Brisket a tad dry today...

How was the interior meat? You mentioned the probe slid in both the point and the flat very easily. Just curious.

I would bump your cooking temps up, but that's because I like to do brisket around 270-275*. If I were to guess from the info you gave, it was too overcooked on the ends, probably burnt even.

Sounds like you had the right idea and followed the plan well. Too bad it didn't work out so good.

A pic would help.

RockyMtnBBQ said:

The interior meat was good, but still not as moist as I was expecting I guess. Are you saying that maybe I cooked it too slowly and possibly too long? Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

No, that's not quite what I'm saying, although I am happier at those temps than lower temps. I'll just leave that at that.

Brisket, unlike most other beef roast cuts, does not dry out from overcooking the same way as those other cuts. Brisket, the flat in particular, is loaded with connective tissue. When cooked for an extended period, the heat and the moisture in the meat convert the connective tissue into gelatin, which is soft and is the point at which the brisket changed from being tough to tender. The moisture that was in the meat that helped break down the connective tissue is partially retained in the gelatin, providing the moisture of brisket (and the fat helps too). If the piece of meat did not contain enough moisture prior to cooking to fully break down the connective tissue, then the brisket would simply never become tender. This happens to people every once in a great while, they get a brisket that never gets tender no matter what. Alternatively, if it did have enough moisture, but was simply cooked too long past the point of becoming tender, then basically you start to evaporate the moisture in the gelatin causing it to dry out, and even become a bit more firm (think about the difference between Jello and fruit leathers for example). Usually, by the time this happens (at least for me), the ends of the flat are crispy critters, dried out and hard, but just on the ends. I'm sure eventually the whole thing would dry and burn the same way, but I've never gone that far (ask Shane, he might know:becky.

So, in a nutshell, I'm not necessarily saying you cooked it too long. A brisket is done when it is done. If it was so tender the probe slid in like "butta" (as people like to say), then the meat had proper moisture at the beginning of the cook to at least break down all of the connective tissue. In that case, if parts of it was dry, it was possibly due to evaporation (you would best be able to tell since you cooked it). If it didn't quite get as soft as it could have, then some of the connective tissue remained because the meat never had enough moisture to begin with. In that case, the whole brisket is likely to be on the tougher and drier side.

On the interior meat. If you sliced a piece about the thickness of a pencil, did the meat either fall apart, pull apart with little resistance, or need a tug to pull it apart?

Sounds and looks like you may have overcooked it. Almost did the same thing to two CAB packers on my drum today.

Low quality meat is easier to fark up IMHO. Get a choice packer and start paying close attention to it at 12 hrs (given your mileage on this one) and you should improve your results. Dang Argentinian beef.

Adding- marbling (fat) is the main reason that beef is upgraded. ceteris paribus better marbling means a better end product.

Sam's had Prime briskets for 1.99 a lb this summer and now I am paying 1.94 a lb for CAB BY THE CASE. Good thing it had a FAT flat in it.

Well, sometimes a pic is hard to read, so forgive me if my interpretation of the picture is not accurate.

Looking at those slices, I honestly don't think the connective tissues fully broke down. Even with a good knife making a clean slice, as the pieces pull away like that as they come to rest, a fully tender brisket will start to have some separation between the grains of the meat. Kind of like the gaps you see int he slices in this pic...


Now, again, sometimes pics are hard to read, lighting or other issues can make details hard to see.

If it is the way I see it in the pic, and it was not fully tender, then I see two possible causes, one less common than the other.

1. (most common) - It just wasn't quite there yet. A bit longer and it would have become even more tender and juicy. It's possible the ends might have become burnt, but it's pretty common for most to toss out the tip of the flat that hangs out a lot of times. It can get pretty cooked.

2. (less common) - The meat was simply not moist enough to cook properly to begin with. Even if you had left it on longer, all that would have happened would be for it to get even drier and even burnt.

You literally could have had either of these options, or maybe even another I simply have not thought about for some dumb reason.

The less common option is pretty uncommon, but does happen sometimes. When it does happen it frustrates the heck out of even the most seasoned pitmasters, and there's not a darn thing you can do to correct it either.

I have found Briskets come out better for me when I smoke them hotter shoot for 275. I don't inject.

Get a thermometer. Bigabyte has me questioning my assessment...... but it really could go either way.

The point finishes before the flat, so it gets tender and juicy first, followed by the flat. So, it could just be an indication that the flat wasn't quite ready yet. Don't worry about drying out the point by overcooking, it is so full of fat, it will be fine while the flat finishes up.

too low too slow... u made jerky... and probably it was not done all the way either...

also the cheaper the cut the less you want to trim it.

finally, when you target 220 and nothign happens but jerky under 213 or so... you have an extremely small margin of error. as far as getting the meat tender... you may have ended up merely exposing the meat to dry smoke for all of the time and actually cooking it a mere 4 hours.

At, say 275... the fluctuation points are in the say, 235-300 range and your meat is doing all the things its supposed to do in that zone

barbefunkoramaque said:

too low too slow... u made jerky... and probably it was not done all the way either...

also the cheaper the cut the less you want to trim it.

finally, when you target 220 and nothign happens but jerky under 213 or so... you have an extremely small margin of error. as far as getting the meat tender... you may have ended up merely exposing the meat to dry smoke for all of the time and actually cooking it a mere 4 hours.

At, say 275... the fluctuation points are in the say, 235-300 range and your meat is doing all the things its supposed to do in that zone

Click to expand...

What you just said...........