Post Easter Brisket Debrief - Help Appreciated

[Flinger]

I hope everyone had a great Easter weekend...

Don't want to bore anyone with too much "process" talk, but the final result of my brisket was slightly disappointing.

The results:

Good: Moist, tender & juicy throughout, including the flat! A first...
Bad: Bark was soft; not salty enough - taste profile just didn't pop.

Working backwards:

Removed brisket from ice chest (towel in bottom, foil on top of towel) with meat temp at 155 after being in for 3 hours.

Placed brisket in ice chest with meat temps at 203 (Point) and 204 (Flat)... like butter.

2 internal meat probes indicated temps were 175 and 180 (flat & point) and hand Thermo probe indicated 165. Bark wasn't quite ready, but went ahead and wrapped because those temps sort of freaked me out.

Wrap itself was butcher paper. 2 pieces overlapping about 6 feet long. Brisket was "rolled" about 4 times in paper.

Fire was mostly between 250 & 275. Cook time 9 hrs on a Lang (reverse flow - cooks a little faster).

My rub started with 50/50 S&P, but then added 25% more P and about 3 TBL's of cayenne, garlic and sugar. But, alas, the bark just didn't come together...

Meat was a 13 lb, pre-trimmed Black Angus Prime... good cut of meat...

Any way... I'm thinking the bark was sacrificed for the moisture. Lack of saltiness was a surprise. Maybe "adding" other spices diluted.

Thoughts?

Wrapped too soon? Wrapped too heavy? Salt separately, then add non-salt portions of the rub?

Boy - I had high hopes for this one. Everything was "by the numbers". It was good. Just wasn't great. And, I want to make tweaks and adjusts in my thinking now before moving on to the next one.

Thanks, in advance!

 

[sudsandswine]

It sounds like you wrapped it too early, and the lackluster bark flavor was probably just the wrong rub mix for your liking. I do 2:2:1:1 by weight kosher salt, coarse black pepper, granulated onion, granulated garlic and it has the right amount of salt for my tastes. If you do it by volume, you'll have an imbalance skewed to the salty end of the spectrum, IMO.

It also sounds like you used more paper than I normally would, so maybe it steamed it. I'll do one strip of paper long enough to wrap the brisket about one time, and then I'll tear off a smaller section of paper and put it in the center of the longer one so that it's doubled up on the bottom and I don't have to worry as much about tears or leaks.

You might also try just not wrapping, it's definitely not required to have a tender, moist, and flavorful brisket.

 

[Flinger]

It sounds like you wrapped it too early, and the lackluster bark flavor was probably just the wrong rub mix for your liking. I do 2:2:1:1 by weight kosher salt, coarse black pepper, granulated onion, granulated garlic and it has the right amount of salt for my tastes. If you do it by volume, you'll have an imbalance skewed to the salty end of the spectrum, IMO.

It also sounds like you used more paper than I normally would, so maybe it steamed it. I'll do one strip of paper long enough to wrap the brisket about one time, and then I'll tear off a smaller section of paper and put it in the center of the longer one so that it's doubled up on the bottom and I don't have to worry as much about tears or leaks.

You might also try just not wrapping, it's definitely not required to have a tender, moist, and flavorful brisket.

Yeah - normally, I do a S/P/G equally. Wish I hadn't deviated. I a lot of butcher paper after watching the "Mad Scientist BBQ" guy on a recent video where he used a whole lot more paper than I normally do. And, a lot of my briskets had come out dry in the flat. So, thought I would try his method.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm thinking next time - go back to my normal rub, don't wrap until the bark is crispy (even if that means not wrapping) and if I do wrap - half the paper amount...

 

[Mikhail]

Sounds like you did everything right except not seasoned enough. Most and tender, can't beat that.

 

[Flinger]

Sounds like you did everything right except not seasoned enough. Most and tender, can't beat that.

Yeah... brisket is so temperamental.... typically, I have a hard time with the flat... it's usually dry and almost useless. I've never had difficulty with the flavor profile until this cook. AND... I usually don't struggle with the Bark.

But, boy, I did yesterday.

It just seemed that bark would simply not caramelize - and, I love a good bark.

I also wonder if the outside barometric pressure had some influence. It was so dry outside that my grandson's nose started bleeding! Also, my mouth has been so dry for the last couple of mornings. I just wonder...

If I ever have a hard time with Bark after 5 or 6 hours - or, until 165 when I normally wrap... I'm just driving through without wrapping until I pull the sucker off the smoker and just let it rest in the paper. That, and just go back to S/P/G 2:2:1

 

[sandro]

Off the top of my head, I'd say you wrapped too early and didn't put enough rub on (or not enough salt in your rub, or the rub washed off). Also, you used a ton of butcher paper! Twice! It was basically as impermeable as foil at that point, so it steamed the bark and you lost the salty goodness that comes with a dried crust

 

[JAKs Q & brew]

Sounds like I did nearly the identical brisket on Sunday. For some reason I decided it was time to wrap after 6 hours without enough examination of how well the bark was set. I think I probably wrapped 60-90 minutes too early. It ended up moist and tender, but the bark and seasoning had basically dissolved into the bag liquid.

Still yummy, but not what I was hoping for

 

[robertm]

Briskets are such a love/hate cook. When you get one just right it's a thing of beauty. Every other time you think if I had just done this one thing different...

I recommend heavier rub. Brisket is large piece of meat, don't think I've ever had one that was over seasoned with S/P. I can't speak to the other spices.

At least 5-6 hrs before wrapping is usually what it takes to get a good bark. It shouldn't rub off when touched and when you press down on the fat cap it shouldn't spring back but feel gelatinous.

When you wrap it should be basically one layer on top and two layers on the bottom.

After that a good long rest always helps. 6-10 hrs if you can manage is what I like to do.

 

[Jlems]

You said your flats never turn out right, but this one was great. Focusing on the positive here, what would you guess was different that resulted in a tender flat this time around? (Flats are also my nemesis.)