- Jan 19, 2010
- 22
- 11
Hi all. I've been smoking pork and fish for a few years now and those usually turn out pretty darned good. A pork butt will usually be fall-apart tender when I'm done. I decided this past weekend to do a brisket for the first time.
Got a whole brisket (select grade; all that's available here) with about a 1/4" fat cap on it. Put a basic rub on it; nothing extreme. Smoked it over a mixture of hickory chunks and oak chips (can't get oak chunks here that I know of; still working on that).
Using a redi-chek dual probe, smoker temps stayed between 200 and 240, leaning towards the low side most of the time. TBS mostly, never going to thick white smoke.
After the first 4 hours, I started mopping it with a mop sauce, hoping to keep it from getting too dried out. ( I usually spary my pork butts with apple juice but didn't think the apple juice flavor would mix well with the beef.)
Smoked it until internal temp got to 170ºF. Pulled it from the smoker, wrapped it in foil, added some more mop sauce and pan drippings, and put it in a 230ºF oven till it got to 195ºF. Let it rest and when I opened it, was I surprised! It was hard and dry. Nice flavor, good bark, good smoke penetration, but dry. Hard to cut, but when cut into small pieces it was pretty tasty. Too dry for me, though. I've cut it into pieces and slow cooked it in some sauce and it's becoming more palatable, but I don't believe I should have to do that to enjoy it.
Any thoughts on what I might have done wrong?
Constructive critique welcome!
Charlie
Northern AZ
Got a whole brisket (select grade; all that's available here) with about a 1/4" fat cap on it. Put a basic rub on it; nothing extreme. Smoked it over a mixture of hickory chunks and oak chips (can't get oak chunks here that I know of; still working on that).
Using a redi-chek dual probe, smoker temps stayed between 200 and 240, leaning towards the low side most of the time. TBS mostly, never going to thick white smoke.
After the first 4 hours, I started mopping it with a mop sauce, hoping to keep it from getting too dried out. ( I usually spary my pork butts with apple juice but didn't think the apple juice flavor would mix well with the beef.)
Smoked it until internal temp got to 170ºF. Pulled it from the smoker, wrapped it in foil, added some more mop sauce and pan drippings, and put it in a 230ºF oven till it got to 195ºF. Let it rest and when I opened it, was I surprised! It was hard and dry. Nice flavor, good bark, good smoke penetration, but dry. Hard to cut, but when cut into small pieces it was pretty tasty. Too dry for me, though. I've cut it into pieces and slow cooked it in some sauce and it's becoming more palatable, but I don't believe I should have to do that to enjoy it.
Any thoughts on what I might have done wrong?
Constructive critique welcome!
Charlie
Northern AZ