1st brisket was a disaster

[Matt240sx]

Just got done was 1st brisket and it was awful, I know what they mean by dry as she leather. I have the new cabelas pellet smoker made by pit boss. I preheated to 250 and threw the brisket on (16 lb pre-trimmed) at 4 am. By 6am I was approaching 160 and turned it down to 220. By 7am I was 180 and at 8am nearing 190. I checked for tender and it was not ready yet. At 11am it was between 205-210 and tender on the probe. I wrapped it in butcher paper and towels and threw it in the cooler for 5hrs and cut it at 4pm. It was so tough and dry I could hardly cut it. It felt nice and tender when I pulled it. Did it set to long? I planned on about 14 hrs but this was done in half that? I am questioning the temp my grill was reading. I did have 2 small water pans in the cook chamber too.

 

[noboundaries]

A 14 lb brisket in 7 hours at the chamber temp you mentioned ........ sorry, not possible. Something is off. There was no stall. I'll bet it didn't shrink much either.

Dry and tough is undercooked. If you put the meat in the refrigerator it can still be used in a chili or stew. You can also cook it again, but personally I'd braise it in a chili or stew after cutting it up into small pieces..

 

[mike5051]

I agree with noboundaries! Overcooked brisket falls apart, it is not tough. Cook it some more in a braising liquid and it can be salvaged. Sorry for your loss.

Mike

 

[motolife313]

Put a couple oven gauges in the cooking chamber

 

[Matt240sx]

It shrank a considerable amount. The point meat pulled apart once I got through the bark. The bark was so hard and dried out I had to cut it off and toss it. I'm going to throw the rest in the crock pot with beef stock to try and soften it up some. I still dont believe the temp that the pellet grill said it was, I'm going to get an external temp gauge and check it. I just cant see a brisket that big hitting 190 in 6hrs with half that time at 220 degrees.

 

[schlotz]

Sure sounds like the therm is off. You'll want to get a good one to check things out with. Suggest looking at Thermapen. Where on the brisket was the check for tenderness done? Through the point or the flat?

 

[Matt240sx]

I checked both the flat and the point both where tender when I pulled it.

 

[mowin]

Definitely sounds like your pit was much hotter than the set temp. I know my pellet pooper set temp is higher than the actual.

 

[tallbm]

Just got done was 1st brisket and it was awful, I know what they mean by dry as she leather. I have the new cabelas pellet smoker made by pit boss. I preheated to 250 and threw the brisket on (16 lb pre-trimmed) at 4 am. By 6am I was approaching 160 and turned it down to 220. By 7am I was 180 and at 8am nearing 190. I checked for tender and it was not ready yet. At 11am it was between 205-210 and tender on the probe. I wrapped it in butcher paper and towels and threw it in the cooler for 5hrs and cut it at 4pm. It was so tough and dry I could hardly cut it. It felt nice and tender when I pulled it. Did it set to long? I planned on about 14 hrs but this was done in half that? I am questioning the temp my grill was reading. I did have 2 small water pans in the cook chamber too.

Hi there and welcome!

I'm guessing the Internal Temp (IT) of your brisket was not measured accurately.

I run 3 meat probes with my HeaterMeter on my briskets because I have found that it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get an accurate IT on a brisket with a single or even 2 meat probes!
The thickest part of the flat is the best but but it takes me 3 probes to get it right hahaha.

After watching how all 3 probes go up at drastically different rates and how each one will/can overtake the lead on the other two multiple times, I understand how people have issues with cooking briskets.

I often have a probe reading at like 210F, one at 206F, and the final one at 202F when the final tenderness check tells me that the brisket is tender all over. The wrong angle, a fat vein, and any other human or natural error can throw off a brisket IT quite a bit in my experience.

Just keep at it, probe the crap out of it, and when it is truly butter consistency tender ALL OVER then you know you are good to go or at least not undercooked where you get dry and tough meat.

I hope this info helps :)