My first Brisket!

[Redicans]

I finally went for my first Brisket smoke. Done lots of ribs a pork butt and a couple Chuck roasts. Brisket was kind of intimidating for me. I got a lot of great info here and watched a hundred YT videos.

Got a 13.65 pounder Prime Brisket from Costco.

Trimmed up and seasoned. Not sure of how much I trimmed but I tried not to go to crazy and left a good amount of fat on it. Seasoned with Dijon mustard, SPOG and Lawry’s seasoned salt.

What I smoked it on!! Chargriller grand champ.

3 Hours in.

6.5hrs in and wrapped. It was temping 170.

Bark before wrapping. It was looking pretty good. I was having no stress at this point!!

So this is where things kind of got a little stressful for me. It was temping at 203 in the point and 196 in the flat. It did not move for a long time. I was running out of time and it was probing very tender in areas but still tight in others. Made the decision to pull and finish in the oven. Another thing that was frustrating for me was probing through the paper. Much harder than I thought it would be and I felt like I was not getting a good feel of how tender it was.

Took it to 208 on both probes in the oven then turned off the oven and opened the door and let it cool down to 180 for 2.5 hours.

All in all it was a fun cook and great experience. It actually turned out really good. It was super jiggly and probing super tender. I was worried I over cooked but it sliced up nicely. Sent plates of it home with my Brother and two friends. No real dinner planned for this. It was just to do one and feed others. Hence no great plate shots, Hahaha!! Total time was 12.5 hours. I was trying to keep the pit at 275 but had fluctuations up to 325 and as low as 220. Doing a long cook is interesting when you have to keep feeding the fire. Definitely learned some things on this.

I would like to say thanks to the forum as a whole as I read through many brisket cook posts that gave me some great info and confidence to smoke my first Brisket!!!

 

[bertman]

An unbelievable amount of information on this site. Congrats on on a brisket that looks that good on your first attempt!

 

[JLeonard]

Congrats on what looks like a great cook. I've only done one whole packer. And it was done on a weber kettle.

Jim

 

[Redicans]

An unbelievable amount of information on this site. Congrats on on a brisket that looks that good on your first attempt!

Thanks Bertman!! I agree so much info here!! It is an Amazing site. Really enjoying being a member here and all the tips and tricks that are available to us!!

 

[Redicans]

Congrats on what looks like a great cook. I've only done one whole packer. And it was done on a weber kettle.

Jim

Thank You Jim!! I have been wanting to do one for a while but was a little leary about tackling it!!

 

[JLeonard]

Thank You Jim!! I have been wanting to do one for a while but was a little leary about tackling it!!

Yeah it is scary looking at that hunk of meat and the price and thinking...."Dang, i dont wanna screw it up!" I'm about ready to tackle another one!

Jim

 

[Redicans]

Yeah it is scary looking at that hunk of meat and the price and thinking...."Dang, i dont wanna screw it up!" I'm about ready to tackle another one!

Jim

So true Jim!! I was in Costco looking at it for like 10 minutes thinking Ok I am ready to do this, Hahaha!!

 

[DemonPit]

Looks mighty tasty. Any leftovers to send my way?

 

[Redicans]

Looks mighty tasty. Any leftovers to send my way?

Thanks, Hahaha!! Not really it got mopped up pretty quick!!

 

[schlotz]

Looks like you had a fine smoke and you did good to keep the temp on it via the oven. Key was the 2.5 hour rest and you were rewarded with good eats! Great looking brisket.

 

[02ebz06]

Very nice for a first, or a 10th!!!

 

[gmc2003]

Glad it turned out well for ya Red. It looks great.

Point for sure
Chris

 

[tx smoker]

Very nice!! Great learning experience and now you're 90% of the way through the learning curve. Now it's just a matter of dialing in to absolute perfection. Excellent start though and congrats!!

Robert

 

[tallbm]

I finally went for my first Brisket smoke. Done lots of ribs a pork butt and a couple Chuck roasts. Brisket was kind of intimidating for me. I got a lot of great info here and watched a hundred YT videos.

Got a 13.65 pounder Prime Brisket from Costco.

View attachment 672806View attachment 672807View attachment 672808

Trimmed up and seasoned. Not sure of how much I trimmed but I tried not to go to crazy and left a good amount of fat on it. Seasoned with Dijon mustard, SPOG and Lawry’s seasoned salt.

View attachment 672809

What I smoked it on!! Chargriller grand champ.

View attachment 672810

3 Hours in.


View attachment 672811View attachment 672812

6.5hrs in and wrapped. It was temping 170.

View attachment 672813

Bark before wrapping. It was looking pretty good. I was having no stress at this point!!

View attachment 672814

So this is where things kind of got a little stressful for me. It was temping at 203 in the point and 196 in the flat. It did not move for a long time. I was running out of time and it was probing very tender in areas but still tight in others. Made the decision to pull and finish in the oven. Another thing that was frustrating for me was probing through the paper. Much harder than I thought it would be and I felt like I was not getting a good feel of how tender it was.

Took it to 208 on both probes in the oven then turned off the oven and opened the door and let it cool down to 180 for 2.5 hours.

View attachment 672815View attachment 672816View attachment 672817

All in all it was a fun cook and great experience. It actually turned out really good. It was super jiggly and probing super tender. I was worried I over cooked but it sliced up nicely. Sent plates of it home with my Brother and two friends. No real dinner planned for this. It was just to do one and feed others. Hence no great plate shots, Hahaha!! Total time was 12.5 hours. I was trying to keep the pit at 275 but had fluctuations up to 325 and as low as 220. Doing a long cook is interesting when you have to keep feeding the fire. Definitely learned some things on this.

I would like to say thanks to the forum as a whole as I read through many brisket cook posts that gave me some great info and confidence to smoke my first Brisket!!!

That looks amazing, congrats!!!

You did really well and yep you learned a lot. Every brisket cook will teach you something early on.

Yeah the Flat is always the problem child in probing tender, it just takes it's time but you learned that it wasn't over cooked, just needing more time to become tender. The Point wont be a problem, it's good to go.

Also as you see a brisket doesn't care what temp you cook it at, as long as you aren't burning it so don't worry about being on the high end of temps vs the 220F end of temps. Run that heat!

Time planning is always going to be the main thing to figure out because it rushes everything else and causes the most common mistakes/issues when there isn't enough time.
At 275F smoker temp, my briskets take about 1hr 5-7min a pound. So if I have a brisket trimmed to 10 pounds that means I would plan like 11 hours and then add 4 hours for a total of a 15 hour job.
Why the +4 hours?
So if it takes 11 hours I then get a 4 hour rest of the brisket. If it needs more than 11 hours, well I have 4 extra hours of buffer to get it done :D

So in this example if I wanted to eat at noon I would have the brisket in a hot smoker 15 hours before noon so that is 9pm the night before.

I hope this info helps and I look forward to the next brisket you post! :D

 

[Redicans]

That looks amazing, congrats!!!

You did really well and yep you learned a lot. Every brisket cook will teach you something early on.

Yeah the Flat is always the problem child in probing tender, it just takes it's time but you learned that it wasn't over cooked, just needing more time to become tender. The Point wont be a problem, it's good to go.

Also as you see a brisket doesn't care what temp you cook it at, as long as you aren't burning it so don't worry about being on the high end of temps vs the 220F end of temps. Run that heat!

Time planning is always going to be the main thing to figure out because it rushes everything else and causes the most common mistakes/issues when there isn't enough time.
At 275F smoker temp, my briskets take about 1hr 5-7min a pound. So if I have a brisket trimmed to 10 pounds that means I would plan like 11 hours and then add 4 hours for a total of a 15 hour job.
Why the +4 hours?
So if it takes 11 hours I then get a 4 hour rest of the brisket. If it needs more than 11 hours, well I have 4 extra hours of buffer to get it done :D

So in this example if I wanted to eat at noon I would have the brisket in a hot smoker 15 hours before noon so that is 9pm the night before.

I hope this info helps and I look forward to the next brisket you post! :D

Thanks tallbm,

Yeah after reading so many posts and watching many videos I knew I was not done till it probed tender throughout. Yeah I have read a few of your posts and a few others that talk about running the temp higher. 275-300 is what I was shooting for. I am still figuring out my smoker and how the fire works best. This was a pretty successful cook for me as far as temps go. Couple times I let it drop lower then I wanted to but for the most part kept it nice and hot throughout the smoke.

I think part of my issue with managing the fire is the wood I have available to me here. I use Kiawe wood which is great for smoking but it is a very hard and dense wood and the trees grow very uneven (not the best description) so split size is not always similar. They are not a tall strait tree. They grow in all directions so getting nice strait pieces is not always possible so it makes managing my fire a bit interesting! But it has an incredible flavor to it so I enjoy that!

Time management is something I will work on for the next one. Wasn't terrible but could have been better for sure! Thanks for your kind words and Feedback!! Really appreciate it!!

Sean

 

[Brokenhandle]

Looks like you did a great job on that brisket! Very nice!

Ryan

 

[uncle eddie]

Heck ya! Very nice! Congrats on making the "front page" too!

 

[BGKYSmoker]

A brisket to be proud of.

Nice job.

 

[crazymoon]

RC, Very nice work, your brisket looks excellent!

 

[yankee2bbq]

I finally went for my first Brisket smoke. Done lots of ribs a pork butt and a couple Chuck roasts. Brisket was kind of intimidating for me. I got a lot of great info here and watched a hundred YT videos.

Got a 13.65 pounder Prime Brisket from Costco.

View attachment 672806View attachment 672807View attachment 672808

Trimmed up and seasoned. Not sure of how much I trimmed but I tried not to go to crazy and left a good amount of fat on it. Seasoned with Dijon mustard, SPOG and Lawry’s seasoned salt.

View attachment 672809

What I smoked it on!! Chargriller grand champ.

View attachment 672810

3 Hours in.


View attachment 672811View attachment 672812

6.5hrs in and wrapped. It was temping 170.

View attachment 672813

Bark before wrapping. It was looking pretty good. I was having no stress at this point!!

View attachment 672814

So this is where things kind of got a little stressful for me. It was temping at 203 in the point and 196 in the flat. It did not move for a long time. I was running out of time and it was probing very tender in areas but still tight in others. Made the decision to pull and finish in the oven. Another thing that was frustrating for me was probing through the paper. Much harder than I thought it would be and I felt like I was not getting a good feel of how tender it was.

Took it to 208 on both probes in the oven then turned off the oven and opened the door and let it cool down to 180 for 2.5 hours.

View attachment 672815View attachment 672816View attachment 672817

All in all it was a fun cook and great experience. It actually turned out really good. It was super jiggly and probing super tender. I was worried I over cooked but it sliced up nicely. Sent plates of it home with my Brother and two friends. No real dinner planned for this. It was just to do one and feed others. Hence no great plate shots, Hahaha!! Total time was 12.5 hours. I was trying to keep the pit at 275 but had fluctuations up to 325 and as low as 220. Doing a long cook is interesting when you have to keep feeding the fire. Definitely learned some things on this.

I would like to say thanks to the forum as a whole as I read through many brisket cook posts that gave me some great info and confidence to smoke my first Brisket!!!

Awesome job! That smoker you got made you pay attention and you did well! Thats what smoking meat is all about!