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Tough flat, oops I did it again... Help

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Thespanishgrill

Knows what a fatty is.
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Happy Friday all,

I tried a hot and fast packer today. Injected with beef broth and some seasoning. Put on the Akorn fat up over a water pan over the pizza stone at a steady 335 maverick probed temp.
Loosely foiled at at 160 and went until probe tender. Point was utter butter flat was soft too but not as soft was temping around 200 or so.
Pulled it let it rest I foiled for fifteen minutes then wrapped and rested for an hour then served.
Point was great but the flat was still dry and cardboardy. It seemed ready when I pulled it. Any suggestions on what I did wrong ?

Thanks
 
I did, I pulled it when the flat was probe tender and then about an hour later it was dried out and firm. When I pulled I thought it was going to be right on.
 
BluDawgs Brisket

K.I S.S. some of the best brisket you will ever eat! Total cook time including the rest 8 hrs or less. I promise it will be as moist as mornin dew on the lilly, tender as a mothers love, pure beefy smoky goodness.

1 packer 12-15 lb
Trim off the hard fat on each side of the flat thin the fat cap to 1/4"

Mix your Rub
1 part kosher salt 4 parts Med grind Black peppa by volume( this is a true 50/50 BY weight)
apply a coat of rub you need to be able to see the meat through the rub clearly.

Pre heat the pit to 300 deg
place brisket on the pit Fat Cap Down and point to the firebox unless it is a RF cooker then point to away from FB

Maintain pit between 275-325 if cookin on a stick burner
cook Brisket 4 hrs
remove from pit wrap in a single layer of Butcher paper Return to pit Fat cap up.
after 1 hr probe the thicket part of the Flat only! If it isn't *probe tender it will be within 1 hr.
once it is probe tender remove from the pit keep it wrapped in the paper you cooked it in and allow it to rest on your counter until the Internal temp reaches 150 this will take about two hrs.
Don't ever slice more than you can eat big pieces retain moisture and won't dry up on you like slices will.


*PROBE TENDER>This is the feel that is mimicked by cutting room temperature butter with a hot knife, there should be no drag
__________________
 
Thespanishgrill said:
Happy Friday all,

I tried a hot and fast packer today. Injected with beef broth and some seasoning. Put on the Akorn fat up over a water pan over the pizza stone at a steady 335 maverick probed temp.
Loosely foiled at at 160 and went until probe tender. Point was utter butter flat was soft too but not as soft was temping around 200 or so.
Pulled it let it rest I foiled for fifteen minutes then wrapped and rested for an hour then served.
Point was great but the flat was still dry and cardboardy. It seemed ready when I pulled it. Any suggestions on what I did wrong ?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Try it fat down.
 
If you sliced the flat and it didn't fall apart, but seemed dry and/or tough, it was UNDERCOOKED!

It's a very common thing for people to miss the suggestions to ignore the point and worry about probe tender in thickest part of the flat only. So yeah, ignore the point, it will take care of its self.
 
Overcooked crumbles - it not crumbling but dry it was still a hair under cooked. Brisket are Hard - small window of "Done".

Next a Time when you think it's done go 30 minutes more. And slightly overcooked and crumbling tastes pretty darn good still - Way better than undercooked does. :mrgreen:
 
You have to not temp at all. And the probe needs to slide in with almost no push at all, it should be to where you think 'is that all it takes?'

Otherwise, you seem fine. In a hot-n-fast cook, 200°F is almost certainly under-done. But, learn to ignore the internal temperature.
 
Agree with all of the above. One thing that hasn't been brought up is brisket quality. I personally never had any luck cooking choice. Cooked about 10, Last few where good, but not great. Bought a select when it went on sale and was hooked! Now my Costco had prime and it's just as good it seems (only like $.30/lb at Costco so it's a no brainer). Just something to consider. .. I'm now also leaving more toward"bigger brisket=bigger cow=more fat" mentality vs "smaller=more tender" the last 15lb'er I cooked had tooons of fat, more than a waygu it seemed like based on the saturated bp and about 2 cups of drippings when I pulled it from the smoker. I met Franklin at his place when we went to eat there and asked him if he basted or spritz as I had never seen butcher paper saturated with so much fat In my cooking. .. it is the meat quality.
 
This particular brisket was a select due to I went to 4 smart and final and that was all they had.
When I picked this one it felt very pliable with decent fat.
I will try Fat side down in the egg next time but I thought the idea was to keep the fat aimed at the heat and I might be wrong but it seems the higher to dome the hotter it gets?
Any suggestions on where else to get packers in the Los Angeles area
 
The flat wasn't crumbling but it was probe tender then after it rested an hour it tightened up which I've not seen before, what caused that reaction?
 
Thespanishgrill said:
The flat wasn't crumbling but it was probe tender then after it rested an hour it tightened up which I've not seen before, what caused that reaction?
Click to expand...

Your feel of probe tender isn't tender enough. Next brisket you do, allow it to get to what you think is probe tender and let it cook for another 30mins-1hour and probe it again. Repeat this process until you nail the brisket.

It took me 3 briskets to finally get this feel. On the 4th one I finally nailed it and after that, my briskets have been spot on for tenderness each and every time.
 
garzanium said:
Agree with all of the above. One thing that hasn't been brought up is brisket quality. I personally never had any luck cooking choice. Cooked about 10, Last few where good, but not great. Bought a select when it went on sale and was hooked! Now my Costco had prime and it's just as good it seems (only like $.30/lb at Costco so it's a no brainer). Just something to consider. .. I'm now also leaving more toward"bigger brisket=bigger cow=more fat" mentality vs "smaller=more tender" the last 15lb'er I cooked had tooons of fat, more than a waygu it seemed like based on the saturated bp and about 2 cups of drippings when I pulled it from the smoker. I met Franklin at his place when we went to eat there and asked him if he basted or spritz as I had never seen butcher paper saturated with so much fat In my cooking. .. it is the meat quality.
Click to expand...
Could you have choice and select backwards?
 
garzanium said:
Agree with all of the above. One thing that hasn't been brought up is brisket quality. I personally never had any luck cooking choice. Cooked about 10, Last few where good, but not great. Bought a select when it went on sale and was hooked! Now my Costco had prime and it's just as good it seems (only like $.30/lb at Costco so it's a no brainer). Just something to consider. .. I'm now also leaving more toward"bigger brisket=bigger cow=more fat" mentality vs "smaller=more tender" the last 15lb'er I cooked had tooons of fat, more than a waygu it seemed like based on the saturated bp and about 2 cups of drippings when I pulled it from the smoker. I met Franklin at his place when we went to eat there and asked him if he basted or spritz as I had never seen butcher paper saturated with so much fat In my cooking. .. it is the meat quality.
Click to expand...

I have cooked select, choice, and prime grade brisket. I have made plenty of select briskets taste great and melt in your mouth. Until someone has gotten the basics of the technique they use, meat quality will play less of a factor than most people think.

If you have good technique you can make a select grade brisket taste absolutely dericious and be very moist and tender.
 
I've said this before but I'll try again I'll let it go beyond and leave the temp Guage in the kitchen but to be honest I wasn't using the numbers just as a probe. I was looking at the read out just cuz.
Dammit know I gotta do another one :)
 
Some of the absolute best briskets I have ever cooked have been graded Select it's technique + temp & time that win the day. When I pick out a packer the last thing I look at is the grade. I look a Price per lb, overall equality in symmetry,weight between 12-15 lb and a tail no thinner than a min of 1". Once I sort the likely candidates I look at the marbling and make the final selection. If it is a select fine, choice that is ok too. Never saw Prime in my life for sale and to be honest I would never spend that kind of money they bring to get one. BBQ at it's bare roots is all about taking the worst cut & turning it into the best cut. Some seem to forget that and compensate by buying a higher quality. Those that Can, Do, those that Can't, Cheat it.
 
Thespanishgrill said:
This particular brisket was a select due to I went to 4 smart and final and that was all they had.
When I picked this one it felt very pliable with decent fat.
I will try Fat side down in the egg next time but I thought the idea was to keep the fat aimed at the heat and I might be wrong but it seems the higher to dome the hotter it gets?
Any suggestions on where else to get packers in the Los Angeles area
Click to expand...

This is part of the problem. Smart and Final briskets suck, IMO!:tape:
If you are cooking Hot and Fast, my experience is your temps are going to be at least 10 degrees higher than low and slow on finished product. However, do not use temp as a guide use feel. Temp is for tracking purposes only!:thumb:
 
I also have stopped buying Smart and Final briskets. I have had some great cooks with them, but, also some bad ones. I prefer Angus of Choice from Cash and Carry for bargain briskets. They charge a little more than Jetro, but, no need to be a business and never a big line.

Probe tender is a hard standard until you nail one. When you think it is like poking a hot skewer through butter (or perhaps probing pudding), you start to understand. The probe should almost insert itself. I actually use a shish kebab skewer. Many use an ice pick.

The rule I use is fat cap towards the source of heat. In a cooker such as yours, that means fat cap down. That is not why the flat was tough though. I would also say, that meat that comes off of the heat will always be a little softer, and then it will tighten up. A brisket that is properly cooks tightens up just a tiny bit. If it is over cooked, it won't tighten up at all, as the collagen and connective tissues are so denatured, they cannot tighten up. A piece of meat that tightens up a lot after being removed from the heat is undercooked.
 
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