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got a question bout temps and flats.

  • Thread starter Thread starter olive123
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olive123

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2 wknds ago i cooked a packer flat. Fire got away from me a little and rode to bout 280. cooked it kinda of high for a while 249-280 range.
5lb flat cooked within 7 hrs. Let internal got to 197 waited through a platu at 197 then took it off. couldnt wait anymore! had nice bark. Was very good, a tad dry and I had to cut it thick. It was falling apart.
I have heard that these cuts do better at lower temps. So the next cook i kept in the low 200s 215-225. Wasnt the same.
Does the temp make that much of a difference or are a fat flat forgiving?
 
olive, IMO brisket does do better at lower pit temps. I have a horizontal smoker that has an open drain with a drip bucket. I can watch this bucket and get a very good idea what is coming out of the brisket. At lower temps you're just rendering fat, when the temp gets up you can see a layer of water form at the bottom of the bucket, that's beef juices and you don't want those coming out of the meat.
With the above generalization made, let me qualify it a bit by saying the closer to done a brisket gets the more sensitive it is to drying from excess pit temps. If your higher temps were in the first half of the cook the meat wasn't probably warm enough yet for osmosis to begin. I think there may be some merit to higher temps early in the cooking of a brisket but I've not been brave enough to attempt any experiments to verify this. If I could knock a few hours of the time it normally takes me to get good brisket I'd be all for it. To date my very best brisket efforts have come when the pit temp never exceeds 220.
 
A brief observation. Cutting the total cook time by 2 hours would reduce my beer intake by 36-48 oz. and I would dry out!
 
LMAO, Good point Jorge! It has been said to never trust a skinny cook, I have little trust in a sober pitmaster :wink: 8) :lol:
 
Jorge said:
A brief observation. Cutting the total cook time by 2 hours would reduce my beer intake by 36-48 oz. and I would dry out!

1 & 1/2 or 2 beers in 2 hours? Now that's drying out. Something about heat and smoke that makes 'em go down a little more for me :lol:


As far as temp concerns, I believe your temps got a little too high, although brief spikes shouldn't really be too detrimental. I'm actually surprised the meat was as tender as it was. I like to keep it between 200 and 225 for brisket and keep a thermometer in both the flat and the point and pull from heat at 190-195. Of course to keep the meat tender I recommend wrapping in foil for about the last several hours of the cooking time also to keep from drying out.
 
Stucue74 said:
Jorge said:
A brief observation. Cutting the total cook time by 2 hours would reduce my beer intake by 36-48 oz. and I would dry out!

1 & 1/2 or 2 beers in 2 hours? Now that's drying out. Something about heat and smoke that makes 'em go down a little more for me :lol:

My Okie friend. The average beer is 12 oz. per container. Consuming 36-48 oz. over a two hour period would mean I had consumed 3-4 beers, or 1 & 1/2 or 2 beers PER hour, or approximately 1 case for a brisket cook. The work of a Texan is never done :lol:
 
I'm new here so I'm not sure what you are cooking on but I will assume it is an offset of some kind.
Those temps would be higher than I would like, would want to be in the 225 to 235 range. If a pit gets away like that foil would have helped but I would consider testing for tenderness at the point the internal reached 180Âş. Once I felt it was tender no matter what the internal was it would come off the cooker. I slide a probe from the therm into the flat, if it feels like it is going into butter it's time to remove.
Here is another thing to try once the internal hits 185 to 190Âş you remove form the cooker, wrap in plastic and HD foil and it goes into a dry cooler for at least 4 hours. This a technique that is producing some of the top briskets on the competition circut.
Jim
 
Can't agree more on the cooler trick.

I cooler pretty much everything, at least for an hour or more, especially brisket and pork loins
 
your temps are way too high. I've been turning out great brisket at 180-200 degrees 1 hr./lb. then wrap in foil and go another 1 hr./lb. place in dry cooler for two hours. Brisket is now done and oh so tender.
 
Damn, I must have almost cremated my meat. I brought my temp to 200 and then loaded my brisket and ribs. Then I checked the fire and it was going good, but my temp gauge stayed on 160, so I really get a rip roaring fire going and the guage still only reads 160? Gotta be something wrong with the guage, WRONG! I opened the door to the vertical smoker, and the prong on the guage was stuck into the meat which was keeping it cooled off. When I remove the prong from the meat,, my temp went to 480!! I took out two ends of the ribs (vaporized). Luckly the brisket came out ok, I don't see how.
 
last 4-5 briskets i did took the advice of dave klose and started at a high temp first. Brought the pit up into the 300's on the initial firing with the dampers wide open. Put the brisket close to the hot spot and set the dampers to the running settings. When the temp dropped down to 250 or so, i moved it to the permanent home in the pit and got the temps locked in at 210-215. Didnt let anything spike over 220. Left them there till the brisket hit 175, foiled them up and brought them to 190-195+, then coolered them for a few hours. Took a little longer but definately produced the best briskets i ever did.
 
BBQchef33 said:
Took a little longer but definately produced the best briskets i ever did.

Were the first reheated one at B3 done this way, cuz you said it tasted like crap
 
Last few briskets I've done have been cooked constantly in the 210-230 range. They keep getting better. I've heard several times about the initial high temps, even searing both sides first. I'll give it a try - got 2 sitting in the freezer right now.
 
tommykendall said:
. I've heard several times about the initial high temps, even searing both sides first. I'll give it a try - got 2 sitting in the freezer right now.

I'd thaw them first
 
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