First packer brisket (with pics)

[kevin james]

So late last week I was at Costco and saw a really nice 10 LB prime brisket for $33. I haven't attempted a brisket before because to be honest, it's just me and my GF, and I don't see too many available under 14 LB. Well, at 10 LB's and $33, I just couldn't pass this one up.

I trimmed it up Sunday night, and woke up early Monday morning at 6am to fire up the WSM 22.5 and get the brisket rubbed down (Central Texas style, 50/50 Salt & Pepper). The WSM was loaded with Royal Oak briquets and fruita woods hickory chunks, and running at 275. After the smoke cleaned up from start up, the brisket went on at about 8am, fat side down.

I probed at abut 2 hours in (it was at 145) and spritzed with some apple juice, spritzing again at 3 hours and 4 hours and then wrapped in PBP at 175 until it was done.

So the bad... unfortunately, I guess I took it too far and pulled it at 205. The flat was a little dry but not too bad, but the point could not be sliced... it shredded when I tried to cut it, which sucked.

The good though... OH MY GOD the flavor was amazing. WAY better than the brisket output from any of my local BBQ joints.

The lesson learned... probe test for tenderness earlier, probably closer to 195.

Here's the pics....

 

[tallbm]

So late last week I was at Costco and saw a really nice 10 LB prime brisket for $33. I haven't attempted a brisket before because to be honest, it's just me and my GF, and I don't see too many available under 14 LB. Well, at 10 LB's and $33, I just couldn't pass this one up.

I trimmed it up Sunday night, and woke up early Monday morning at 6am to fire up the WSM 22.5 and get the brisket rubbed down (Central Texas style, 50/50 Salt & Pepper). The WSM was loaded with Royal Oak briquets and fruita woods hickory chunks, and running at 275. After the smoke cleaned up from start up, the brisket went on at about 8am, fat side down.

I probed at abut 2 hours in (it was at 145) and spritzed with some apple juice, spritzing again at 3 hours and 4 hours and then wrapped in PBP at 175 until it was done.

So the bad... unfortunately, I guess I took it too far and pulled it at 205. The flat was a little dry but not too bad, but the point could not be sliced... it shredded when I tried to cut it, which sucked.

The good though... OH MY GOD the flavor was amazing. WAY better than the brisket output from any of my local BBQ joints.

The lesson learned... probe test for tenderness earlier, probably closer to 195.

Here's the pics....

Congrats on your first brisket smoke and it looks pretty good from the pics!

Yeah 205F was probably a bit too long for it. The prime briskets I have done seem to get tender at a little lower temp then the other briskets I have done.

Did you let the brisket rest very long? If it rests and cools down some then you get a little less of a chance that it shreds but if it is super piping hot and/our right out of the smoker it may want to shred up on you as you slice. I always plan my brisket and pork butt smokes to finish 4 hours early and then I wrap in double foil and 3 bath towels and let rest on the counter for 4 hours and when I open to slice and eat it is still piping hot 4 hours later but not as hot as when it came off the smoker.

Another tip for you. Get a much bigger brisket even though it is just the 2 of you eating you can trim/cut away the thin portion of the flat muscle so that what is left of the flat is thick and uniform throughout the flat. This allows the flat to cook at about the same rate as the rest of the brisket rather than cooking up faster and drying up or burning up on you. Here is an image of what I mean:

Just save that trimmed brisket meat to smoke it later or repurpose it for great burger grind (if u have a grinder), OR just throw it in with the brisket and pull it off early and you have more brisket but it wont burn up on you.... unless you want to treat it like burnt ends and get it a little crispy lol.
You can turn a 15+ brisket into a 10 pound trimmed brisket with little effort once you remove excess fat and trim like the image above, AND it is about uniform thickness with no drying or burning up of the flat meat at the thin end :)

I hope all this info helps :)

 

[tropics]

Looks good but that poor set of bones didn't get a mention.
Richie

 

[SmokinAl]

Both the brisket & the ribs look pretty darn good to me!
I'd say it was a success!
Al

 

[poacherjoe]

I too want to cook a brisket but they are so darn big! Just 2 of us and a Tri tip still gives us leftovers for a few day's. Maybe when we have a group dinner I will fix one. Anyhow your's look's good to me.

 

[yankee2bbq]

Yeap! Looks good to me! Great job

 

[creek bottom]

The brisket and the ribs both look great! Shredded brisket on a sandwich with a little bit of sauce is a great way to salvage it if it's too dry for your liking.

 

[Hawging It]

Don't beat yourself up so bad! It looks tasty with good color. Nice work.

 

[sandyut]

Looked very good! I always say - i can do better next time. and its usually true, we try we learn, we improve. we love briskets at our house. Make another costco run :)

 

[disco]

I really agree on the resting part. If you wrap the brisket and let it rest in a camp cooler for a couple of hours, the flat relaxes and pulls in more moisture and the point firms up a bit.

 

[kevin james]

Thanks for all the kind words guys! And no, I'm not beating myself up at all, as I'll take overly tender with great flavor, vs. under cooked & tough any day of the week!

While it wasn't perfect, I was still really happy with it for being my very first attempt, and it will only improve from here. I left enough of the fat cap on that it really helped balance the slight dryness of the flat, so that each bite had a little bit of perfectly rendered buttery goodness. It really was like "meat candy" as some say lol. And the point... while it shredded the flavor was amazing and it was ridiculously moist. There was enough left that I'm still eating on it, and I plan to portion some of the flat out, dice it small, put it in the freezer, and then when I make beans or chili, I'll add in some of the diced brisket which will be great.

To answer a few questions...

The ribs didn't get a mention only because the thread was really about the brisket.. plus they're pork ribs and this is the beef section and I didn't want to cross the line. I will say though that I think I have mostly dialed my ribs in. I was looking for that reddish mahogany color and finally figured out what adjustments I need to make to my process to get it, so very happy in that respect.

Also, yes, I did let the brisket rest. I left it wrapped in the pink butcher paper (which did end up sticking to the brisket a little on the fat cap side... I need to figure out how to stop it from doing that), then double wrapped in foil and two large towels and it sat in a cooler for about 3 hours.

Tallbm.... Thanks for the recommendations. Your idea of buying a larger brisket and trimming the thin part of the flat makes a heck of a lot of sense and I will try that next time. Plus, time wise, this cook really wasn't bad at all.... it was like getting off early from a work day... I woke up at 6AM to fire up the pit... the brisket went on at 8am, and it was done (actually OVER done) at 4pm. I think I maybe could have pulled it an hour earlier actually. So I think if a buy a 14 LB one next time, trim the thin part of the flat and a good amount of fat off it would be maybe closer to 12 lb which still shouldn't be bad.. maybe 2 to three more hours so done by 6 or 7ish.... let it rest an hour and eat by 8pm. That doesn't sound bad at all.