First Creekstone packer, under- or overcooked?

Hi there,

Got my hands on a Creekstone brisket. Never seen them before here in Finland.
Quality stuff, the point is way bigger on these as the flat, whereas Australian brisket seems to be the other way around.

This one was a choice, around 8.8 pounds after trimming. For a change I did it low & slow without wrapping.

Took around 12 hours @ 250F. I didn't probe it until the 12 hour mark,
and I pulled it in a hurry since it probed way too smooth according to my experience.
I was actually expecting pulled beef by the probe feel.
It was pretty stiff and looked pretty dry also when I pulled it. I reasoned it had stiffened back up from cooking too long.



After slicing I wasn't sure anymore if I even overcooked it. Slices held up nicely, but it pulled in "chunks" without accordion effect.
And slices were (somewhat) dry. But on the other hand, it had a bit of resistance as you can see from the video.

Point was really good and silky smooth, that would also suggest overcooking to me. Usually points take longer for me.
Taste was pretty nice, I was even surprised it didn't taste too smoky.

What do you say?

[ame]https://youtu.be/2FTPFS-Yba8[/ame]

[ame]https://youtu.be/g6bB2zqNUkQ[/ame]

Well damn you guys :razz:

It wasn't bad, but I did declare that a semi-failure by my own standards. I've done a few amazing briskets, few good ones, and a lot like this one (or worse).
But, I have to say, it looks better on video than it really was. Wasn't chewy at all, but lacked the gelatinous taste. And we compete, so I need to get my consistency down :icon_blush:

If it indeed was undercooked then I'm really baffled. I've pulled many briskets with much more resistance when probing, and they were clearly overcooked.
Hmm. This actually felt like the probe just sank in there without any feeling, it was more tender than a typical pork butt when done.

It was held in a cooler for a few hours. One thing I've been thinking about lately is holding vs resting.

In my experience brisket (and all meat) will tighten up when cooled down, so I'm wondering are some guys cooking briskets to the edge of being overcooked and rely on rest to bring the tenderness a few notches down?

I usually just hold my briskets for a while, of course the IT will drop a bit, but not to the 150-160's. I guess I need to cook two similar flats and test this.
If I wait until a brisket "feels like butter", it's going to be overcooked according to my tactical sense of butter. But how about doing that and then holding until the temp falls. Hmm.

I am picky about the correct texture and doneness of a brisket, for sure, but I think correct doneness does at least 80% of the taste also.

I will stay this, if there is a change to buy Creekstone again, I will. Didn't need to remove too much fat, so yield % was good. And it tasted really good, clean taste, fat tasted awesome.

I've cooked a lot of IBP/Tyson flats, and they sometimes have this weird off-taste, almost like red wine. Maybe they are on the verge of going bad and the fat is starting to turn rancid or something.

These imports have very long use by dates here, about 4 months from kill date. And they are always at least 1.5 months from kill date when I get my hands on them.

Some raw pics here also, didn't get a change to snap any sliced/plated pics this time: