Sunday Brisket

[Burk]

Did my second brisket Sunday. It was by far the best Q I've done to date on the drum (IMHO). A big thanks to all the Brethren that have shared their brisket wisdom. Pron will have to wait till I get home from work.

I started with a 10 pound packer, light dusting of Lawrys the night before, a coarse salt/pepper/lemon pepper based rub before I put it on. The drum ran between 275 and 325 for most of the cook.

The only question I guess I have is the thing took 13 hrs. to cook. After reading some of the hot and fast brisket threads I was expecting a little shorter cook. I know "it's done when it's done" but at 10 hrs. that thing was so dry and tough I thought I was going to have to take it over to Cozad and bury it in Txschutte's Sacred Brisket Burial Ground . I would have sworn you couldn't have squeezed a drop of moisture out of that thing, but it finished great. Is this kind of "normal" for brisket.

[chambersuac]

One thing about brisket is that you never know how long it's gonna take. When you say your drum ran "between 275 and 325 for most of the cook" is that grate temp? Depending on where your thermometer is, you may have quite a variance.

Congrats on your successful cook!

[barbefunkoramaque]

Originally Posted by Burk

Did my second brisket Sunday. It was by far the best Q I've done to date on the drum (IMHO). A big thanks to all the Brethren that have shared their brisket wisdom. Pron will have to wait till I get home from work.

I started with a 10 pound packer, light dusting of Lawrys the night before, a coarse salt/pepper/lemon pepper based rub before I put it on. The drum ran between 275 and 325 for most of the cook.

The only question I guess I have is the thing took 13 hrs. to cook. After reading some of the hot and fast brisket threads I was expecting a little shorter cook. I know "it's done when it's done" but at 10 hrs. that thing was so dry and tough I thought I was going to have to take it over to Cozad and bury it in Txschutte's Sacred Brisket Burial Ground . I would have sworn you couldn't have squeezed a drop of moisture out of that thing, but it finished great. Is this kind of "normal" for brisket.

At High speed its like wait, wait, wait, not yet, wait, wait... another few minutes left... wait, overdone.

This is entirely due to skipping the first step.... look up Night Train Brisket.

Somewhere along the way your "feel" is off. I am also a big believer in slowing down toward the end but only because when cooking fast your brisket can go from perfect to dried out real quick.

The speed at which you reach the stall is not relevant (within reason)... after the stall you need to be there. I also find that people doing hot and fast may want to probe near an area that may be tough because it in fact is overdone... maybe an inch or so.. they keep probing there and their brisket gets over done and dried out from all the top lifting.

So I like to probe through the point til it hits the flat... if there is resistance when you poke through and hit the flat you have a longer time... if it goes through the point AND the falt you are closer.... if you are just tough on the exposed flat you are really close. I also settle on 270 for this reason... I am not against 325 but with my pit I have spots hotter than that.. this means that if is start high I can go down when I get close... this is good for the brisket.

I hope you didn't foil... if you did, you are REALLY increasing the speed so you need to adjust.

I suggest so that your "feel" is properly set... search for Night Train Brisket and follow it to the "t"

[Burk]

Originally Posted by chambersuac

One thing about brisket is that you never know how long it's gonna take. When you say your drum ran "between 275 and 325 for most of the cook" is that grate temp? Depending on where your thermometer is, you may have quite a variance.

Congrats on your successful cook!

I have a 12" thermometer that sits just under the center of the grate and a 6" that I clip in the exhaust which puts it just above the meat. The upper one usually starts 30-40 degrees cooler and gets to within 10 degrees or so by the end of the cook.

Originally Posted by barbefunkoramaque

So I like to probe through the point til it hits the flat... if there is resistance when you poke through and hit the flat you have a longer time... if it goes through the point AND the falt you are closer.... if you are just tough on the exposed flat you are really close. I also settle on 270 for this reason... I am not against 325 but with my pit I have spots hotter than that.. this means that if is start high I can go down when I get close... this is good for the brisket."

I've been reading your posts on some of the recent brisket topics and let it run up closer to 325 early and tried to back it off towards the end of the cook. The resistance was like you say, early it went through the point easy and and was stiff at the flat. I checked the flat in several places to make sure. When the flat got to 200 it just slid in everywhere I tried.

I'll definitely try the Night Train experiment. The cost of a 5 lb. flat would be a pretty cheap education.

Now for the promised pron. The family made me cut it after about 1 1/2 hrs in the cooler. It didn't last long enough for any pretty pictures with the sides, lol.

[duramax]

Looks good, and Gothenburg isn't to far.