Need some brisket help

[Nefarious]

The thickest part of the flat or point?

Chris

BTW that is one heck of a smoke ring you got on that baby.

The thickest part of the flat. Yes, it was and everyone who has tasted it so far has said the smoke was great. That's part of the problem. If the smoke flavor is because of smoking for 9hrs at 180, then if I change too much, the smoke flavor will be less.

 

[Nefarious]

smokerjim , mr mac , 801driver , 02ebz06 , schlotz , B BigW. , bmudd14474 , culpepersmoke , gmc2003 :

thanks all for your guidance, I wanted to respond earlier but I had a disaster at my house. The first of december the city told me they think I have a water leak, my bill went from $3xx to $9xx, yep a leak and not small. The water meter id 200ft from my house. I found someone who could use some electronics and some pressured gas to find the leak for 1K, he found the leak and because the electric and gas and the way they had to dig it cost $3K. It turns out the pipes are all 6.5ft deep. The added onto the house and added 3ft of soil to level for the addition. At 6.5ft no one would fix the leak, with all of the other services so close. I finally found someone who will replace the 200ft line into the house with a combination of cased pex pipe and copper, the city now requires copper into the house for grounding reasons, at a cost of $X0K. Not what I wanted to do with my time or my money. Argh.

Anyway, I appreciate your guidance and here are the changes to the smoke process I am going to make.

I am going to add some salt into the rub, not 50%, maybe 10% to 15% salt to pepper. Its not for me and having it turn out less dry is the target.

I am going to cut down on the smoke time by increasing the temperature of the smoker to 225*. To get the same smoke ring I am going to augment the smoke with a smoke tub.

I have never done this before but SmokinAl does it so why not me, I am going to add a water pan to keep the inside of the smoker moist.

I also don't want it to go in the refrigerator and have to be reheated so thanks to some suggestions from civilsmoker I am going to smoke it to late at night and rest it in the oven at 140*.

I don't get another try, next time is production, and I am feeding about 20 people so will need 2 15lb briskets. I will have to pay attention. To get a feeling for all of this I am going to smoke a bone in leg of leg of lamb for new years with all of these changes except the salt, to see how that goes.

Anyway, thanks for all of your suggestions, I appreciate it.

 

[schlotz]

Just an fyi, smoke rings are nice for a visual but not much else. You can however still maintain a good ring when smoking at higher temps. I get a very good ring from running at 200º for 2 hours on my MAK then bumping up to 275º for the rest of the smoke.

 

[DonP]

Sorry about the leak. That's a biggie. My house was was built in the '50s. I'm doing constant maintenance on it. I have to remind myself often that owning a home is a blessing.

I'm no expert, but as far as the brisket goes; my first run was a bit dry in the flat too. New smoker, party coming up I had no time for another test run. I made tallow from the trimmings, salted and injected that tallow into the flats. I smoked 3 choice Briskets for the party, flats came out nice and juicy, I still get comments on how good that brisket was.

 

[Dantij]

Couple of things that have been pointed out . Yes, the 9 hours at 180° is part of the problem. The other possible culprit is fat side up on a pellet smoker. Fat side should be down on pellet smokers because the heat source is directly below the brisket. Cooking at 180° for 1 hour and then gradually increasing temps over the course of a cook will give you better results. If I were to start at 180, I'd bump to 200° after 1 hour. Bump to 225° after 2nd hour. Bump to 250° after 4th hour. From there, you can cook between 250 and 275 until the fat renders and gets squishy. The internal temp should be @180°. Times will vary from pit to pit, and brisket to brisket. I also wrap in paper with beef tallow. There are countless videos on YouTube that cover everything you need to know about smoking brisket. Good luck on your next attempt.