does not refer to how easily, but instead how SMOOTHLY. Even when tender Brisket meat is dense. So if it is literally like melted butter, then it is probably a little overcooked. If that probe gildes through smoothly without you being able to feel strands of connective tissue snapping as the tip of the probe pushes through, then in my mind you have succeeded.

Click to expand...

hmm this would make sense. bc when i just probed this thing, the probe went in a bit and stopped. like i hit a wall. not little ticks of tissue, just like i hit the meat. i was looking for it to just go in as far as i pushed the probe with no resistance at all.