Many times people come to SMF in a panic with all kinds of situations where they need to salvage an under cooked brisket, bad weather comes in and cuts a smoke short, or they simply underestimate the time it takes to smoke a brisket and have to pull it before it is ready.
I had an Angus brisket in my garage fridge that I got on sale for a great price. I thought it was a 14 pound brisket and I knew I had to get it smoked soon but when I checked Sunday I realized I was 2 days past the sale date and it was an 18.5 pound brisket :eek:
So rain or shine I had to get that thing cooked ASAP. I was able to get it prepped and in the smoker at 6:30pm Monday after I got off work. After triming I bet it was a 13 pound brisket. I also decided to take my back up smoker probe and use it as a meat probe so I could record via my HeaterMeter how crazy 3 meat probes report inside a brisket... good idea but hurt my smoke some. Without the backup smoker probe I was not able to accurately figure out the temp at rack level (left, middle, right areas of rack) so I think it was roughly 260F around this giant brisket but again that is just a guess.
I smoked over night hoping that by near 8:30am Tue morning the brisket would be done or near done... no chance, at 7:30am Tue the highest reported IT was 171F and the lowest was like 164F. I then wrapped the brisket in double foil, put on a pan and stuck it in my oven at 220F while I went to work.
My plan was that at an oven temp of 220F the brisket would take a while to get to 203F'ish and wouldn't go too high in temp even if it finished early... well I got home from work at 5pm and probed the brisket all over with my instant read thermometer and it was 210F EVERYWHERE :eek:
Well no biggy as the brisket was now likely to be a whole 14 pounds of chopped brisket rather than sliced hahahahha. The flavor wasn't bad but upon initial tasting right out of the oven the brisket tastes/feels like 40% roast and 60% smoked brisket. After a night and most of a day in the fridge I'll see if this holds true now that it has settled and cooled down.
Lessons Learned:
Ok guys that is a bit about my experience and I hope it helps with anyone who gets in a similar situation since I see such similar situations pop up on SMF all the time. If you have any questions or any real life experiences similar to this please feel free to share!
I had an Angus brisket in my garage fridge that I got on sale for a great price. I thought it was a 14 pound brisket and I knew I had to get it smoked soon but when I checked Sunday I realized I was 2 days past the sale date and it was an 18.5 pound brisket :eek:
So rain or shine I had to get that thing cooked ASAP. I was able to get it prepped and in the smoker at 6:30pm Monday after I got off work. After triming I bet it was a 13 pound brisket. I also decided to take my back up smoker probe and use it as a meat probe so I could record via my HeaterMeter how crazy 3 meat probes report inside a brisket... good idea but hurt my smoke some. Without the backup smoker probe I was not able to accurately figure out the temp at rack level (left, middle, right areas of rack) so I think it was roughly 260F around this giant brisket but again that is just a guess.
I smoked over night hoping that by near 8:30am Tue morning the brisket would be done or near done... no chance, at 7:30am Tue the highest reported IT was 171F and the lowest was like 164F. I then wrapped the brisket in double foil, put on a pan and stuck it in my oven at 220F while I went to work.
My plan was that at an oven temp of 220F the brisket would take a while to get to 203F'ish and wouldn't go too high in temp even if it finished early... well I got home from work at 5pm and probed the brisket all over with my instant read thermometer and it was 210F EVERYWHERE :eek:
Well no biggy as the brisket was now likely to be a whole 14 pounds of chopped brisket rather than sliced hahahahha. The flavor wasn't bad but upon initial tasting right out of the oven the brisket tastes/feels like 40% roast and 60% smoked brisket. After a night and most of a day in the fridge I'll see if this holds true now that it has settled and cooled down.
Lessons Learned:
- I 100% prefer a non-wrapped brisket vs one that gets wrapped in foil. I've yet to ever do a Franklins style butcher paper wrap, I don't like to mess with the meat and smoke if I can avoid it
- Going to the oven is 100% acceptable for any situation that involves an undercooked brisket or one that is pulled early. It is easier to salvage undercooked vs way over cooked
- My guesstimation on leaving the brisket in the oven at a low temp for about 10 hours was not too far off. I don't want to make a habit of this but I think I could dial it in better if I had to now that I have this one under my belt.
- Next time (if there is one) I will put my oven at 210F so that it hopefully doesn't go over 200F and maybe I can get less overcooked brisket
- Even double foil wrapped, some fat and juice leaked out so DEFINITELY set in a pan with walls at least 1.5 inch high to avoid leaking a mess into the oven
- The brisket is not the best in the world when I think of what a smoked brisket is, BUT works 100% for chopped brisket mixed with some bbq sauce! Most people would have no clue that this is a somewhat botched smoked brisket attempt if presented with this chopped brisket! :)
- If I HAD to hold a brisket for a long time I think I could do it with the oven but would probably set at a much much lower temp so that the brisket might somehow get down to an IT of 160F. I'm not sure if that means I would hold at 150F or so, only an experiment would let me know what I could get away with but I don't plan on experimenting this way so I'll find out if I ever get in such a situation hahaha
Ok guys that is a bit about my experience and I hope it helps with anyone who gets in a similar situation since I see such similar situations pop up on SMF all the time. If you have any questions or any real life experiences similar to this please feel free to share!