First brisket help

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breel

Newbie
Original poster
Oct 12, 2016
5
10
Well I couldn't take looking at pictures and researching any longer. Decided to try my first brisket for my sons first bday party for about 40 guests. Also did 2 pork butts so I could fall back on them if the brisket went south. I have a MES and my 14 lb packer didn't quite fit, had to bend the flat up against the side to get it all in. Went with a simple SPOG rub. Cooked it at 225 with hickory. After about 6 hours the flat was 170 and the point was 150, not sure why. I use thermoworks DOT leave ins. I decided to wrap at this point in butcher paper as that seemed to be the consensus pick over foil. Also gave it a spritz of worcestershire and water at that point. Back in the smoker and the point slowly caught up to the flat. Started checking with toothpick at 185, the point felt great already like a warm stick of butter but the flat seemed to stick as I inserted the toothpick so I assumed it was not done. Checked again at 190 same results checked again at 195 same results. Getting worried that it was drying out I pulled it wrapped in aluminum foil and let it rest one hour wrapped in towel in cooler. Sliced it and the point was phenomenal both taste and tenderness and also juicy. Best piece of meat I've tasted in some time. The compliments were unending. But when I cut the flat it was very dry but also very tender. It was so dry I didn't plate it for our guests, good thing we had 20lbs of pulled pork as well. I ended up reheating it with some of the pork fat this week and it was alright it did help to impart some juiciness back and the flavor was spot on.

Being this was my first brisket I'm wondering if this is common with the flat being much more dry that the point. If it is not can anyone give me some pointers to try so I can serve the whole thing next time! Thankse everyone in advance for helping out a rookie!
 
I'm very surprised no one responded. I'm a newbie as well, but I'll give you my opinion. The flat will always be drier than the point. I much prefer the point over the flat for that reason. You may too, but some folks really like lean bbq, and it won't taste dry to them. You can always separate the point from the flat before or during the cook if you want to cook one longer than the other.

Two things you can try:

1. Resting the meat for longer than an hour. I have been resting mine 2-3 hours, and like the results. If juice comes out when you slice it, that means it had not been reabsorbed yet, and the meat should have rested longer.

2. Don't slice it until you are ready to eat it, and slice against the grain. As soon as you slice brisket it begins to dry out. Even a few minutes can make a big difference. Also, the grain on the point runs differently than the grain on the flat, so you have to slice them different directions.

I really like the Aaron Franklin brisket videos on youtube. They are short, but very informative. Hope this helps!
 
1. Resting the meat for longer than an hour. I have been resting mine 2-3 hours, and like the results. If juice comes out when you slice it, that means it had not been reabsorbed yet, and the meat should have rested longer.
 
Disclaimer I have yet to smoke my first brisket myself but I have been a part of many family brisket smokes over the years.  I am taking it very seriously and I MUST get my smoker working to the point to where I know my equipment will meet my requirements for making brisket :)

With that said, I think RB Tex is on to a major step in the brisket smoking process that you may have skipped.  Resting the brisket seems to be something that I read about a lot on here that people fail to do when first learning to smoke briskets.  I have see the difference in a rested and not rested brisket many times at family gatherings which ALWAYS have brisket.  When you rest the brisket for a good long while the juices will redistribute back into the meat properly thereby making a less dry and better product.  Most briskets I eat at family gatherings have rested for a number of hours and then were refrigerated and reheated the next day.  They come out fantastic and the refrigeration doesn't hurt it a bit.  It's basically mandatory to get all of the food cooked for the heard of people being fed at our family gatherings :)

Also it sounds like you may have pulled your brisket a little early.  If the flat wasn't tender then it likely needed more time cooking so the collagen in the flat could continue braking down.  When the collagen breaks down it gives you more richness, juice, and tenderness.

My guess is a little more cooking for the flat to get good and tender and a significant rest period wrapped in foil and in a cooler(min 2 hours, 4 hours would be good) would have given you the flat you desired.

Planning for a little more time to rest properly should be considered to ensure everything pays off after the care already taken to prep, cook, and baby 14 pounds of meat :)

I think other much more experienced brisket smokers can provide even more info to help out.  I hope my info is a start for some ideas you may want to start kicking around :)
 
My only suggestions are to ignore the point, test the thickest part of the flat for tenderness (and don't worry too much about temp). Once you can poke it without resistance, pull it, let it sit for 20ish minutes (to stop it the cooking, and to tease anyone around with the goodness they can't yet have), wrap it in foil and put it in a towel lined cooler until you are ready to heat, hopefully 2+ hours away. 
 
One thing I do to salvage a dry flat, especially if it is leftovers is to slice it into whatever thickness slices I want, then reheat it with a bit of beef broth.
 
One thing I do to salvage a dry flat, especially if it is leftovers is to slice it into whatever thickness slices I want, then reheat it with a bit of beef broth.
I've done the same thing, sort of. Chop it into cubes and warm up with some beef gravy. Great with mashed potatoes!
 
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