First Brisket, a little bit dry.

[Japan_Dave_]

Hey all,

Just wanted to get some advice on briskets as my first one was a little bit dry.
This what I did with a near 22lbs brisket. I can't tell what grade it was as it is really hard to get a brisket in Japan. But if I had to say I would say it looked like a select grade.

1. Trimmed the brisket leaving about 1/4 of fat and removed as much hard fat as I could. About 3lbs lost.
2. Seasoned with half salt and half pepper.
3. Got the pit to 250.
4. Put the brisket on unwrapped for about seven hours until the color was good
5. Wrapped with butcher paper
6. Cooked until internal temp was about 201 to 203 is most places
7. Checked for tenderness with probe making sure it was going in with minimal resistance
8. Rested for 2 and 1/2 hours until internal temp dropped to 160, leaving the butcher paper on.

So this is where I am a little stumped on, it seemed to meet all the requirements to pull it. I should mention that from 195 to 203 took about 2-3 hours.
Do you need to leave it on just a little bit more once the probe test goes in smooth?
Did I over cook it or under cook it and what happens when you over cook a brisket?

 

[BB-que]

If it was dry you probably overcooked it. One thing I’ve learned is that the rest will continue to cook your brisket quite a bit. If it’s sliding in with no resistance, I’d recommend letting it sit out for 20 minuted or so to stop the cooking process before resting. Just a thought.

 

[TuckersBarbeque]

It sounds like you were trying to mimic the Aaron Franklin method... which is a bit much in my opinion but when executed correctly it's a very tasty brisket.
Back to the basics though: I agree with BB-que, if you have a dry brisket it was likely overcooked. The thing about briskets is people try to follow a prescribed recipe, but each brisket is substantially different. I think you did everything right, but your hold was a bit too long. If it was gooey and awesome as you pulled it off, it would have been gooey and awesome to eat. Letting it cook for another few hours likely only hurt you.

Curiosity question though, did you cook to the flat temperature? You mentioned you checked in several places, but if you were trying to measure the center of the point at 203, generally the flat is way past gone. If you look at most peoples videos of juicy mouth watering briskets, they cut it at the flat/point interface... it's a bit of trickery. You have to cook to the flat temp.

 

[ctraugh13]

I'm trying to recover one now......I had cleaned/fooled around with my elect smoker a few weeks ago, as it has always seemingly ran a little cooler than the temp...everything always seemed to take longer than my old one....

Put a brisket a 15lb brisket in at 4:00 pm yesterday.....6:30 this morning, its at 205 internal and the smoker is now running hotter than before. As right now, the internal meat is great (bark is more like tree bark though....)......but were not eating until tonight....

So I took it out, pulled foil back, letting it cool down for 1/2 hour to stop cooking, poured some apple juice on it....I guess warm it back up tonight.....if we were eating right now, it would be great!

Any other ideas?

 

[Japan_Dave_]

If it was dry you probably overcooked it. One thing I’ve learned is that the rest will continue to cook your brisket quite a bit. If it’s sliding in with no resistance, I’d recommend letting it sit out for 20 minuted or so to stop the cooking process before resting. Just a thought.

Thats the thing, the last hour I was checking probe resistance more than temp as it was still tight and as soon as it wasn't I pulled it. Maybe I should of probe tested a few hours earlier as I could see that over cooking it would actually make the meat tight again. Thanks.

It sounds like you were trying to mimic the Aaron Franklin method... which is a bit much in my opinion but when executed correctly it's a very tasty brisket.
Back to the basics though: I agree with BB-que, if you have a dry brisket it was likely overcooked. The thing about briskets is people try to follow a prescribed recipe, but each brisket is substantially different. I think you did everything right, but your hold was a bit too long. If it was gooey and awesome as you pulled it off, it would have been gooey and awesome to eat. Letting it cook for another few hours likely only hurt you.

Curiosity question though, did you cook to the flat temperature? You mentioned you checked in several places, but if you were trying to measure the center of the point at 203, generally the flat is way past gone. If you look at most peoples videos of juicy mouth watering briskets, they cut it at the flat/point interface... it's a bit of trickery. You have to cook to the flat temp.

Yes that was the temp at the flat. But I am suspecting that I relied too much on temps and should have probe tested it from about 190. As I sadi above I may have missed the actual time to pull it and went on cooking for a few hours beyond when it was supposed to be pulled. Thanks for the advice

I'm trying to recover one now......I had cleaned/fooled around with my elect smoker a few weeks ago, as it has always seemingly ran a little cooler than the temp...everything always seemed to take longer than my old one....

Put a brisket a 15lb brisket in at 4:00 pm yesterday.....6:30 this morning, its at 205 internal and the smoker is now running hotter than before. As right now, the internal meat is great (bark is more like tree bark though....)......but were not eating until tonight....

So I took it out, pulled foil back, letting it cool down for 1/2 hour to stop cooking, poured some apple juice on it....I guess warm it back up tonight.....if we were eating right now, it would be great!

Any other ideas?

How did it go? Sounds like you did the right thing. Thanks