My Very First Brisket Cook

[slider2021]

Good morning and Happy 4th everyone. Well, I got through my very first brisket cook, and here are the results. I placed the meat on my smoker at 11 pm last night. My goal was 225 degrees but the Traeger was not being very helpful. I was having a hard time maintaining that 225. It was always around 210. So I decided to bump it up to 250. Doing so got the temp to about 237, which was fine by me.



I used my new ThermaPro IT48 to monitor both the meat and the smoker. I was up about 3-4 times during the night, mainly out of anxiety . I did some temp checks and removed the brisket at around 5 am. I wrapped in butcher paper, but just a little bit of beef tallow on the paper, not much at all, then put in back in the smoker at 250.



My alarm notified me that it had hit 203, my target temp., I did a temp check across the meat and the probe felt as if it was going into peanut butter. The ends though were a bit tougher than the rest of the meat. I removed the brisket, unwrapped and rewrapped it in butcher paper. I took a small piece of the burnt end and it tasted amazing! I then wrapped the entire thing in my Elvis blanket, I a HUGE Elvis fan, and put in my cooler, which is sitting in my dining room.



Now, here is my question - how long can I keep it in the cooler as is? I wanted to serve dinner around 6 pm and thought it would take longer to cook, so having it in the cooler at this hour was a bit earlier than expected.



I'll send some pics later on after I cut into it and let you know how it tasted and what my family thought of my first attempt.



I want to thank everyone for all of your help, ideas, suggestions, and tips. I could not have done this without your input.



Peace,



Dabba's BBQ

 

[thedude9999]

Regarding the cooler - if it was preheated and all the dead space is filled - you should be able to hold it for quite a while. I like to keep a thermometer in the meat when doing it - you need to keep it above 140.

Also, don’t cut anything off in the future before serving.

 

[slider2021]

Can I keep it in the cooler for about 6 hours, then double wrap it and place it in an oven at say 160 degrees?

BTW - the piece I pulled off was about 1/8' - no biggie

 

[thedude9999]

Can I keep it in the cooler for about 6 hours, then double wrap it and place it in an oven at say 160 degrees?

No need to double wrap it in the oven. If it’s 160 it will hold at 160. Your oven might have temperature swings - but that should be fine.

BTW - the piece I pulled off was about 1/8' - no biggie

It’s not about the size. Part of the point of a rest is to let the juices redistribute. By cutting it - you are letting them out.

 

[slider2021]

Can I keep it in the cooler for about 6 hours before transferring it to my oven?

Do I need to wrap it at all when I place it in the oven?

 

[thedude9999]

Can I keep it in the cooler for about 6 hours before transferring it to my oven?

Do I need to wrap it at all when I place it in the oven?

There is no generic answer to that. You can hold a brisket for 6 hours no problem. Long holds improve the end product. You need to keep it above 140 degrees for safety purposes. And keep it below the point where it’s still cooking.

Personally- I pull it off when ready, let it sit on my counter until it comes down to around 160-170 then toss it in my oven at 170. Have held for many hours that way and turns out great. I leave mine wrapped in the butcher paper the whole time

 

[slider2021]

Got it

I took mine off the smoker at about 203-204, then wrapped. It has now been in my cooler for about 2 hours. I'll do a temp check in about 3 hours and see where it's at. I'm a bit leary about holding it in the oven afraid it'll dry out, even if I use beef broth

 

[jkief]

When I remove my brisket, I unwrap to burp the steam. Wrap it back up in the same butcher paper, and place in an electric cooler/heater. It will keep over 24 hrs like that. Depending on your specific cooler and preheat you have on it, it will hold for 6-12 hours easily if the setup is right. You can preheat your cooler by lining the bottom with a towel and pour boiling water into a pan and let it sit for a while. Pull the water when you’re ready to drop the brisket in. Take care to remove dead space with towels or even newspaper is OK.

 

[jimstocks53]

'Tis better off just staying wrapped in your cooler - zero chance of drying it out. If you took it straight off the 'fire' wrapped and did not let it cool before placing in the cooler stop worrying about temp. Pasteur 160 years ago proved bacteria don't just spontaneously appear to ruin food. Keeping it wrapped and sealed, the only thing that will happen is for it to cool and in the cooler it is not likely to get 'cold' anytime soon. But if your guests show up late or dinner is delayed THEN put it in the oven to warm it up as necessary.

 

[slider2021]

jimstock - it's now been in the cooler for about 2 1/2 hours. Dinner isn't for another 7 1/2 hours. Based upon what you said, I could keep it in the cooler until 3-4 pm before transferring to my oven, where I would keep it in the same butcher paper and set the oven at 160

 

[jimstocks53]

jimstock - it's now been in the cooler for about 2 1/2 hours. Dinner isn't for another 7 1/2 hours. Based upon what you said, I could keep it in the cooler until 3-4 pm before transferring to my oven, where I would keep it in the same butcher paper and set the oven at 160

Yup. You may or might not even need to warm it up at all.

 

[jzadski]

When I remove my brisket, I unwrap to burp the steam. Wrap it back up in the same butcher paper, and place in an electric cooler/heater. It will keep over 24 hrs like that. Depending on your specific cooler and preheat you have on it, it will hold for 6-12 hours easily if the setup is right. You can preheat your cooler by lining the bottom with a towel and pour boiling water into a pan and let it sit for a while. Pull the water when you’re ready to drop the brisket in. Take care to remove dead space with towels or even newspaper is OK.

You just made me thunk of something. Why not put a heating pad in the cooler with it? I might need to fire mine up and take some reading temp readings.

 

[jzadski]

After a quick search (which I should have done first) seems like all will hit 160 but, the auto shut off might be an issue. Would just have to manually check every so often

 

[jkief]

You just made me thunk of something. Why not put a heating pad in the cooler with it? I might need to fire mine up and take some reading temp readings.

Hmmm…make a weatherproof, easily washable pad of different sizes. Market it as a meat warmer pad and make millions!! Just send some my way when you make it big time. I’d be interested to see the temp results on different types of coolers.

 

[slider2021]

Good morning. I hope everyone had a great 4th!

Well, I served it around 7 pm. I placed it in my cooler for almost 8 hours, wrapped in a blanket and butcher paper. I then removed it, placed it in my oven at 170 and left it there for about 3 hours. It came out and it was absolutely amazing! It was uber juicy, moist and fork tender. It pulled apart like tissue paper and the fat was rendered beautifully. The burnt ends were heavenly.

Note: I am having trouble posting pics. Hopefully, I'll be able to do so shortly.

 

[West River BBQ]

Congrats. Having a brisket turn out like that should be very satisfying.