Brisket/MES What do you think about this issue?

[nozzleman]

OK here is the setup, I separated the flat from the point on a 13lb brisket and gave them a good coating of mustard  and dry rub. Heated up the MES, setting the temp to 225 and placed a full load of pellets in the Amazen pellet smoker. Loaded everything into the smoker last night at 9pm thinking it would be done somewhere between 9 and noon today.

The issue is I checked on it at 5am this morning and it was at a temp of 195 in the middle of the flat. and the temp of the smoker was up to 285 for some reason. I don't think I have ever seen it get to this kind of temp before and I am not sure why it did at this point. Which means it supposedly cooked in 8 hours. I have never had that happen before. Checked the calibration on the thermometer and it is good. Pressing a knife through the point it had no resistance but the flat had a little in some areas but was more like the point in others as compared to the ease the knife went into the meat.

I went ahead and pulled them both, wrapped in foil and placed in a cooler with towels on top to hold heat.

Questions: 1.  Should I place the flat in a oven, maybe with a little beef broth in a pan to see if I can get it more tender or call it good?  I am concerned that at only 8 hours it is not tender like it should be.

                   2.  Any idea why the MES temp was so far off?  I have already checked the thermometers on both the meat and the smoke box and it is accurate, I am using the ET-73.

 

[nozzleman]

UPDATE

I went out to put the smoker up that has been turned off since 5am (6 hours ago) and found it was still hot. That being odd I dropped the thermometer back down the hole and found it to be at 292 degrees still. It is plugged in but powered off and still at 292 degrees. That kind of addresses question #2, except for what is causing that to happen.

I'm running out of time to make a move. I cut the flat in half and tried a slice and it is definitely not tender yet so I'm thinking of putting it in a covered pan with a little beef broth and finishing it up in the oven at 200 to try and get it tender.

Any other ideas?

 

[nozzleman]

Q-VUE Included.....OK since I had no other input I went with putting it in a foil pan with a little beef broth and ran it for 5 more hours in a 200 degree oven. It got really tender and stayed relatively moist. Considering what I had to deal with I think it turned out good. Turned half of the point into burnt ends!

brisket 2014.JPG

• nozzleman
• Mar 15, 2014

burnt ends 2014.JPG

• nozzleman
• Mar 15, 2014

 

[bdskelly]

Dang... Sorry i missed this one.  It looks like you did exactly what I would have done.  No shame in finishing out the brisket flat in the oven. And looks like it turned out well for you.

As for the MES, I'm not sure which generation you own. Mine is the one with the wedge shaped controller and no remote. 1200 watt ( Older Style)   If you have that model check the temp probe in the back of the unit and give it a good cleaning.  Remover the controller and check your electrical connections for corrosion. Run the unit again and check your temp. If that doesn't help you may need to replace the controller like I did. Call the 800 number for MasterBuilt.  They replaced mine for free even though it was years out of warranty.

Brian