Christmas brisket

[southgadawg]

Been a while since I’ve been on here. Hope I’m posting this in the right spot, if not I apologize. Thought y’all might find this interesting and will keep y’all updated.

So I’m making my yearly Christmas brisket. This time since I was off all day and gonna be around the house I decide to do an experiment on it. I put a probe in 4 different spots (2 in point and 2 in flat) all different areas. As we know there is tons of variability in this cut of meat and I’ve always had a hard time getting the right amount of doneness in each section. I’m currently 14.5 hours in and these are my temp readings from flat end all the way to point end respectively. 185, 178, 207, 200. This is where I would typically get in trouble because I see 207 and the meat feels good at that spot and I think man I’m gonna overcook this thing if I don’t pull it soon and the flat portion is never as tender as I really want it. I’m just gonna roll with it until I get the tenderness I want at the flat and see what happens with the point. I’ve always heard since it has more fat that it can handle getting overcooked way better. Now I guess I’ll find out.

 

[bregent]

I’m just gonna roll with it until I get the tenderness I want at the flat and see what happens with the point.

That's a good plan. The point will be fine. I don't pay much attention to internal temp, other than it giving me an indication of when I should start probing.

 

[southgadawg]

Brisket is done. Final temps from flat to point. 207, 202, 217, 215. I had to crank the smoker up to 250 the final 30 min to get the flat to finish on up in time. I cooked the rest of the time at 225 and didn’t wrap. Total time of 19 hours for a 12lb brisket. Wrapped it in paper and letting it rest for an hour before slicing.

 

[southgadawg]

It turned out pretty dang good. It was a little overcooked and fell apart in a lot of the areas where it got to a high Internal temp it was so tender. If I could go back I would choose to wrap it after about 10 hours of the cook instead of not wrapping at all, and take it off a little sooner. Still glad I kept it on and let it cook longer even though the point was done. I’m not sure how to avoid that in my smoker. Thinking the best thing to do is to separate the point and flat before cooking?

 

[Spieg69]

I always pull at 194 degree on the point and let sit for 30 min before cutting. Brisket looks little dry. Separating point from flat is ideal. Make chopped beef out of what you cut off. Once brisket gets the crisp outside edge wrap and finish. Letting it sit allows juice to absorb throughout. Not trying step on toes just throwing my opinion out there

 

[southgadawg]

I always pull at 194 degree on the point and let sit for 30 min before cutting. Brisket looks little dry. Separating point from flat is ideal. Make chopped beef out of what you cut off. Once brisket gets the crisp outside edge wrap and finish. Letting it sit allows juice to absorb throughout. Not trying step on toes just throwing my opinion out there

Opinions are welcome! I only cook 2 of these a year and have yet to make one that I would consider perfect. I’ve had 2-3 come really close. I would put this one in my top 5. It was maybe a tad dry but not bad at all.

 

[Spieg69]

Brisket is a beast to cook. Over done turns to roast under cooked it's like jerky. You had a good char on outside I'm not sure what it was cooked on. Take the fat cap off the top and trim any big pieces of fat off the brisket. Cook the cut separate and pull earlier. Chop that cut off add bbq sauce and your in heaven. Be sure wrap brisket once you have a good dark outside usually about 165 is when I wrap and let finish. The juice from the brisket once wrapped will come back into the meat. I've thrown many of briskets to the dog.

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks to me like you did a real good job on that brisket.
Love the color!
Al