First Brisket on MES 140

[bhombhom5]

I bought and trimmed my first brisket (11lb). Rubbed it with some mustard and a mix of about 90% Salt and Pepper, and a bit of granulated garlic, onion powder, paprika and celery salt.
I have an A-Maze-N tray I lit with a blend of pellets, and pre-heated my MES to 230 farenheit.

I put the brisket on at 4:20 am. I left it until about 8:30 when I spritzed it with ACV, and I also had a bit of ACV in the liquid pan. After this I re-sprayed it about every 2hrs. I used a InkBird thermometer to monitor my temperature of both the unit and the meat. At 3pm in the afternoon it had only reached 150degrees, so i then wrapped it in a couple of layers of butcher paper and let it cook for the next couple of hours and raised the temperature to 260.

My problems. Especially early in the cooking process it seemed the MES would take drastic temperature drops, as much as 40degrees at times, but then it would suddenly rise back up. It was not a warm day mind you, but this fluctuation surprised me..At 5:30 one probe in the thicker part of the meat read 193, and the other read 160...which seemed strange to be honest.

At this point, I had friends over for dinner, so knowing the meat may have not been ready I still took it out. I wrapped it in a towel and let it rest for about 45min.

The flavor was honestly quite good. My guests really enjoyed it. That being said I'm pickier, it was not close to as tender as I would have liked..the fat was not properly rendered, so I had to cut it off in areas...

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. I am very new to smoking and not sure what I can do differently next time. This picture below was taken about 30-45min before I wrapped it.

 

[Kevin DeShazo]

Welcome aboard and congrats on the MES. A) dont worry about putting liquid in the pan, most of us use it as a drip pan. Putting liquid in it really doesnt accomplish much as thr MES are tightly sealed and dont need the extra liquid. B) use temp ad a guide, not a tell tale sign of doneness. One brisket could be done at 205, next one may be dry as a bone at 205. Ive cooked one good and one bad brisket. The bad one made great chili though. C) more time with the smoker will help, Ive learned a lot on here about using .y MES . Finally D) enjoy the process of learning and eating the results of your labor.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Every time you open the door to spritz, the smoker loses heat.
The smoker has to recover and this will increase your cook time as much to an hour or more.
Also, when you spritz, you are actually cooling the surface of the meat and adding to the cooling effect of evaporation that occurs during the stall.
You also mention that it was not a warm day, so that is factor to consider too.
Each piece of meat is different as Kevin pointed out above.
Bottom line: It ain't done until it is done.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Keep in mind too, IT is not the holy grail in determing when a brisket is done. When a tooth pick, bbq skewer, or even an instant read thermo probe slides in with little resistance then the brisket is done. Probe tender!

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Thanks for the "LIKE", Ryan.
I greatly appreciate it.

Stuart

 

[bhombhom5]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I'll try it next time without spraying it every now and then. I'll still wrap it when I did but will monitor the doneness with more than just the temperature. I appreciate the feedback!

 

[JC in GB]

If your temperature swings with the door closed, you may want to try a PID controller.

JC

 

[dr k]

I've never put liquid in the pan as well but see for yourself what you like. If you have a window with liquid in the pan there's quite a bit of condensation that forms on the window and in the winter many are wondering what black liquid is leaking out the bottom of the smoker. ACV can make pin holes in the SS water pan over time so lining every pan and top of chip housing with aluminum foil makes the pans last longer and makes clean up really quick. I love bourbon and apple juice flavored ribs and ACV and the only way to get it is to put it on the meat so I occasionally spritz to get bourbon soaked ribs. You need a plan to crack the door spritz and shut it in like five seconds and I've never had a recovery issue. It does cool the .meat surface but that thermophoresis gets hot smoke particulates to migrate to the lower energy surface. In this case the meat. With a calibrated digital pit probe and at least one more for the meat will get your true pit temp and set your smoker by the calibrated probe. Then when setting Mes to 275 max you can see the actual max usually lower than 275 some are higher with food in it. Figure out which one you have and with the Mes controller set the temp so the highest up swing is 275 max on your calibrated digital probe. The insulation can expand and bulge the smoker and crack the plastic on the door. Its inevitable and normal with these Mes but keeping it in the mfg heat range is a good thing. Many of us that had wild temp swings and could never get to 275 set up a PID controller to hold the smoker to the temp wanted. The hottest area of the smoker is a few inches below the top vent where the swirling hot air in the smoker stacks trying to get out. So my digital pit probe goes down top vent and hangs from the top rack an inch or two from the wall near my food. The second from the top rack is my go to rack. I use the bottom rack to hold my disposable alum baking sheet for a drip pan vs water pan. Its larger than the water pan and heat gets around all sides.