H&F Brisket not so fast! Pr0n

I’m not sure what happened , but Hot and Fast wasn’t really fast on this cook. Bludawg and other fellow bretherans inspired me to try my first hot and fast brisket. I have done a lot of briskets but never one hot and fast. My usual brisket takes right around 14 hours to cook at 240 degrees but in the spirit of time these days I wanted to try and cut down my time and still get a good brisket cooked. This is what I did.
I decided to use a simple rub of 50/50 K. salt and ground black pepper. Lemmon pepper and Granulated garlic and granulated Onion. I trimmed the 17 pound full CAB packer and applied the rub. I pre-heated my Rec-Tec to 300 degrees and put the brisket on at 7:30 am. At 6:30 PM it finally probed tender and I pulled it to rest. The bark and flavor of this brisket was excellent. It actually turned out very nice. It was a little dry in some areas of the flat because we were so hungry by the time it got done, I only let it rest 45 minutes before we ate, but a quick dunk in au-jus sauce cured that.

What do you guy’s think happened? I was expecting it to be finished at around the 7 hour mark cooking at 300 but this brisket just would not give up the ghost. My temp ranged only 2-3 degrees of 300 throughout the entire cook. My et-732 proved that. I also used my thermapen to double check the internal temp.
[FONT=&quot]So did I just have a stubborn brisket or was there something I did wrong? Let me have it brothers.
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IT 170 and ready for Butcher Paper wrap.
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Probed like butter ready for the knife
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After slicing.

AustinKnight said:

Looks good for your first HnF go around brotha, I usually stick with 10-14# briskets they seem to yield a tenderer brisket then the big 17-20# ders. The 10-14#ders after trimming you lose about 2#ds so they cook even quicker, I did do a 17# CAB Prime awhile back and it took 8h at 300-350* and was tender but I also thought it was kinda dry kinda like what your saying. I'd rather cook two 10# briskets then one big brisket but I'm sure others feel the same. Try a smaller one like a 12# the same way and see if you get what your looking for, happy smoking brotha:biggrin1:

Also I check for softness and flexibility still when I pick out a brisket.

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I sure would like to find a place where I can get a Choice 10-14 pounder. Cash and Carry stocks choice, but they are all 17 pounds or higher. Wal-Mart has 10-14 pound packers but they are Select. I have never tried one of them.

Thanks for all the input brothers. I am happy with the way the Brisket turned out. I was just surprised it took that long to cook. Thanks again everyone.

Bludawg said:

Don't let the Select Grade scare you off! Some of the best briskets I ever cooked where Select. I think you just got a stubborn one. I got to ask was the pit temp 300 or the grate temp 300 it makes a huge difference. I only go off the grate temp that's where the cooking is happening. It looks as though your efforts reaped a nice reward. 11 hrs for a 17 lb packer, that is about 40-45 min a lb still not bad sure beats 18 or 26 hrs at lower temps. I just noticed you started that off in a pan that could have contributed to the time increase as it will shield the meat from the heat taking longer to increase the temp. I toss it on the grate and wrap it a 4 hrs in a single layer of BP temp??? your guess is as good as mine:icon_smile_tongue:

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Hey bludawg, the 300 degrees was right at the grate measured with my et-732. I did use a pan, so that may have added a bit to the time as well.

popeye said:

you used a pan :shock:

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Well, umm, hmmmmmm, was that a pan?:icon_shy