Brisket Experiment

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I've been meaning to try this for a while, so today I woke up this morning and said why not. However, that limited my brisket choice to Wal-Mart (7:30 am), as the grocery stores here are way high price wise even if they have any. So, it's an ungraded 15lb Swift brisket. It was the floppiest of the bunch so fingers crossed. Cut it in half and covered in Cow Cover:




It's in the O.G. Grilla at 205 with a smoke tube to maximize smoke exposure. Once it gets up to the stall, I'm going to pull it and put it in the Anova Precision Oven at 100% humidity. I'm going to do a gradual temp increase, from 160 up to 205 or so. The humidity will keep it from stalling and drying out, and it'll have plenty of time for rendering. I'm also going to cover it with butcher paper and tallow. After it's finished, then I'll most likely let it cool a bit then hold in the APO for a while at 150 or so.

It went in at 9 Pacific, so it should be ready to hit the oven by 1pm.

 

[Back9Q]

Interested in seeing how bark hold up. Can you post photos of anova oven?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Put it in the oven about 10 minutes ago. Here's a picture of the oven:




As you can see, a brisket is a tight fit in there. Internal temp was 165. Now to see how long this step is going to take!

 

[Bob C Cue]

Good luck. We're all counting on you!

 

[jkief]

That oven is interesting. Never heard or seen anything like that. I’m curious as to how the bark will hold up as well as how “juicy” it turns out.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

I do have a question about this. What a lot of people do with both the APO and SV in general is put the brisket on the smoke - either before or after - then cook it for 24-36 hours at 140-155. That's not appealing to me just due to the time involved. However, since I have precise control over the temp I wonder if there is any benefit or logic to say, holding the temp higher - say 180-185 - for some amount of time to let the collagen and fat render, just more quickly, then up the temps to finish it normally.

It's been in the oven now for about 1.5 hours and temp is up from 165 to 184.

 

[ronbrad62]

That's the beauty of this great hobby, experimenting only costs you the price of the meat, assuming you have everything else. I'm going to have to catch the results tomorrow as it is late on this coast and I have work tomorrow. Good luck!

 

[Cook]

How'd it turn out?

 

[JAKs Q & brew]

I've been looking for the shot of how a 15lb brisket would fit in the Anova.

Interested to see how this goes.

 

[okiej]

Is that a packer cut in half lengthwise? How did it come out?

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Yep, 15lb packer cut lengthwise. It turned out like the past few I've tried in general - point just fine, flat dry. I noticed the surface was dry when I took it out of the grilla before putting it in the oven. For whatever reason, I just can't get probing down anymore. Pretty sure I overcooked it. It made a mean stew today, at least. Here's a pic:



When it hit 195, I started probing. Not like warm butter, waited another 30 min, same, then another 30, same, then another. It never seemed to change to me, and finally I said to myself there's no way it's not overcooked and pulled it. Temps at the end were around 205. I think this is a good method, I just appear to have lost my brisket mojo because this has been a recurring theme with me the past few months.

 

[sudsandswine]

Dry and tough = undercooked, dry and crumbly = overcooked. The sliced flat doesn’t look crumbly to me based on the pics, so I’m going with under.

 

[Big George's BBQ]

Brisket takes a while but when you get it right its amazing Keep on trying If you have left over juice put the meat in it

 

[Cook]

I'm on Team Suds' ... If it isn't probing tender, keep going. I've taken them as high as 215 before they give in. I'm one of these "temperature doesn't matter" people. Get it tender ... temperature be damned ...

 

[1MoreFord]

One more for under done. I've gone to at least 210°F before. Do not cook brisket to temp or time. Cook it until it is done.

 

[Hoss]

Google Chud’s YouTube.Dude is a dork but he can cook a mean brisket.

 

[Dread Pirate Roberts]

Thanks everyone. The slices were breaking apart while I was slicing - you can see one in that last picture, so I think it was overcooked. That part of the flat, anyway. Point and further up the flat were OK.

Hoss, I subscribe to many BBQers, including Chud, and watch them weekly. It appears I just have a case of the yips right now!