What went wrong with this Brisket?

[littlej2455]

Hello! This is my first time posting here, but I have to say I have been using this website along with Jeff's book to help get me through my first smoke! I wanted to first thank you for all of the information.

My first smoke was a whole chicken and it was great, so then I wanted to attempt a brisket next, as it is my wife's favorite.

I am using an MES to cook the brisket. It was starting out well I thought because I was using the smoker thermometer to tell me ambient temperature. I was using this thermometer because my meat thermometer is one probe for both ambient and meat temperature. I quickly learned that I can not rely on the smoker thermometer because it said I was smoking at 225, but in reality when I placed my probe in, I was truly smoking at 205. Not great, and not too safe to be cooking that low. So once the meat probe was placed I raised my temperature to being close to 240-250. 

I waited until the 5 hours of cooking and my meat was at 150, so I decided to wrap the meat in foil. When wrapping in foil, I did not pour and juices in the foil, and I am not sure if I got a tight seal around where my probe stuck out.

I let this sit until the meat hit 195. It seemed like once the meat hit 185 it took forever for it to get to 195! ha So hungry at this point. I took the meat out at 195 and let it sit in foil for 1.5 hours. I did not have an ice chest so it just sat in the foil. When I began to cut the meat, the juices where flowing! Very tender as well. I thought this was going to be great! Unfortunately I think all my juices ended up on the cutting board and not the meat. What is the primary reason why?I know there are probably a couple, but what is the best way to improve.

I also read that some people put the brisket in a ice chest for 3-4 hours and then some slice after 30 minutes. Which method have you found to work best? What is the difference?

Thank you so much for the advice! Have a great day!

 

[sauced]

Yes, I usually let the brisket rest, wrapped in a towel and placed in an empty cooler for a few hours. Always save the collected juices to pour over the sliced meat.

 

[littlej2455]

Perfect thank you! I will try that next time! Here is a picture of all my juice on the cutting board.

IMG_2379.JPG

• littlej2455
• Jun 21, 2017

 

[kam59]

You did not say whether the brisket was a select, choice or prime. Most selects and choices will not have the internal marbling to retain moisture in the slices once cut. Prime will give you this but even at that towards the thinner flat the pieces will appear drier than higher towards the point.

I do let my briskets rest at least three hours if I can but they remain panned in the juices covered in foil. I do not wrap I pan my briskets once they hit 165°/170° internal.

If you want to maintain juicy slices in lower grades you can try a commercial injection like Butchers. But only mix it to 1/4 the recommended powder on your first one and grow from there.

I hope this helps.

 

[littlej2455]

I am not sure the type of brisket it was. The butcher I went to was unsure how to cut the meat for brisket so I just went with what they gave me. I will have to go to a different place next time to ensure the cut. But thank you for the advise, I will plan on trying the cooler method. Thank you again!

 

[sbsyncro]

I just did my first brisket over the weekend, too and I also have an MES30.  This weekend was my first time using it and I did jerky (amazing!), fish (yellowtail - always good), baby back ribs (a bit dry), and finally a brisket. (and I still managed to spend the day fishing on Sunday!).

My experience with met brisket was similar - I was going to post a separate thread, but yours is so similar I figured I'd post my results and we could share in the wisdom collected.

I followed a similar process, with a few exceptions. 

• 8 lb whole brisket from Costco (Choice grade), trimmed to 3/8" and not separated

• Brown sugar rub for 15 minutes, then applied dry rub, plastic wrapped, and put into fridge overnight

• MES set to 230 degrees (actual temp read 217 on the probe of my Maverick ET-733), mix of beer, water, and apple juice in the water pan.

• Added about 1/2C  shredded oak from the tree in my yard, and a bit of cherry to start the smoke

• After an hour, added more oak chips

• at 140 degrees internal temp I began mopping with apple juice every time I added wood chips, switching from oak to pecan

• at 165 degrees (about 6 hours in, IIRC), I "crutched" with foil and poured in a bit of the mop liquid, and added one last dose of pecan chips

• at 190 degrees I opened the top of the foil in order to dry the bark, and kicked the indicated temp up to 250 (which gave me an internal temp around 240)

• about 1 hour later it hit 198 degrees and I pulled the brisket, foiled it, and wrapped it in towels, letting it sit on the plate warming shelf above my oven for an hour or so.

Results: 

First bite was amazing - juicy and tender, but not very smoky (the way I'm used to having in Texas).   No smoke ring whatsoever.

Unfortunately, our dinner plans got all sideways and we had to go out with some friends, so after a few nibbles, I separated the halves of the brisket, trimmed the melted fat away, and put the burnt ends into a separate bag, then put the entire brisket into the fridge after slicing off about 1 lb for sandwiches.

We ate our first meal of it the following night (wrapped in foil with some beef stock and light BBQ sauce and reheated in a rice cooker set to "warm" for about 30 minutes).   Very flavorful and the exact right texture, but general consensus is that it was dry and could be more smoky.

So my questions/conclusions are:

1. I think the process itself worked well and produced a good result for my first attempt.  Wondering if there should have been a smoke ring?

2. I was too timid with the wood chips (especially at first).  I HATE the creosote taste of over-smoked meat, so I was too worried about that. Step up the smoke next time.

3. Can't figure out why it turned out a bit dry - wondering if my last step of opening the foil to let the bark "cure" was a bad idea.  If I hadn't done that, I'd have ended up with a gooey gelatinous bark, which seems very unappetizing...

Looking forward to comments!