First Brisket today

[Buckeyedude]

Doing my first Brisket today. Got up and had it going before 530 this morning.
Did a dry rub last night before going to bed, planning on a all day smoke until it's ready this afternoon.
225°
MES 30.
Wish me luck!

 

[Buckeyedude]

Getting there!

 

[Blues1]

Good luck! Let us know how it ends up.

 

[tallbm]

Doing my first Brisket today. Got up and had it going before 530 this morning.
Did a dry rub last night before going to bed, planning on a all day smoke until it's ready this afternoon.
225°
MES 30.
Wish me luck!

Hi there and welcome! How heavy is that brisket. At 225F you might be waiting until tonight to eat it hahaha. FYI, briskets are a cut that don't care what temp you cook them at so feel free to crank that temp up to 275F and remember the brisket is ready when it is tender not based on temp. Use the temp to tell you when to check for tenderness.
Check for tenderness around 200F and do this by stabbing all over with the probe or a kabob skewer and when it goes in all over like butter its ready, not before.

Best of luck with it and understand that briskets are a tough smoke that take prep and practice and u only get better with each one u do :)

 

[Buckeyedude]

Hit 205, checked multiple probes for doneness. Took it out and wrapped it for 30 minutes. Still waiting on the 30 minutes, but here is some eye candy

 

[Winterrider]

That thing looks like a beast in there. Looks tasty though. . .

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

That ain't no flat...

Looking good.

 

[Buckeyedude]

I never got anymore pics. It disappeared too fast! Great flavor, super tender!
The only problem I had was that there was a hidden fat layer in it. A large percentage of it was pure fat......made for some super juicy meat though!

 

[jumbalay35]

Hey guys, will be doing my first Brisket in my MES,. I have been watching some Youtube Vids to get some ideas. I was planning on doing it at about 250- 275 for about 7-10 hours ( I think that should be good). But not sure if I should wrap it or not, I dont have any butchers paper but saw something where they put parchment inside the foil and then wrapped thre brisket in that. Does wrapping make a difference? Its aboiut 12 lbs and I plan on seasoning with some salt and pepper and some garlic and onion powder as well. Any other ideas or suggestions you could give would be great.

 

[tallbm]

Hey guys, will be doing my first Brisket in my MES,. I have been watching some Youtube Vids to get some ideas. I was planning on doing it at about 250- 275 for about 7-10 hours ( I think that should be good). But not sure if I should wrap it or not, I dont have any butchers paper but saw something where they put parchment inside the foil and then wrapped thre brisket in that. Does wrapping make a difference? Its aboiut 12 lbs and I plan on seasoning with some salt and pepper and some garlic and onion powder as well. Any other ideas or suggestions you could give would be great.

Hi there and welcome!

The first thing to address with a brisket and your approach is that it is never done based on time. Briskets are only done based on it's tenderness. It is tender when u can stab it all over with something like a kabob skewer and there is no resistance.

You use temperature to indicate when to start checking for tenderness, not time. I start checking around an Internal Temp (IT) of 200F. Briskets are hard to get proper temperature thermometer probe placement so I put in 3 and usually 1 is placed well haha. You place the temp probe in the center yet thickest most portion of the FLAT muscle of the brisket.

Now on to time talks. At a steady 275F smoker temp, a brisket 8pounds or heavier will take just over 1hr a pound, non-wrapped, and never opening the smoker door until time to check for tenderness.
I give u this time information for planning purposes.
So at 275F a 12 pound brisket may take about 12-13 hours if u dont wrap and u dont open the door the whole smoke until time to check for tenderness.

When time planning on a brisket or a porkbutt add 4 hours of extra buffer time. So your brisket at a smoker temp of 275F would be started 16 hours before u plan to eat. If it finishes 4 hours early then u are golden and u just double wrap tightly in foil, then wrap tightly in 3 bath towels and set it on the counter and 4 hours later it will be piping hot and ready to slice and serve.
IF the brisket takes longer than 12 hours... well u have 4 hours of buffer time for it to finish so again u are golden!

As for wrap vs unwrapped, I have never done a butcher paper wrap but have done a number of foil wraps. For me the brisket is 10x better if u dont wrap and u just let it go till its done.
I also suggest you trim the thin portion of the flat muscle off and repourpose it cause it will just dry and burn up while the thick part is still cooking, see this image to illustrate what area i mean to cut away. What is left of the flat muscle is then about uniform in thickness and u dont lose that good meat u cut away cause u can throw it in and smoke it and pull it early if u want.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/media/brisketflattrimaway.553250/full

See here for all kinds of brisket triming and cooking tips:

My Brisket Flat Trimming Approach Explained - QView

Well I have had a number of private messages where people ask for more info about what I do when I trim away the thin Flat portion of a brisket I smoke. So today I figured I would just post about it with plenty of pics so it becomes easier to understand vs when I just go "blah blah blah trim...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[jumbalay35]

Hi there and welcome!

The first thing to address with a brisket and your approach is that it is never done based on time. Briskets are only done based on it's tenderness. It is tender when u can stab it all over with something like a kabob skewer and there is no resistance.

You use temperature to indicate when to start checking for tenderness, not time. I start checking around an Internal Temp (IT) of 200F. Briskets are hard to get proper temperature thermometer probe placement so I put in 3 and usually 1 is placed well haha. You place the temp probe in the center yet thickest most portion of the FLAT muscle of the brisket.

Now on to time talks. At a steady 275F smoker temp, a brisket 8pounds or heavier will take just over 1hr a pound, non-wrapped, and never opening the smoker door until time to check for tenderness.
I give u this time information for planning purposes.
So at 275F a 12 pound brisket may take about 12-13 hours if u dont wrap and u dont open the door the whole smoke until time to check for tenderness.

When time planning on a brisket or a porkbutt add 4 hours of extra buffer time. So your brisket at a smoker temp of 275F would be started 16 hours before u plan to eat. If it finishes 4 hours early then u are golden and u just double wrap tightly in foil, then wrap tightly in 3 bath towels and set it on the counter and 4 hours later it will be piping hot and ready to slice and serve.
IF the brisket takes longer than 12 hours... well u have 4 hours of buffer time for it to finish so again u are golden!

As for wrap vs unwrapped, I have never done a butcher paper wrap but have done a number of foil wraps. For me the brisket is 10x better if u dont wrap and u just let it go till its done.
I also suggest you trim the thin portion of the flat muscle off and repourpose it cause it will just dry and burn up while the thick part is still cooking, see this image to illustrate what area i mean to cut away. What is left of the flat muscle is then about uniform in thickness and u dont lose that good meat u cut away cause u can throw it in and smoke it and pull it early if u want.

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/media/brisketflattrimaway.553250/full

See here for all kinds of brisket triming and cooking tips:

My Brisket Flat Trimming Approach Explained - QView

Well I have had a number of private messages where people ask for more info about what I do when I trim away the thin Flat portion of a brisket I smoke. So today I figured I would just post about it with plenty of pics so it becomes easier to understand vs when I just go "blah blah blah trim...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

Thanks that's great help, I will use most of this info :)

I just checked the size of the brisket, it will not fit on my rack for my MES, there is a bit of an overhang. Would it be a problem ( tenderness/juiciness wise) if I were to cut it in half or something and put it on 2 racks? also is there a preferred placement of the brisket? say at the very top shelf or bottom or somewhere in the middle?

thanks again

 

[tallbm]

Thanks that's great help, I will use most of this info :)

I just checked the size of the brisket, it will not fit on my rack for my MES, there is a bit of an overhang. Would it be a problem ( tenderness/juiciness wise) if I were to cut it in half or something and put it on 2 racks? also is there a preferred placement of the brisket? say at the very top shelf or bottom or somewhere in the middle?

thanks again

Trim it liberally like this and it should solve your problem. Repurpose the good meat u trim away or throw it in with the brisket and just pull that trimmed away piece early. Trim like this and u will solve a number of problems u are having or will have :)

Also I use the hottest rack where mine is the bottom, some peoples its the 2nd from bottom, etc.
Briskets dont care what temp u smoke them at so i go for hottest rack and do 275F.