Want to conquor Brisket?

 
This is where the science comes in.   When I looked at the cross section of the brisket I obviously measured the thickness to know approximate cooking times but I also wanted to see the amount of marbling as well as connective tissue.  Marbling is the natural fats in between muscle tissue that adds flavor to beef, pork, chicken etc…  Fat varies from animal to animal and can even vary inside the same one.   It looks like the salt deposit veins in well “Marble”, hence the name.  One thing fats do have in common is that the molecules are tied together by a Carboxylic acid, also known as Glycerol, on the end.  These Glycerols start to break down between 150 and 170 degrees but do so very slowly.  If heated to fast, they tend to bind with the nearby connective tissues and curl up.  Have you ever seen bacon cook completely flat?  I didn’t think so.
 
Connective tissue is made of three types of protein, Elastin, Reticulin and Collagen.   Elastin and Reticulin are found largely around ligaments and joints and do not break down during cooking.  You may have had a cheaper cut of steak and had some gristle that chewed like a rubber band or seen silver skin in the roast beef.  This is Elastin and Reticulin.  The majority running through muscle tissue is Collagen and when heated it turns into a soft gelatin.  These three together form a good wall of protection for the muscle fibers and you will notice as your internal temperature rises in the brisket it begins to level off as it approaches 180 degrees.  This is the collagen breaking down and becoming a nice soft gelatin.  The process is known as “temperature plateauing.”  It is the connective tissues fighting off the heat and eventually subsiding when the collagen breaks down.  The chart shows the brisket approaching this wall, hitting a plateau and then starting to rise back up again after the collagen has broken down.

View media item 529156If you look at the chart, the brisket starts off hour one at or around 40 degrees and is rising in internal temp at around 20 degrees per hour.   This allows the Dry-rub to form that crust or shell around the meat.  The sugars in the rub begin to melt around 200 degrees in the smoke box and this forms a shell around the brisket.  However it will dry out and begin to crack after 5 hours when the crust is set.  At this point, I spray...

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 When all of the collagen has dissolved, the temperature will rise again eight to ten degrees in one hour.

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