First brisket, 21 hours and accidentally good

[RevSmoke]

Picked up a 3.99/lb, 12.5 lb brisket from Costco a couple weeks ago and decided to cook it starting last night. I watched Chef Tom‘s videos at ATBBQ and Pitman at Meat Church to learn how to trim it. Seasoned it with Holy Cow and The Holy Gospel. Fired up the Yoder at 10pm and threw it on at 225. Started with Lumberjack competition blend for the first 2-3hrs, then switched to Knotty Wood Plum.

Now here’s where things went slightly sideways. I set an alert for 157 to wake me up so I could wrap it in parchment paper. I woke up around 6:45 to find that the stall hit at 154 around 2:30 in the morning. Crap. Temp had also started dropping in the pit the last ten minutes do to pellets running out. Double crap. So I ran out in my bath robe and refilled and wrapped the brisket. Around 9 am I kicked it up to 250. Then the pit went crazy and jumped to 350 for some odd reason (I’ll be calling Yoder to figure out if something is wrong). Then around 3pm probe 2 which I have in the flat starts going nuts, eventually going as high as 450. I readjusted it, but nothing fixed it. Something’s wrong there too.

I was thinking the brisket would take 15-16 hrs or so, but it just kept climbing slowly. Eventually around 7pm as I was poking it I noticed the point was very tender, but the flat was a little more stiff. Is that normal? We were hungry so I took it off and let it rest for an hour or so. The point was crazy tender, the flat was still absolutely delicious. And as always the real test is Mrs Rev, who loved it and kept eating bits while I was cutting. That’s a win in my book!

 

[tallbm]

Picked up a 3.99/lb, 12.5 lb brisket from Costco a couple weeks ago and decided to cook it starting last night. I watched Chef Tom‘s videos at ATBBQ and Pitman at Meat Church to learn how to trim it. Seasoned it with Holy Cow and The Holy Gospel. Fired up the Yoder at 10pm and threw it on at 225. Started with Lumberjack competition blend for the first 2-3hrs, then switched to Knotty Wood Plum.

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Now here’s where things went slightly sideways. I set an alert for 157 to wake me up so I could wrap it in parchment paper. I woke up around 6:45 to find that the stall hit at 154 around 2:30 in the morning. Crap. Temp had also started dropping in the pit the last ten minutes do to pellets running out. Double crap. So I ran out in my bath robe and refilled and wrapped the brisket. Around 9 am I kicked it up to 250. Then the pit went crazy and jumped to 350 for some odd reason (I’ll be calling Yoder to figure out if something is wrong). Then around 3pm probe 2 which I have in the flat starts going nuts, eventually going as high as 450. I readjusted it, but nothing fixed it. Something’s wrong there too.

I was thinking the brisket would take 15-16 hrs or so, but it just kept climbing slowly. Eventually around 7pm as I was poking it I noticed the point was very tender, but the flat was a little more stiff. Is that normal? We were hungry so I took it off and let it rest for an hour or so. The point was crazy tender, the flat was still absolutely delicious. And as always the real test is Mrs Rev, who loved it and kept eating bits while I was cutting. That’s a win in my book!

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Hi there and welcome!

Looks good!

Yeah the flat is the problem child of the 2 muscles. The point will always get tender way faster and will stay that way. The point is very forgiving and will be fine so you have to pull when the flat is probing tender.

Fortunately briskets are a cut that don't really care what temp they are being cooked at as lon gas they arent being burned.
The best place to put the meat probe is in the thickest yet center most portion of the Flat muscle.
Also know that getting proper placement is a difficult thing. I use 3 probes from different directions and follow the lowest one. When the lowest one is at 200F temp I check for tenderness to see if it is done.
I stab ALL OVER with a kabob skewer and when it goes in like butter it's done. If not, I let the temp rise another 2 degrees and tenderness check again. The flat is always the last to get tender ALL OVER.

One last thing. The later you wrap the brisket, the better the flavor. If you wrap too early you will end up with roast beef flavor instead of smoked bbq brisket flavor. It is horrible to have this happen when you spend all that time and money.
If I were to wrap I would wait to 180F temp of the meat because I want better flavor not speed in cooking. If i had your smoker and I wanted to cook it faster I would simply raise the smoker temp, not worry about wrapping.

I do my briskets unwrapped the whole time at 275F smoking temp. They come out amazing.

I hope this info helps :)

 

[BrianGSDTexoma]

Looks like all ended well. Brisket looks great! Awesome color.

 

[SmokinAl]

That brisket sure looks good from here!
Sooo juicy!!
Al

 

[Gonna Smoke]

I do my briskets unwrapped the whole time...

I'm in the unwrapped camp, as well and I also use multiple temp probes.

I woke up around 6:45 to find that the stall hit at 154 around 2:30 in the morning. Crap. Temp had also started dropping in the pit the last ten minutes do to pellets running out.

I have offset stick burners so leaving them unattended is not an option even if I wanted to. Too many stories on here of people going to bed and waking up to find that their smoker had gone out for one reason or another so...

The brisket does look good...

 

[schlotz]

Brisket looks great, glad it all turned out ok! Sounds like picking a specific temp for an alarm might not be the best choice. Regardless, there should be something in place to warn you of a smoker temp drop. What probe monitor were you using?

 

[JLeonard]

I'll take a plate of that goodness. Looks darn good.

Jim

 

[bigfurmn]

That looks delicious. I’ll take a plate please!

 

[Sven Svensson]

Congratulations R RevSmoke ! You nailed and made the spinner. Now you get to mentor me. Haha!

I’d like to say I taught him everything he knows but I’ve never smoked a brisket. Nice work my friend.

 

[RevSmoke]

Yeah the flat is the problem child of the 2 muscles. The point will always get tender way faster and will stay that way. The point is very forgiving and will be fine so you have to pull when the flat is probing tender.

Also know that getting proper placement is a difficult thing. I use 3 probes from different directions and follow the lowest one. When the lowest one is at 200F temp I check for tenderness to see if it is done.
I stab ALL OVER with a kabob skewer and when it goes in like butter it's done. If not, I let the temp rise another 2 degrees and tenderness check again. The flat is always the last to get tender ALL OVER.

One last thing. The later you wrap the brisket, the better the flavor. If you wrap too early you will end up with roast beef flavor instead of smoked bbq brisket flavor. It is horrible to have this happen when you spend all that time and money.
If I were to wrap I would wait to 180F temp of the meat because I want better flavor not speed in cooking. If i had your smoker and I wanted to cook it faster I would simply raise the smoker temp, not worry about wrapping.

I do my briskets unwrapped the whole time at 275F smoking temp. They come out amazing.

I hope this info helps :)

That’s great info, thank you!

Brisket looks great, glad it all turned out ok! Sounds like picking a specific temp for an alarm might not be the best choice. Regardless, there should be something in place to warn you of a smoker temp drop. What probe monitor were you using?

I was using the Yoders built in FireBoard.

Congratulations R RevSmoke ! You nailed and made the spinner. Now you get to mentor me. Haha!

I’d like to say I taught him everything he knows but I’ve never smoked a brisket. Nice work my friend.

Ha! You still are my mentor, especially with all things that require brining!

 

[jcam222]

Man the results speak for themselves and congrats on the spinner ride. That said I’m having a hard time getting my head around 21 hours! By the way love the tread title “accidentally good” , I think half my experiments are exactly that.

 

[SlowmotionQue]

No such thing as good luck with brisket.

Only skill and bad luck.

Nice job, That looks fantastic.

 

[ronf]

That looks delicious. I'm glad it turned out great.

 

[OldSmoke]

Mrs Rev, who loved it and kept eating bits while I was cutting.

Funny! That's my measure too!

I sincerely hope that luck factors into brisket. I start my first one tomorrow!

 

[RevSmoke]

Man the results speak for themselves and congrats on the spinner ride. That said I’m having a hard time getting my head around 21 hours! By the way love the tread title “accidentally good” , I think half my experiments are exactly that.

Yeah 21 hours was a lot… I started at 10pm full expecting 12-15 hrs or so. Figured it’d rest and be ready for dinner… boy was I wrong!

Funny! That's my measure too!

I sincerely hope that luck factors into brisket. I start my first one tomorrow!

Best of luck! Make sure to share!

 

[Newglide]

However it went wrong it sure ended up right. That looks fantastic and still juicy

 

[bauchjw]

Doesn’t look wrong to me! Great work! Looks beautiful!

 

[GrumpyGriller]

That brisket is a real beauty! Glad the end-result was good despite the challenges :)!!! I remember doing my first brisket, and while I didn't have the multiple challenges you did, I made the big mistake of trying it on NYE. I thought it was going to take about 15-16 hours like you did, end it ended up being close to 20 and while it was pretty good, it did not look as good as your accident.

Welcome to the forum - there are lots of super-experts on here!

 

[uncle eddie]

You did a great job with the brisket! It looks very good from here!

 

[Meat Man Matt]

Looks awesome! Sounds like all that came from your mishap was a loss of time, but good things come to those who wait. Glad to hear it turned out as tasty as it looks