Brisket Frustration

Cook a full packer brisket. There is not enough fat on a 4 pound brisket flat to make it taste good. Otherwise, wrap that flat with some kind of liquid in the foil earlier to keep from drying out. (Beef broth, beer, EVOO, Parkay, juice, whatever you want) Rest with the liquid after it comes off the smoker. The meat will suck up some of those juices.

Eggspert BBQ

I agree in the full Packer. I wrap in BP, you don't need to add no farking liquid that packer will make it's own. cooking meat don't absorb anything but smoke and injecting it with magical concoctions don't make it moist. The meat either has it in it or it don't. Inter muscular fat(marbling) and collagen from a properly rendered brisket are what makes it moist. MOIST BRISKET = PROBE TENDER.

BBQ RULES

"YOU CAN NOT COOK GREAT BBQ ON A CONSISTENT BASIS COOKING TO AN INTERNAL TEMP OR BY TIME(XXX MIN PER LB) YOU MUST COOK BY FEEL!"For a Brisket that is probe tender, Pork Butts when the Bone wiggles lose, Ribs pass the Bend Test. These are the only reliable methods to indicate the proper time to declare the cook completed with success.

What was your cook temp? Also, whatever you think it was, are you confident that reading was accurate?

I cooked a couple of small flats a couple of weeks ago, they came out good.
Here is my cook:
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?p=2368375

Good luck.

It could just be our area, but all of the grocery stores carry flats, and a few carry whole packers. Sams carrys packers and no flats. The crazy thing is whole packers at Sams run 2.38-2.58lb. last weekend they had quite a few that were right at 28.00 that looked really nice. In the grocery store the flats cost nearly as much as a whole packer, roughly the 20.00 range. The whole packer is intimidating due to its size, and it does take some time to cook, but the 8.00 or so is well worth it.

Here is the deal with flats.

First I will speak generally about brisket. If you EVER get a brisket that is no tender then you didn't cook it enough. Briskets cooked enough, dry or otherwise (unless you cold smoked the damn thing) will at least fall apart. So the fact you said it was dry AND not tender tells me you did not cook it enough.

Now about the flat. Oh hell... actually back to the brisket...

It is a complex and weird cut in that it will look half way or more into the cook like you dried it out. Wierd thing is... you did. Most of the water is gone from it.... oh but there is the other stuff, the honey that is in there waiting to be released. This comes with time and heat.

Case in point... look at this video...

[ame]http://youtu.be/d0hk0zwCsz4[/ame]

and then this one

[ame]http://youtu.be/uJeMNJocWnE[/ame]

Same brisket... but the first video was at 9 hours.... after that it went loosely wrapped in paper and foil (I used foil cuz I had no diffuser so it might burn) and added NUTHIN!!!!

As you can see in the second video the flat... which was so tough it hardly probed, was actually done so much it fell apart. I think you can see the juice.

Flats, if I do them, frankly I let myself off the hook in the ego department. I smoke slow to set the ring, crank it up and rush to the stall, then wrap and slow way down
to get it all juicy.

Hope this helps...

Haveuseen1? said:

It could just be our area, but all of the grocery stores carry flats, and a few carry whole packers. Sams carrys packers and no flats. The crazy thing is whole packers at Sams run 2.38-2.58lb. last weekend they had quite a few that were right at 28.00 that looked really nice. In the grocery store the flats cost nearly as much as a whole packer, roughly the 20.00 range. The whole packer is intimidating due to its size, and it does take some time to cook, but the 8.00 or so is well worth it.

Click to expand...

No it is a common practice I was in Walmart the other day I was looking at a Choice packer around 12 lb it was 25 & change right next to it was a hunk of brisket point with a little flat attached trimmed to hell & back hitting the scale at 5 lb it was 25.00 too. I left with neither the flats on the choice where thin. I went to HEB and found a nice 14.8 lb Select packer for 1.97 lb. Came out nice too.

Listen to T, he knows a thang or two about brisket!

Personally, I will only do a full packer, I have not consistently liked the results that I get on a flat, and as you noted, the over all price is usually about the same for either a packer or just a flat.

One thing that I've found works really well for me is slow and low for the first couple hours to set the ring and then crank it to about 300 until I get the desired color I'm looking for, this is usually closer to 150-165* at that point you can foil the whole thing or separate the flat & point and foil separately.

Edit: I usually separate the two cuz I feel that they cook to doneness at different rates/times - to make this easier, when I prep the packer I trip between the point & flat to remove part of that monster hunk of fat that's usually hiding in there. I also put plenty of rub between them. Once you're ready to separate them, they will peel apart with little effort, important when they are that hot! Now T is going to scold me for The Great Sin I have recommended...

Once temp on it hits 190+ I move it to a preheated cooler and wrap with warm towels and let it rest there for 3+ hours. In the cooler is where it finally gives up the ghost and gets tender.

As for bark, I dunno, ask someone else, my bark always sucks after being in the foil for so long... :roll:

I buy my briskets at Sam's and all they have is cryovac flats here. (At least I think they are flats.) I have gotten larger ones and they came out fine. If you can't find a packer, then a bigger flat is probably going to be good.

Here's one in a half sheet pan. (I've cut it to fit on one grate of my 18.5 WSM.)

KnucklHed BBQ said:

Edit: I usually separate the two cuz I feel that they cook to doneness at different rates/times - to make this easier, when I prep the packer I trip between the point & flat to remove part of that monster hunk of fat that's usually hiding in there. I also put plenty of rub between them. Once you're ready to separate them, they will peel apart with little effort, important when they are that hot! Now T is going to scold me for The Great Sin I have recommended...

Click to expand...

Nah, I've done crazier ****. I used to do something similar and in fact posted it on this forum in maybe 2007 or so.... dry seasoning between the two layers....

as seen in the partin, there is no fat left when I am done.

But you gotta do what u gotta do. LOL