The good half of my briskets

[Huh? What?]

I have about a fifty-fifty record with brisket. About half the time it's great, and the other half it's awful. This one was one of the good half.

It was a 10.25 Lb. choice grade whole brisket. I rubbed it with brown sugar, coarse kosher salt, garlic, onion, mustard, paprika, and new mexico chili powder. It got rubbed, wrapped, and due to circumstances, spent six days in the refrigerator. Today it got smoked with pecan at about 225 (give or take) for eight hours to an internal temp of 205. Then it got wrapped in foil and went in a cooler for another 2 hours.

The flat is tender, but doesn't fall apart. The point is like butter. The flavor goes all the way through.

 

[tom72]

Nice job! I seem to be at around a 70/30 success rate with brisket. I was on a mini streak with a few good ones recently, but then I botched my last one.

 

[Happy Hapgood]

I would say it looks Better than good! :thumb:

 

[smoke ninja]

I've dialed in a method that consistently gives me results I enjoy. I did a brisket for the superbowl, brought it to my cousin's house for a party. His wife said she figured it would be smoker. The product fell flat. My brisket gets hyped up and I could see the visible let down in several faces.

It happens to to us all from time to time

 

[LloydQ]

Looks awfully good!

 

[pjtexas1]

are you cooking to a an internal temp?

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[thirdeye]

Hopefully you can close the gap between great and awful. I kind of shoot for pretty good and d@mn good. But it takes a lot of pit time... and with some of the great advice available on this forum you are one step ahead.

 

[V1VRV2]

Sometimes even when you use prime they can be a letdown, but usually only because you know how good they can be. I cooked a couple for my friends and neighbors at the fishing camp and both times they were very complimentary but I was disappointed. I kept telling them that they weren't that good and they said they were some of the best they'd had and keep trying. I finally nailed one a couple of months ago-one bite and they all said "ok, now we know what you meant!" Huh?What? Yours looks delicious

 

[pharp]

I have about a fifty-fifty record with brisket. About half the time it's great, and the other half it's awful. This one was one of the good half.

It was a 10.25 Lb. choice grade whole brisket. I rubbed it with brown sugar, coarse kosher salt, garlic, onion, mustard, paprika, and new mexico chili powder. It got rubbed, wrapped, and due to circumstances, spent six days in the refrigerator. Today it got smoked with pecan at about 225 (give or take) for eight hours to an internal temp of 205. Then it got wrapped in foil and went in a cooler for another 2 hours.

The flat is tender, but doesn't fall apart. The point is like butter. The flavor goes all the way through.

Looks like a good brisket to me. I notice you specifically said 205...if that is what your plan is to cook to that might be the reason for the 50/50 success.

 

[Huh? What?]

are you cooking to a an internal temp?

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Sort of. I cook until it's done which, today, was 205.

 

[pjtexas1]

Describe the bad half. Chewy? Dry? Falls apart? No flavor? Bad bark?

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[Huh? What?]

Mostly tough.

 

[pjtexas1]

Sounds like you are pulling too early. How are you checking to see if it's done?

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[Springram]

Also the longer you hold the brisket before you cut it, the better.

 

[Rockinar]

Also the longer you hold the brisket before you cut it, the better.

THIS.

All things being equal, a brisket held 8+ hours will be better than the one held 2 hours.

 

[sudsandswine]

I try to er on the side of overcooking, can always sauce it up and sauce a bit for chopped beef. Undercooked is much harder to salvage IMO.

Looks like you nailed it :thumb:

 

[Tatanka]

Looks great!

I use a simpler SPG/SPOG rub on my briskets, esp. a healthy dose of coarse P, but whatever works for each palate, go for it. My "better start thinking about probing that thing" internal temp is 195F, after earlier wrapping in foil at about 170-180. As mentioned above, other than hitting the "probe tender" point without blowing by it, a proper rest on the meat is the next most important thing. For reasons I don't understand, it seems that the slower the cool-down the better the final results.

 

[Smoking Piney]

That's a fine looking brisket. :thumb:

 

[Burnt at Both Endz]

THIS.

All things being equal, a brisket held 8+ hours will be better than the one held 2 hours.

While that's a pretty good blanket statement, Bludawg just left his on the counter till it came down to 150ish, seems to work for a properly cooked brisket.

 

[jasonjax]

I'll make this comment again, which I've said many times now. Retain those juices if your cooking process allows. Some reserve jus from the brisket will hide a multitude of problems.