rikun
Full Fledged Farker
Hi all,
First let me say I'm having a hard time with briskets and especially brisket flats. I've done more than my share of them, I'd say for flats in the couple of hundreds now. I'd happily do all packers, but flats is mostly what I can get here easily. I've asked advice before and applied, but still having a lot of hit and misses.
I've done them with all kind of ways, but my regular cook is hot & fast pretty much how Bludawg makes briskets. And for me it always takes longer than 4 hours naked + 2 hours bp/foiled to achieve what I think is probe tender.
I've had some amazing flats, some okay and some horrible flats. I just can't seem to find any baseline for producing good quality. We as a comp team have achieved some good results in European comps with brisket, 4th out 26 of and 10th out of 58. I'd say the variation is all due to texture, not because of taste. Although I think most of the brisket's awesome taste comes from the correct texture.
I'm wondering if this is due to variation in meat quality, or am I just not getting a consistent feel for when it's done? Most of the time I overcook them, if I go by the feel "probes like buttah". One possible explanation would be that the window of perfect doneness is very very short and I end up missing it most of the time. But do briskets toughen up if overcook, I thought they would still probe tender when overcooked?
Most of the flats don't feel jiggly at the time they probe tender, but some do. And the ones that do, end up being pretty nice. The bad ones are not tough, so I'm most likely not undercooking. I'd say they are dry and the taste is very bland, probably due to lack of moisture.
Here are some references and pics which probably will illustrate my texture problem better.
This is what I consider being close to perfect texture. It's moist, has good flavour, and the slice looks a bit like spider web with the meat fibers attached loosely to each other. It has just a hint of tug, but separates very easily. This is a slice of the better marbled one below.
And this is what I usually cook. Really dry, not tough, but still doesn't have gaps between meat fibers. When pulled, it immediately breaks cleanly between meat fibers and tastes mostly like pot roast. Sorry, couldn't find a pic of bad brisket, so here's a video that pretty much shows what I mean by texture I don't like:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZmGzjY4O5Y"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZmGzjY4O5Y[/ame]
You can see in the video that it snaps right between muscle fibers and there appears to be no moisture between the fibers. Although now looking at that, that is probably just a hair undercooked?
Here's a pic of flat that was pretty much spot on, I seldom get a flat that has this kind of marbling. Could that be all there is to it?
And this is what I usually have:
I know flats aren't easy, but they can't be this hard, right?
I mean, I'm a fast learner generally, it shouldn't take years to get a feel for probe tender?!?
First let me say I'm having a hard time with briskets and especially brisket flats. I've done more than my share of them, I'd say for flats in the couple of hundreds now. I'd happily do all packers, but flats is mostly what I can get here easily. I've asked advice before and applied, but still having a lot of hit and misses.
I've done them with all kind of ways, but my regular cook is hot & fast pretty much how Bludawg makes briskets. And for me it always takes longer than 4 hours naked + 2 hours bp/foiled to achieve what I think is probe tender.
I've had some amazing flats, some okay and some horrible flats. I just can't seem to find any baseline for producing good quality. We as a comp team have achieved some good results in European comps with brisket, 4th out 26 of and 10th out of 58. I'd say the variation is all due to texture, not because of taste. Although I think most of the brisket's awesome taste comes from the correct texture.
I'm wondering if this is due to variation in meat quality, or am I just not getting a consistent feel for when it's done? Most of the time I overcook them, if I go by the feel "probes like buttah". One possible explanation would be that the window of perfect doneness is very very short and I end up missing it most of the time. But do briskets toughen up if overcook, I thought they would still probe tender when overcooked?
Most of the flats don't feel jiggly at the time they probe tender, but some do. And the ones that do, end up being pretty nice. The bad ones are not tough, so I'm most likely not undercooking. I'd say they are dry and the taste is very bland, probably due to lack of moisture.
Here are some references and pics which probably will illustrate my texture problem better.
This is what I consider being close to perfect texture. It's moist, has good flavour, and the slice looks a bit like spider web with the meat fibers attached loosely to each other. It has just a hint of tug, but separates very easily. This is a slice of the better marbled one below.
And this is what I usually cook. Really dry, not tough, but still doesn't have gaps between meat fibers. When pulled, it immediately breaks cleanly between meat fibers and tastes mostly like pot roast. Sorry, couldn't find a pic of bad brisket, so here's a video that pretty much shows what I mean by texture I don't like:
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZmGzjY4O5Y"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZmGzjY4O5Y[/ame]
You can see in the video that it snaps right between muscle fibers and there appears to be no moisture between the fibers. Although now looking at that, that is probably just a hair undercooked?
Here's a pic of flat that was pretty much spot on, I seldom get a flat that has this kind of marbling. Could that be all there is to it?
And this is what I usually have:
I know flats aren't easy, but they can't be this hard, right?
I mean, I'm a fast learner generally, it shouldn't take years to get a feel for probe tender?!?
op2:
