I cooked my first brisket over the New Years weekend. A 17lb, choice full-packer was placed on the Yoder pellet smoker, fat cap up, at around 180°F for a few hours, as I have read that pellet smokers actually produce a rather light smoke as the cooking temperature is increased. A pan of water was placed inside the cook chamber, for moisture. Next, the temp was raised to 250°F and after about six or eight hours the brisket was wrapped in pink butcher's paper and a probe was inserted in the thick area somewhere. This brisket did not stall anywhere close to the 160-165F range that one always reads about, but at around the high 180s....Bam! The temps didn't budge much for several hours.
When it did finally reach an internal temp of 195°F, I picked up the wrapped brisket and it would not jiggle, so it was just returned to the smoker. It was checked again at 200°F and while better, it still wasn't quit there. At around 203-205°F it became quite floppy and I discovered that the probe met no resistance at all when given a slight push. At this point the brisket was removed to a warmed ice chest, surrounded with towels, and rested for a couple or three hours.
When the brisket was removed from the chest, unwrapped and placed on a cutting board, it was a sight to behold....it was beautiful! I had not really seen much of the brisket during the cook: the smoker was never opened at all until it was time to wrap the brisket in paper, and it stayed in the paper until it was placed on the cutting board. The bark was just what one would hope for, the meat was juicy and tender, wonderful smoke ring and a great flavor. As my wife and others ate pieces of the meat right then and there, she demanded to know why we hadn't cooked at least THREE briskets at the same time!
It was because I had read that cooking brisket is hard.......
Good luck with your cook!!
