My 2nd Brisket Ever

[GMDGeek]

So past Sunday I turned 37 and decided to tackle my dreaded nemesis - The Brisket! First one I ever cooked turned out like jerky on the bottom. So with a little more experience under my belt and a better understanding of how my PoS pit works (drafty, blanket wearing, wood sucking, .... you get the idea)... I gave it a go.

Went down to Restaurant Depot and picked up a 12.6lb Angus Choice. Came home and trimmed it up and then injected with a little bit of beef broth/mix.



Got a good pick of it trimmed, forgot to take one after injection. Anyways, injected and covered for 6 hours. At around hour 6 I fired up the pit; um I want to say 8:30pm.

Came inside, pulled the brisket from the fridge, patted it down, and then applied my own dry rub.



Brisket tasted smoke at 9:30pm.

Took this shot after about 1 hour had to fix something so decided to snap a shot - right before a HUGE freaking storm hit that caused me to drape the cooking chamber with a wool blanket. I fought for temp for almost 3 hours. Had to keep the damper full open and could barely keep around 190-200. Was not fun! Learned from it but NOT FUN!



Kept it on the smoker til the internal temp on the point end hit around 200-205. Brought it in, wrapped it to rest. This is after around 2 and 1/2 hours of rest.



Was really taken back when I cut into it. Was a really hard and pronounced smoke ring ... thicker than I liked. I smoked it fat cap up for 5 hours and 3 hours fat cap down before wrapping it to finish its cook. Only thing I can think of is the wind coming through the wide open damper and a lower cook temp than I liked. Thoughts?



While I was happy, over joyed that it was moist and tender I was a little disappointed that it was a bit over cooked. I'd go to slice it and it would fall apart in some spots. So I decided to just do a chop.



Several people sampled it - a few heavy BBQ consumers and the consensus was that it was solid tasting, good flavor that was all the way through the meat. To me I liked it and I liked the flavor but found it lacking that wow factor to the taste. Guess I'll keep tweaking the rubs and stuff 'til I get it the way I think it needs to be. MORE PRACTICE!

[landarc]

When you are fighting temperatures like that, and living in that low 200's range in an offset, you will get a drying effect on the surface of the meat. Had you wrapped and added some stock halfway, it would have been a little softer on the surface. Still, all in all, if folks enjoyed it, congrats on a good cook.

[Woody1911a1]

it looks awesome , but hafta agree with landarc , you shoulda foiled and added broth at 170* .

[landarc]

I would add, especially with a smoker such as you described, there is no shame in baling after a couple of hours or so and bringing the brisket into the oven for cooking. There are some cookers that are just not good in bad weather.

[code3rrt]

Glad it came out ok in the end, it seems to me that most folks wrap their briskets in the 160-170 range and then finish to probe tender and rest.

[GMDGeek]

Thanks guys ... was following the 'instructions' from a Wicked Good BBQ ... first one I had wrapped at 180. Next time I will wrap at 170ish. Oddly it wasn't hard and dry. The bark was great and the pink tender just really pronounced ring. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[HankB]

In my experience nothing sucks the heat out of a cooker faster than hard rain. Someday I'm going to build a little shelter in the corner of my patio to give me some rain protection.

Glad to hear it came out good, if not great.

I really like Raichlen's coffee rub for brisket.

[BobM]

It looks great!

[AussieTitch]

Originally Posted by landarc

When you are fighting temperatures like that, and living in that low 200's range in an offset, you will get a drying effect on the surface of the meat. Had you wrapped and added some stock halfway, it would have been a little softer on the surface. Still, all in all, if folks enjoyed it, congrats on a good cook.

I am hearing your comments on too low a heat and liking them.
I have never done a Brisket,but some meats have come out tastey,brilliant but a tad dry.
you may be solving my problem.

OP
I have yet to do a American Brisket,but you have inspired me to chase one.
yours looks rather tasty.
cheers.
Titch

[AustinKnight]

Try trimming less next time brotha, it'll kinda give you a even playing field when it comes to cooking. I take the silver skin off and take out most of the hard fat out were the point and flat join, then turn it over and take down some of the hard fat on the side. That's one hell of a smoke ring brotha, I'm sure it still tasted good. Brisket is the hardest of the meat's to master, happy smokin!

This is all the fat I took off, I left maybe a little less then 1/4 were the point and flat join(hard pocket of white fat).

[GMDGeek]

Originally Posted by AustinKnight

Try trimming less next time brotha, it'll kinda give you a even playing field when it comes to cooking. I take the silver skin off and take out most of the hard fat out were the point and flat join, then turn it over and take down some of the hard fat on the side. That's one hell of a smoke ring brotha, I'm sure it still tasted good. Brisket is the hardest of the meat's to master, happy smokin!

This is all the fat I took off, I left maybe a little less then 1/4 were the point and flat join(hard pocket of white fat).

Thanks ... AustinKnight - agreed on the trimming. First brisket I did I trimmed the heck out of it - no bueno. This one not so much. I did take the silver off where I could, got rid of some of the hard on the point and non-fat cap side. On the Fat cap side I trimmed it down to about 1/4". I am going to adjust my smoke exposure time on the next cook as well as wrap at 170 on the point instead of 200. Hoping that helps me get dialed in even further. Flavor was good; still tweaking to get me a little more wow factor.