2nd brisket feedback please

[ksmith9]

Howdy everyone, I did my 2nd brisket. I got a competition cut at the local Yokes for about $20 so I figured I'd give it a whirl. I seasoned it the night before and threw it on at 730 this morning. Ended up smoking for 8 hours completely unwrapped. Squirted a homemade bbq sauce on twice at about hour 5 and hour 7. I pulled it at 195 wrapped in butcher paper for 2.5 hrs then cut. I felt it was a little dry, especially the outside pieces. Great flavor though. Personally I think next time I should have wrapped at the stall (but I'm not a fan of wrapping my ribs so I carried that to the brisket, and I believe I should have pulled at 185-190 for the residual cook. I thought it was weird it got done in 8 hours but it was a smaller piece of brisket. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The first picture was right off the smoker, than rested for 2.5 hrs, then sliced down the middle. I'm using Louisiana grills vertical pellet smoker, and my seasoning is turbinado, course salt and pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika

 

[tallbm]

Howdy everyone, I did my 2nd brisket. I got a competition cut at the local Yokes for about $20 so I figured I'd give it a whirl. I seasoned it the night before and threw it on at 730 this morning. Ended up smoking for 8 hours completely unwrapped. Squirted a homemade bbq sauce on twice at about hour 5 and hour 7. I pulled it at 195 wrapped in butcher paper for 2.5 hrs then cut. I felt it was a little dry, especially the outside pieces. Great flavor though. Personally I think next time I should have wrapped at the stall (but I'm not a fan of wrapping my ribs so I carried that to the brisket, and I believe I should have pulled at 185-190 for the residual cook. I thought it was weird it got done in 8 hours but it was a smaller piece of brisket. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The first picture was right off the smoker, than rested for 2.5 hrs, then sliced down the middle. I'm using Louisiana grills vertical pellet smoker, and my seasoning is turbinado, course salt and pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprikaView attachment 509373View attachment 509374View attachment 509375

Hi there and welcome!

So dry and a little though means under cooked.

That piece looks like it is mostly the Flat muscle so I would wrap but I would do at like 180F or so that way you get good flavor and bark and it doesn't come out tasting like roast beef instead of BBQ brisket.

So with a brisket it is NEVER done by time or temp. It is only done when it is tender all over.
So what you describe about the meat and when you pulled it indicates you pulled it too early.

Use temp as an indicator of when to check for Tenderness. At 198-200F Internal Temp (IT) of the meat, stab all over with a kabob skewer or something like that and if it goes in without resistance ALL OVER then it is tender and therefore ready.
If you get resistance let the IT of the meat raise another 2 degrees or so and try the tenderness test again. Repeat until tender then pull.

Your brisket looked great and I think you were almost there.

Another tip, try to get a uniform thickness of the whole cut. Having that much thinner side of the flat makes things tough. The Flat muscle is the hard part of the brisket.

Also if you ever do a full packer(which is actually easier than just a Flat) always put the meat thermometer probe in the thickest yet center most portion of the FLAT muscle, never the Point muscle. The Point is almost impossible to mess up and will lie to you about the whole thing beign done so you have to put the temp probe in the flat and again check for tenderness ALL OVER and no resistance.

You are almost there man, that meat looked great it just needed a little more time :)

 

[chef jimmyj]

Can't add anymore to above. tallbm Great answer! Exactly what we expect from OTBS Members...JJ

 

[tallbm]

Can't add anymore to above. tallbm Great answer! Exactly what we expect from OTBS Members...JJ

lol thanks :P

 

[ksmith9]

Wow, Tall that was exactly what I was hoping for when I posted this. I was reading some sites after I posted... Is it fat up or fat down? I thought this cut had a bad slope to it in terms of thickness, but I haven't really understood the cutting and thickness of fat, I've watched Franklin bbq but for whatever reason it just hasn't clicked with me, so I have always felt like I'd have to resort to precut portions. In the end I would not have thought I pulled to early so I'm super pumped to see that, and on a recipe note, I've felt I get a better bark from turbinado sugar than brown sugar...what's everyone else's thoughts

 

[pineywoods]

The fat up or fat down answer depends on who you ask some do it up some do it down so try both ways and see which you prefer. Personally I use turbinado in all my rubs it doesn't burn as easy as brown sugar. I start checking for tenderness at about 195 but that's just me honestly don't think I've ever had one probe tender at 195 but it's my starting point. A good number of people use a tooth pick to probe it with claiming when the tooth pick goes in without bending or breaking it's done but I'm with Tall I use something a bit stronger and longer so the fingers don't have to get as close.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

I can't add anything to what tallbm has given you. As for the fat up or down, some say that if you're cooking directly over the heat, put the fat down or towards the heat. I smoke on an offset and I put the fat up.

Keep at it, you'll perfect it...

 

[schlotz]

One last tip: Once you've determined it is tender and have pulled it, let it sit open on the counter for 10 minutes to retard further cooking (IT should show a drop of maybe 5º). If you don't do this and instead immediately wrap and place it right into the cooler with towels for resting, the meat will continue to cook and you run the risk of overcooking.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Great answers all! Thank You for making SMF the most helpful smoking site on the Internet...JJ

 

[SmokinAl]

^^^^^^^Yea that!!!
Al

 

[tallbm]

Wow, Tall that was exactly what I was hoping for when I posted this. I was reading some sites after I posted... Is it fat up or fat down? I thought this cut had a bad slope to it in terms of thickness, but I haven't really understood the cutting and thickness of fat, I've watched Franklin bbq but for whatever reason it just hasn't clicked with me, so I have always felt like I'd have to resort to precut portions. In the end I would not have thought I pulled to early so I'm super pumped to see that, and on a recipe note, I've felt I get a better bark from turbinado sugar than brown sugar...what's everyone else's thoughts

Glad we could all help :)

I think going fat towards the heat source is probably a good practice. I go fat side up but use an electric smoker with the brisket sitting on a rack set on top of the pan. The pan deflects the direct heat from the meat so I don't have to worry about fat direction, fat side up is easier for me to manage in this case :)

Here is a brisket trimming thread (my way) I made a while back. It will cover a lesser spoken about trimming approach which is to remove the thin portion of the flat meat so what is left on the brisket is about uniform thickness and none of it burns up.
The thread also mentions repurposing that good meat so it doesn't go to waste.

My Brisket Flat Trimming Approach Explained - QView

Well I have had a number of private messages where people ask for more info about what I do when I trim away the thin Flat portion of a brisket I smoke. So today I figured I would just post about it with plenty of pics so it becomes easier to understand vs when I just go "blah blah blah trim...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

As for sugar and bark, I don't do any sugar and I smoke at higher temps of 275F. Sugar will burn and be bitter. Sweetness for me come with a sauce after being cooked. In TX it seems to have been a thing that we didn't really use sugar. I've never seen or heard of people using it smoking meat here growing up though with pork ribs and getting into other stuff it gets brought up but was not really a practice and I guess that is because of smoking everything at hotter temps. Putting BBQ sauce on at the end was a real thing though :)