Brisket problems

[bjj1805]

I need some help with my briskets. I’ve done a few and haven’t had a decent one yet. I follow the directions on smoking meat.com but they haven’t turned out good. 1 was tough but I know I didn’t cook it long enough. The next one was tender but dry. It was more like roast beef than brisket. Gets expensive ruining $60 pieces of meat. Any tips or tricks I’m missing?

 

[Gonna Smoke]

To help you best, we would need to know your process...

 

[912smoker]

^^^^^^this. Need more details.
Select, choice or prime cut?
Was it probe tender or cooked to temp?
Allow for a long rest?

Keith

 

[JIMSMOKES]

I started with the cheapest briskets I could find. Cooked them regularly till I could duplicate them regularly.

 

[tallbm]

I need some help with my briskets. I’ve done a few and haven’t had a decent one yet. I follow the directions on smoking meat.com but they haven’t turned out good. 1 was tough but I know I didn’t cook it long enough. The next one was tender but dry. It was more like roast beef than brisket. Gets expensive ruining $60 pieces of meat. Any tips or tricks I’m missing?

Hi there and welcome!

I'll break down some crucial practices for a Whole Packer brisket. If you are doing only a flat muscle then things change so keep this in mind.

1. A brisket is only done when it is tender, never by time or temp
2. You put your thermometer probe in the thickest yet center most area of the FLAT muscle, never the Point muscle. The flat takes longer to get tender then the point.
3. You check for tenderness when that probe starts reporting like 200F degrees Internal Temp of the meat
4. You check for tenderness by stabbing ALL OVER with something like a wooden kabob skewer. When it goes in ALL OVER with basically no resistance then it is tender and therefore done. If you find a tough spot I bet money that if you move your temp probe to that spot, you will see it is below 200F. Often a brisket is tender around 203F in the most stubborn spot of the flat muscle but again, tenderness tells you when done, never temp :D
5. A brisket that is dry and tough is under cooked. A brisket that is dry and falling apart is over cooked. A brisket that is dry and crispy everywhere, is burnt up.
6. How to avoid roast beef flavor - if you wrap a brisket too early you will get roast beef flavor instead of smoked brisket flavor. Many online instructions will often say "wrap at 160-165F IT of the meat", but what they fail to tell you is that the brisket can sit and stall around 165F for a long time, so wrapping 2 hours into 165F versus right when it hits 165F are two different things... that they fail to mention.
   I personally don't wrap briskets and I just plan more time for it to cook to get max BBQ flavor. If you are going to wrap, you can avoid roast beef flavor by wrapping when the IT of the meat is like 180F. This will NOT speed things up during the stall but will give you much better amazing BBQ flavor and avoid the roast beef flavor issue.
7. Cooking Temp - A brisket does NOT care what temp you smoke/cook it at as long as you are not burning it so feel free to cook it at 275F (some go even higher). If you put sugar in your rub (no a common thing for a brisket) then don't cook higher than 250F because the sugar may burn and get bitter, I would suggest to just avoid adding sugar or any rub/seasoning that has sugar.
8. Timing - If you have a steady smoker temp of 275F then your brisket will take approximately 1hr 7min per pound until it may probe tender. So a 15 pound brisket will take about 16 hours 45 minutes before it may start probing tender and be done. NOW, add 4 hours to that time for buffer. So that makes 20hrs 45 min. If you want to eat at 5pm then put the brisket on a hot smoker 20hr and 45 minutes before 5pm, this means put it on 8:15pm the day before you want to eat.
   If the brisket finishes 16hr 15min later then excellent, you just pull it and tightly double wrap in foil, and tightly wrap in 3 bath towels and set it on the table to rest for the 4 buffer hours. IT will be piping hot, well rested, and ready to slice and server at 5pm at a total of 20hr 45min of cooking and resting
9. A common pitfall is pulling a brisket before it is ready so again understand when the brisket is tender and ready and pull it then and do proper time planning so you eat it on time :D

There are more things to consider but these are the major ones.
For practice, get a 10pound pork butt and do all these steps (place the temp probe dead in the center of the pork butt though). A pork butt can follow all of these to produce a well cooked pork butt that is excellent and much cheaper practice before you attempt another brisket.

I hope this info helps :D

 

[kelbro]

Good info right there. Do not discount the importance of the rest. Between 2-4 hours is a good guideline. Lets the muscles relax and some juices get absorbed.

 

[schlotz]

tallbm has provided you excellent details. Follow them and you should be rewarded with good eats! One more thing: when the flat probes tender all over (not the point) and it's pulled from the smoker, let it sit open on the counter for 10 minutes so the IT drops 5-8º. This ensures the cooking has ceased, then re-wrap and rest. A fully tender packer that's pulled, immediately wrapped and rested will continue to cook and can easily lead to an overdone brisket.

 

[Bigtank]

Excellent advice from Tallbm, always buy the highest grade of beef you can afford. Choice or Prime, I have never cooked a select that was good. IMO select should be ground into burger. The best videos I've found on YouTube are by Meat Church.