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Brisket on a UDS

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hey yall!

Came to the forum seeking help from the grey beards around here. Not my first brisket but I'm very green on brisket and i can't for the life of me understand what happened.

Ill give you a rundown of what i know and how it happened as i know it...

The slab: can't say for sure on weight but she was a small one as packers go. Full packer though. If i had to guess on weight id say about 8 lbs or so. Maybe more. Don't quote me on that.

The rig: Barrel house cooker. Cooked on the grate. Nothing fancy.

The prep: trimmed the deckle and any hard fat i saw which wasn't much. Though fairly well marbled, it didn't have much of a fat cap or a big ol honkin chunk of lard betwixt the flat and point. Thought that was odd but figured i just got a younger peeve of beef. No injections, just a basic rub direct to the meat. No oil or anything.

The cook: tried to maintain 250ish as much as i could. Used a thermo works smoke to get accurate air temp. For me, at sea level, this meant covering up 2 of the exhaust holes and running a very modest inlet setting. Few flare ups to about 280 or so through the cook but nothing too crazy. Spritzed with apple solution about 2 hours in. Wrapped about 4 hours in with butcher paper and jammed a probe into it. I kept an eye on the IT and checked it every couple hours or so but i swear on all things holy, even when double checking with a thermapen from time to time i was never able to get the IT up past 180. Finally, after a whopping 13 hour cook i pulled it off the grill just too pissed and hungry to continue and it was clearly leather. I let it rest for about 45 minutes.

The eat: i sliced up the flat and no notable amount of liquid escaped the meat. It was dry, tough, and generally inedible. Somehow the point was the complete opposite. Juicy and tender. But lacked good flavor for some reason. Bland. I cut the flat off where it met the point and then split the point and sliced it up. So weird to see a slice of brisket with a shoe leather upper and juicy, soft lower.


WHAT HAPPENED???

why did it never bust proper temp? Why did the flat dry up and go rawhide on me without ever reaching the glorious 195-205* range? This is such an enigma. I got advice from one guy that said UDS's are supposed to be ran hotter. 300* for a shorter time. Is this really what happened? Any help would be appreciated.
 
Usually when brisket is underdone it is dry because the tougher collagens haven’t been broken down. You get that magic flavor and moisture once those collagens break down at the target tempurates you described. Based on the 180 pull temp, it was definitely not done yet, thus the tough/dry result. 13 hours for a full packer isn’t that far out of the norm. Sometimes they just get stuck in the stall longer than normal. Best advice I can give is start early, and remember you can hold it in a cooler for 4+ hours easily if it gets done early!
 
Patience is always the key. I've had crazy long stalls and end up eating at 10 PM rather than my targeted 5-6 PM.

Also, make sure you aren't opening the smoker that often to check temp. Trust the probe you have in when you foiled it. Opening your smoker too often will cause a drop in heat which will make your ambient heat drop and then it takes a while to get the temp back up and start cooking the meat again.

I would suggest letting it hit a target temp on the low-end of when you want to pull and then using your thermopen to double check.
 
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