Yet another brisket doneness/probe feel desperation thread...

Okay, this is getting pretty ridiculous...

I've done several hundred packer briskets or flats and still struggle every time with the correct probe feel...

I usually cook HnF at around 275-325 F, naked for 2-4 hours and then I foil when the color is right.
I cook them foiled for about 1.5-2.5 hours, and check for doneness after 1 hour in the foil every 20 minutes.

What throws me off is that there seems to be a lot of variation.
I thought I had calibrated my tactile touch to the optimal probe feeling, but then I accidentally overcooked one packer in competition.
The probe slid in there almost without pushing...
It was probably the softest probe feel that I've ever felt and truly was like warm butter.

And the tenderness was almost spot on, just a tiny bit over! I fully anticipated it being way over due to my earlier brisket adventures...
Also the judges agreed that the tenderness was really close.

A few days ago I did bunch of briskets, I pulled one that felt pretty good and let it cool down before slicing and it was pretty close.
It had a lot more resistance than that comp brisket I just mentioned, but was still more overdone...

And then there were the other briskets, they took way longer before they felt even remotely soft.
They all had probe feel that had more resistance than the comp brisket, but they all ended up being pulled beef rather than slices.

What am I missing here? Did I miss the moment when they were probe tender, and after that they just started to tighten up?

I think that happened in the last comp we did. We checked the brisket for probe feel and it felt somewhat soft, but still had resistance.
And then we checked it again in 20 minutes and it definitely had more resistance, so we pulled it. And it was overcooked.

For my tactile senses, it's hard to distinguish between the resistance before brisket is done and the resistance after it's overcooked. How do you know if you've missed your window?
Do you check the temps? Or do you eyeball the amount of moisture present? Look for excessive surface cracking?

Thanks all,

I always use the same probing tool, so that's not an issue..

Usually the briskets don't have that jiggle either, I check them for that too, but it seems that it never comes (or I've gone past it already when starting to check).

And I've watched all of Jason's videos, they are informal and entertaining :razz: As well as his threads.

I know the window of perfection, or rather the window of good is wider with lower temps, but I just feel HnF produces better brisket _when_ we get it right.

And it usually suits our competition logistics and timing better. We don't have any issues with other categories with HnF, just that the briskets act real funny..

We've experimented a lot with resting/holding and I honestly don't know what conclusions to draw from my notes.
The good brisket that felt really soft when probed, we just placed loosely tented in the counter for about an hour and then sliced.

So no hold at all. I'm not sure how much it dropped in temps, but it was still pretty hot when sliced.
And we finished that one off really hot since we were in a hurry, 350-400 F. I'd say it was the best one we've did in terms of tenderness.

Usually we vent for 10-15 minutes and then into cooler or cambro.

Grade, eh? I'm in Finland, all we get is ungraded export from you guys and Australian briskets that they also don't grade... That doesn't mean they are of lesser grade, I've understood that usually USA exports just aren't graded..

And I know many European teams that do well in brisket use the same stuff :grin:

Also we get to go over 15 cases and hand pick the best ones for comps, and there have been some that had marbling comparable to Wagyu..

Can someone with authority tell me if briskets do tighten up after gone past the optimal doneness? In terms of probe feel, I mean. If they do, that would explain quite a bit.

I'm going to do a few ones at lower temps and see if I can spot the moment, just want to get my Heatermeter all soldered up before that :becky:

Well I think I'm improving! We got first place in brisket a week ago in Belgium and this time we also had the slices in the box :-D

It probed really really soft, almost no resistance so naturally I thought we overcooked it once again.

But to my surprise it was pretty darn close! So it must be that I usually miss the really soft feeling and the brisket starts to tighten up. And hence there is more resistance when probing after that point.

We sliced the flat after it had rested for about half an hour loosely in foil just to verify the doneness. It was pretty springy, almost not done enough. We put it away wrapped in foil to slice it closer to turn in time.

When we started slicing again the texture had totally changed! It was almost overdone, no springyness anymore. We were quite surprised. Could the small drop in temperature affect texture that much? I've never seen that kind of sudden change in texture when resting...