Need some brisket help, not happy with how it's turning out.

[hardcookin]

Hey everyone. Sorry I disappeared for a while, work has me ridiculously busy and it's been difficult to get back to the forum. I greatly appreciate all the advise.

My next attempt, I will try a few things different. I will try not injecting, I may bump the pit temp up to 300 to speed the cook a little and take the flat to a higher temp to try to get it to probe more tender, and I'll let it rest for at least 30 minutes on the kitchen counter before giving a 2 or more hour rest in the cooler. If that works, great, if not, then the next attempt after that I will try wrapping in pink butcher paper once the bark sets and I get the color I want. Or who knows, I may just wrap this next one, not sure yet. Depends how I'm feeling during the cook I guess.

One way or another I WILL figure this out... no plans on giving up lol

Sounds like a good plan!
I usually smoke my brisket 275 -280 and wrap with butcher paper 170.
The main thing that helps putting out a good brisket is paying attention to detail.

Good luck with your next brisket! Practice makes prefect.

 

[hondabbq]

You do realize I'm talking about the ambient probe for the pit temp right? The meat probe is in the thickest part of the flat.

The probe for the pit temp is is held in place by a clip that holds it maybe half an inch off the grate itself. In a perfect world, you would clip it to the top of the grate, dead center. Except that you can't attach it there...... because the brisket is sitting there. So the options are to clip it on top of the grate either in front of or behind the brisket, or attach it dead center to the bottom of the grate, which is also closest to the center of the meat.

With the WSM 22.5, a brisket takes up the majority of the top grate, so attaching the pit temp probe clip to the top of the grate you would be forced to place it towards the outer edge where it is the hottest because the heat rises around the water pan and up over the edges of the grate. I would think that would give a far less accurate reading than my method.

If you just weren't understanding what i meant then hopefully that clarifies it. If you did understand, and you still think it's less accurate, that's cool... we will have to agree to disagree. No biggie either way.

No i understood.
I still think that the placement of the clip under the brisket with the probe is an issue. I think it would give a false reading of true temp inside the cooking arena.
1 its closest to the heat source. 2 its got trapped air between the brisket and drip pan.

maybe your briskets are too big for your set up. Try a smaller brisket with the probe at meat level.
Its you thats complaining about your briskets not coming out right not me. Im just trying to shed some light on the issue your having. If you dont want my advice, dont take it. Im cool with that.

 

[kevin james]

No i understood.
I still think that the placement of the clip under the brisket with the probe is an issue. I think it would give a false reading of true temp inside the cooking arena.
1 its closest to the heat source. 2 its got trapped air between the brisket and drip pan.

maybe your briskets are too big for your set up. Try a smaller brisket with the probe at meat level.
Its you thats complaining about your briskets not coming out right not me. Im just trying to shed some light on the issue your having. If you dont want my advice, dont take it. Im cool with that.

No I get it, and I do appreciate the advise. Sorry if I sounded like a d*ck, it wasn't my intent. Truth be told I've just been a little on edge lately thanks to some BS at work that has me working 12 hour days.

I get my briskets from Costco and will usually look for the smallest one they have. I've gotten a couple that were between 9.5 - 10.5 lbs, but a lot of times all they have is 13 - 14 lbs. I will generally get a little more aggressive with the trim on the larger ones including cutting off some of the flat. Not too much but just enough to make it a little smaller.

I get what your saying about the probe. I just feel like there isn't much of an option other than putting it next to the brisket which will be to far towards the outer edge where it's much hotter. I will say this though. I have played around with it when cooking ribs (also at 275), and clipped dead center sometimes clipped above the grate, and sometimes clipped below because I was too lazy to move it, and the difference only seems to be about 10 degrees. And while I know you can't trust the lid therm, in either case above or under, when the probe says anywhere around 275, the lid therm also shows right at 275. That's why I haven't been too concerned.

 

[kevin james]

Myron Mixon put on a live brisket class this last Thursday, so I tried doing one his way yesterday for Easter. It came out great!Still have a couple tweaks to make, but it came out great!

 

[ososmokeshack]

Good looking meal Kevin. Brisket looks real juicy.

 

[kevin james]

Good looking meal Kevin. Brisket looks real juicy.

Thanks! The differences with Myron's method, are that he trims all of the fat cap off the point, and he cooks hot & fast at 325 for 4 hours. After two hours, he puts it in a foil pan covered in foil for the second two hours. After 4 hours, he checks temps at the POINT, NOT the flat, looking for 205. He doesn't even probe the flat. He lets it rest for 2 hours, then separates the point and flat, rubs the under side of the point and puts it back on the smoker to get bark on the underside for burnt ends.

Everyone else says probe the thickest part of the flat... but all I know is I did several that way, and the point would just fall apart trying to slice it, and the flat was just dry. Doing it Myron's way, I could slice the point, and the flat came out really tender and juicy.

I still want to tweak it a little, because I want more than two hours of smoke on my brisket... but this was a really good starting point.