First Brisket

[mike stevens]

 Smoking my first brisket tomorrow. It is about 7 lbs. IT should be about 200* when done. Is there a general rule of thumb of how long it may take? Trying to figure out when to start this thing and what day it may be done.....

 

[chef jimmyj]

At 225-250°F you can figure about 1.5 hours per pound. Add 2 hours to CYA and rest the meat. At an IT of 200 with a min 1 hour rest in a cooler it will most likely be falling apart. Great for Pulled Brisket but not optimal for Slicing. At 190° start probing for tenderness, therm probe should glide in with no resistance. At this point, will be between 190 and 200°, foil it and give it a rest. It is always better to be done early and hold in a cooler than have hungry folks shooting, " you don't know what you are doing, " looks...JJ

 

[mike stevens]

Does that time take into account the temp drop when I first put in the brisket? That seems to be the biggest task with smoking so far is keeping the temp up.
I am used to my gas grill so it preheats in a couple mins. The smoker takes an hour just to preheat! Lol then it's like sticking an ice cube in it and it drops temp for awhile.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Basically yes, that is from the time the meat hits the Smoker until a finished IT of 195°+/-....But...That is only an estimate. Any given piece of meat may be done faster or run long, sometimes REAL long. Additionally, if you are Lookin' not Cookin', including Spritzing, Basting and don't have a leave in the meat Probe Thermometer, requiring you poke it with an Instant Read Therm, you must take into consideration that each time you open the smoker, you add 20-30 minutes to the cook time. If your Smoker has major temp drop issues and slow recovery time, it is a good idea to run your smoker up 25-50° hotter than the temp you plan to smoke at. Once the meat is in, dial the temp down to that which you cook at. Any action you take, try to do it as quickly as possible...JJ

 

[mike stevens]

I have the mes 30" with window. Basically new. Cooked some baby back ribs a couple weeks ago with it. Figured it should have taken me about 5.5 hours and it went an extra hour before I gave up and pulled them out. I only got them up to about 190-195. They seemed to hang there in temp and we were all hungry. At that point they were done but not quite falling off the bone. They were good nonetheless.
The smoker has it's own temp probe but I haven't decided if I trust it just yet. It seemed to jump around quite a bit with the ribs. I'll try again with the brisket but meanwhile I bought a cheap instant read digital thermometer from target. I'll check them against each other. Also, I been waiting for the new igrill2 to come out for the iPhone. It has 4 probes and uses Bluetooth and alarms your phone when set up. Looking forward to that.

 

[mike stevens]

Okay, got another question for someone...

                 I am waking up early to preheat my smoker and stick the Brisket in. I want to use apple chips and Jack Daniels' wood chips. I also would like to keep it as moist as possible so I am cooking it in a foil pan and want to use some apple juice for the water tray. When do I add the apple juice? I also started to run into a problem last time (first time) I smoked some ribs; I added wood chips about every 45 mins to an hour like 4 times. On my smoker it says never to add/ use more than 1 cup of wood chips... period. I found out why, because the tray was over full and the loader got jammed. Am I adding too much wood chips? Do I need to clear out the tray after every cup? That would mean opening the door letting out the heat. How long will those chips last? Thought I read 30-45 mins.

 

[chef jimmyj]

If you want Fall of the bone ribs, you need to foil. They will often get dry long before they get to the fall off stage with out Foil. Therm Temp is meaningless with Ribs! They can read 190+ and still be tough as Leather. The meat is too thin and too close to the bones which messes with accuracy. Use the Bend Test, pick up from one end about mid way to the center. If they bend 90° and the meat begins to shread, they are Bite Through tender but not fall off. Or you can use the Probe Test. Probe around with your therm, if it slides in with Zero Resistance they are bite through but probably not fall off. For " Guaranteed " Fall Off The Bone, Foil with a liquid and follow 3-2-1 or even 3-2.5-.5. Longer time in foil equals more tender. Use your Therm for all other meats.

Add 1/4C chips at a time and wait until there is no smoke and little to no Smell coming out before adding more. Then wait again. Repeat 4 times, with No Smell, well other than that of the seasoning that gets wafted up, but very little smoke smell coming out. At this point to 3 to 4 hours has passed and there will be only Gray Ash in the chip pan. Remove your Ribs and Foil or add chip and proceed for other meats. You will be repeating these steps 8 to 10 times for a big Butt or Brisket. SUCKS! Get an AMNPS Pellet Smoke Generator  from A-MAZE-N Products. You get up to 10 hours of TBS, all while you Sleep or watch the Game.

 

[mike stevens]

Thanks for all the info chef jimmyj, I do appreciate the help! I am cooking brisket now so next time I do ribs I'll try the 3-2-1 method. Gotta find it on here. Is it a sticky somewhere?
Up at 3 am to preheat smoker then brisket went in at 4.

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• mike stevens
• May 25, 2014

 

[mike stevens]

Btw, I used an apple chipotle brine from cabelas and soaked it for 24 hours, then took it out and used cabelas general purpose rub / seasoning with cabelas brisket rub. Let then sit on it about 7 hours(overnight) til I got it out and stuck it in the smoker at 4am. Added 10ozs of Apple juice to the water tray right away so I wouldn't have to open the door later.
Oh yea, I also injected the brisket with the brine solution but didn't measure how much. I hope that doesn't come back to bite me! Lol

 

[mike stevens]

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• mike stevens
• May 25, 2014

Coming along nicely. About 4.5 hours in at about 250*. Looks good now. Little worried it will be burnt by 10.5 hours.
So I wrap in foil after cooking to 190-195 or 170, wrap, and keep cooking til 195?

 

[mike stevens]

It on smoker reads about 180. My new temp probe reads 173. Time to wrap?

 

[mike stevens]

Brisket done early. Guess we have brisket sandwiches for lunch.
4.5 hours earlier than I expected. Next time I will cook at 225.

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• mike stevens
• May 25, 2014

 

[chef jimmyj]

The Brisket looks great. Sorry I was not around to answer your questions as they came up.

Big hunks of meat tend to Stall at around an IT of 170°F. You can wait it out, takes 2-3+ hours, or wrap in foil, with some liquid, and go back in the smoker, no smoke needed unless there is other meat in there. You now continue cooking to your desired IT and tenderness, 190-195° in this case. Since the meat is wrapped in foil with moisture, heat is heat. Go back in the smoker (good excuse for some private time with some Tunes and Beer...

) or put the meat in the Oven, set at the same low temp as the smoker. You can continue low and slow, or raise the temp to 300-325°F and it will finish in short order.  

I will save you the time of looking for info on 3-2-1. I'll even throw in a comp winning recipe too...JJ

A full rack of Spare Ribs will take about 6 hours at 225*F...The 3-2-1 smoked rib recipe is a good way to smoke ribs and tends to turn out perfect ribs every time whether you are using the meatier Full rack spare rib or the Saint Louis cut. Baby Back ribs use a 2-2-1 method. The ribs are smoked at 225 - 250 degrees for best results...
The 3 stands for the 3 hours that you initially smoke the ribs with nothing but your favorite rub on them and some smoke with your favorite hardwood such as hickory, apple, pecan, etc. After the 3 hours you remove the ribs and quickly double wrap them in heavy duty foil. Just before you seal them up, add some Foiling Juice or Apple Juice and close the foil leaving some room around the ribs for the steam to be able to flow around the meat and the juice to braise the meat which Flavors/Tenderizes it.

The ribs cook in the smoker wrapped for 2 hours undisturbed. There is no need for Smoke at this point... After 2 hours remove the ribs from the smoker, unwrap and place back into the smoker for the final 1 hour, with smoke if you wish.This firms them up, creates a nice Bark and finishes the cooking process. You can add a glaze or sauce at this point if you like. The meat will be pretty close to fall off the bone and be extremely juicy, tender and flavorful...

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/110881/foiling-juice-chef-jimmyj

 

[demosthenes9]

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• mike stevens
• May 25, 2014

Coming along nicely. About 4.5 hours in at about 250*. Looks good now. Little worried it will be burnt by 10.5 hours.
So I wrap in foil after cooking to 190-195 or 170, wrap, and keep cooking til 195?

When to wrap is a personal decision.   Some wrap at 150 - 170 and put back in the smoker to finish.   Others foil after the brisket has finished cooking.   Briskets should develop a "bark" while they are cooking.

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• demosthenes9
• May 26, 2014

This one looks burnt, but in reality, it has a nicely formed bark that will be very tasty.    That said, be careful because it is possible to really burn the outside of the brisket, and that does not taste good.  Easiest way to tell whether you have a nice bark forming, or if you are burning the brisket is by taste.  Just pinch some of that crust of and taste it.   If it tastes good, it's bark.  If it tastes like an ashtray, it's not bark  :)

Brisket done early. Guess we have brisket sandwiches for lunch.
4.5 hours earlier than I expected. Next time I will cook at 225.

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• mike stevens
• May 25, 2014

When briskets finish early, wrap them in foil and put them in a towel lined cooler.   They will hold for upwards of 6 hours.

 

[mike stevens]

I wrapped mine after it got to 206 then put in a roaster pan because I didn't have a cooler handy. Mine never developed a "bark". Maybe because I was flipping it every 2 hours?