packer???

[slater]

Ive mastered pulled pork...
This is my first brisket.
I know everyone in my family loves brisket but this will be a first cook for me!
Not even sure what I have here...
Everytime I go to walmart or smart & final the briskets are huge $50+ & always thought thats way to much meat & dont want to mess-up $50.....
So is this a small packer with a point & a flat or just a flat?
What made it appealing to attempt was it wasnt the size of a side of cow like most of the ones I see.
Suggestions, cook temps on the pellet smoker?
thanks for any insight, links, suggestions!

 

[BB-que]

You have a full packer. Trim the hard fat, kernel, side and so on. Trim fat cap very sparingly with this guy, again any hard stuff or extra thick areas. Cook 250ish until probe slides thru flat with little to no resistance. Will likely be 200 to 205 ish. Let rest on counter for 20 and then wrap in foil and bunch of towels snd into a cooler for couple hours if need time before you eat. Can wrap after bark forms if trying to speed it up. Good luck

 

[TuckersBarbeque]

Hey Slater,
You'll find several different opinions on how to do a brisket right. However, here goes my opinion:
You have a full packet. The best deals for this are in the $2-5/pound range. First, you'll need to trim it. plenty of videos online about this, but the short of it is: Get rid of the hard fat, and keep the soft squishy fat. There will be a large vein of hard fat that will separate the flat and the point. You don't need to go to town on this vein, but it'll be the primary way to get the overall thickness as uniform as possible. There will be some hard/partially cooked fat along the side, go ahead and take a large knife and just cut off an inch and straighten out the side. This got hard because of the steam during packaging and was partially cooked. You'll see the meat in this area is also slightly off color because of that.
One side will have a lot of fat, this is the fat cap. Sometimes these come with only 1/4" of fat, other times I've seen them almost up to an inch. You want to trim it down to about 1/4" thick. Any thicker means it takes longer for the heat to get to the meat, and you essentially are cooking it from one side for a little while. Not a big deal, but just a point to consider if you have a large fat cap. On the flip side, I like to keep the fat cap towards the heat to act as an insulator.
On the non fat cap side you'll see some silvery looking skin. I like to remove this, but not necessary.
For a dry brine, I'd take about 1/2 tsp of course kosher salt per pound and sprinkle all over the meat side. Don't bother salting the fat cap, salt doesn't dissolve in oil. Place uncovered in a fridge for 24 hours or more.
I like to smoke briskets at 250F, so once you are preheated then add your rub to your brisket. Make sure your rub doesn't contain salt, as you have already added quite a bit... If it does contain salt, back off on the dry brine a bit. Place your thermometer in the flat portion. The flat will tell you when it's done.
Once your brisket hits the stall (about 155F), I like to wrap it in foil or butcher paper. It's not getting any warmer until sufficient liquid has been cooked off. Continue cooking until the flat is about 200F.
I will rest on the counter for about 30 min and then slice against the grain for max tenderness. The grain direction on the flat is different than the point, so observe prior to cooking.
Overall, the above is about ~9-12 hours depending on how tough the meat is.

Points to note on "done": Be careful of the "hold". This is where you wrap the brisket in towels and put in a cooler and let it hold at that temperature for a few more hours. The brisket will continue to cook. I have found that if your probe can go in and out like jelly, it doesn't need to cook for a few more hours. IF you hit an internal temp of 200, and the probe does not VERY EASILY go through the flat, I will hold for an hour and check again. I will not continue to cook on the smoker. If I hit an internal temp of 200 and the probe is easily going through the flat, I put on the counter to rest.

Good luck man. Make sure you get pics.

 

[Chasdev]

Two things to add, first is buy some CUT PROOF gloves.
I severed the nerves in my left index finger trimming a packer.
Next is that a fully cooked brisket will flop and jiggle like jelly when done so pick it up and shake it, it's if super soft it will feel like it.

 

[slater]

Thx guys! This will get me started..
I got the probe for butter part figured out / it ain’t done till it’s butter....
But yes I’ve done some research myself and it drives me nuts, smoke fat cat up, smoke it fat cat down, Don’t trim fat, trim fat,bla, bla, bla

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

Thx guys! This will get me started..
I got the probe for butter part figured out / it ain’t done till it’s butter....
But yes I’ve done some research myself and it drives me nuts, smoke fat cat up, smoke it fat cat down, Don’t trim fat, trim fat,bla, bla, bla

Yeah, there are two schools of thought about fat cap up versus fat cap down.
Fat cap down has advantages of protecting the meat from the heat source during long cooks for briskets and pork butts.
Fat cap up helps somewhat to baste the meat.
I say try either one to see which method yields the results your looking with your particular smoker.

 

[SmokinAl]

Hey Slater,
You'll find several different opinions on how to do a brisket right. However, here goes my opinion:
You have a full packet. The best deals for this are in the $2-5/pound range. First, you'll need to trim it. plenty of videos online about this, but the short of it is: Get rid of the hard fat, and keep the soft squishy fat. There will be a large vein of hard fat that will separate the flat and the point. You don't need to go to town on this vein, but it'll be the primary way to get the overall thickness as uniform as possible. There will be some hard/partially cooked fat along the side, go ahead and take a large knife and just cut off an inch and straighten out the side. This got hard because of the steam during packaging and was partially cooked. You'll see the meat in this area is also slightly off color because of that.
One side will have a lot of fat, this is the fat cap. Sometimes these come with only 1/4" of fat, other times I've seen them almost up to an inch. You want to trim it down to about 1/4" thick. Any thicker means it takes longer for the heat to get to the meat, and you essentially are cooking it from one side for a little while. Not a big deal, but just a point to consider if you have a large fat cap. On the flip side, I like to keep the fat cap towards the heat to act as an insulator.
On the non fat cap side you'll see some silvery looking skin. I like to remove this, but not necessary.
For a dry brine, I'd take about 1/2 tsp of course kosher salt per pound and sprinkle all over the meat side. Don't bother salting the fat cap, salt doesn't dissolve in oil. Place uncovered in a fridge for 24 hours or more.
I like to smoke briskets at 250F, so once you are preheated then add your rub to your brisket. Make sure your rub doesn't contain salt, as you have already added quite a bit... If it does contain salt, back off on the dry brine a bit. Place your thermometer in the flat portion. The flat will tell you when it's done.
Once your brisket hits the stall (about 155F), I like to wrap it in foil or butcher paper. It's not getting any warmer until sufficient liquid has been cooked off. Continue cooking until the flat is about 200F.
I will rest on the counter for about 30 min and then slice against the grain for max tenderness. The grain direction on the flat is different than the point, so observe prior to cooking.
Overall, the above is about ~9-12 hours depending on how tough the meat is.

Points to note on "done": Be careful of the "hold". This is where you wrap the brisket in towels and put in a cooler and let it hold at that temperature for a few more hours. The brisket will continue to cook. I have found that if your probe can go in and out like jelly, it doesn't need to cook for a few more hours. IF you hit an internal temp of 200, and the probe does not VERY EASILY go through the flat, I will hold for an hour and check again. I will not continue to cook on the smoker. If I hit an internal temp of 200 and the probe is easily going through the flat, I put on the counter to rest.

Good luck man. Make sure you get pics.

Tucker has some really good advice!
Al

 

[slater]

You guys that have done a few get better results going fat cap down?
Do we spritz, if so, with what?

 

[BB-que]

You guys that have done a few get better results going fat cap down?
Do we spritz, if so, with what?

In a pellet - fat cap down in my opinion.

 

[slater]

In a pellet - fat cap down in my opinion.

Thats the way im leaning in my head, focus on the top lean side & work on the bark...

 

[tallbm]

Hahahaha no need to overthink it too much.
You have the main part down that it's ready when it probes tender ALL OVER.

The IT will tell you when to check for tenderness. Just be sure to put the probe into the thickest yet center most part of the FLAT muscle, not the point. Also understand that getting an accurate probe placement in this magical spot is actually a difficult thing so I use 3 probes aiming for the spot from different angles and go with the lowest one. I check for tenderness when the lowest reads 200F.
So again its done when it's tender ALL OVER.

As was mentioned earlier in this thread, there are many different opinions and approaches that people take.

I go fat side up, unwrapped the whole time never opening the smoker until time to check for tenderness, with smoker temp at 275F and make AMAZING briskets. I also run 100% Mesquite smoke from pellets in my AMNPS which is part of the magic.

So when I say "don't overthink it too much" that's because my approach is drastically different then ones you are seeing but everyone here is making brisket they love!
The key is to stick to the true fundamentals of smoking a brisket and u will be ok.

Now some other fundamental things not mentioned.

Timing the smoke/cook... maybe the number 1 reason people fail briskets. Brisket is a cut doesn't care what temp it is cooked at. At 275F smoker temp, unwrapped, and not opening the door until thermometer tells me 200F IT so I can check for tenderness... my briskets take just over an hour a pound.
IMPORTANT: Pick temp you will smoke at and research how long the brisket may take on average and then add 4 hours to that time. Take that total time and start that many hours before you plan to serve and eat.
If the brisket takes longer, no problem. You have 4 spare hours for it to finish.
If the brisket finishes 4 hours early, then awesome! Tightly double wrap in foil. Tightly wrap again in 3 bath towels and set on the counter until time to slice, serve, and eat.
Example: A 15 pound brisket takes me about 16 hours at a smoker temp of 275F so I start the smoke 20 hours before I want to eat (this means an overnight smoke... all briskets are unless super hot and fast or put in the fridge and eat the next day).
So learn how fast your smoke may take at your temp and if/when you wrap.

Wrapping...
If you wrap too early you will end up with brisket that tastes like oven roast beef and that defeats the point of smoking the thing to begin with. If in doubt wrap when it's IT get's higher or don't wrap at all. I've found that if waiting until IT of 170F or so you will never end up with roast beef flavor. Hell I go to 180F on anything I'm going to wrap and have found it works for beef and pork and is basically a "one size fits all" approach to avoid the dreaded oven roast flavor.

Tenderness... you understand this. Most people starting brisket smokes don't understand this AND they don't figure out their timing and they pull their brisket early and have a disappointing failure.

Trimming... you have some things to try. No one ever gets trimming nailed the 1st time around so I'll let this be a learning lesson for you as you have some things to try already hahaha :)

Finally...
Understand these important fundamental areas of brisket cooking, you will come out with good results that you then improve upon with each brisket smoke :)

I hope this info helps :)

 

[slater]

Went on at 11pm lat night at 250 degrees.
Heres a shot at 5;45 this morning at internal temp of 165 just before wrapping in butcher paper.
Quick spritz every hour....
An hour into it being wrapped & im at 187 internal now, im scared.....
Im not digging how the majority of the crust looks dry but that may mean nothing....
View attachment 474935

 

[slater]

Went on at 11pm last night at 250 degrees.
Heres a shot at 5;45 this morning at internal temp of 165 just before wrapping in butcher paper.
Quick spritz every hour....
An hour into it being wrapped & im at 187 internal now, im scared.....
Im not digging how the majority of the crust looks dry but that may mean nothing....

 

[TuckersBarbeque]

Hey man, that crust looks perfectly normal. ~9 hours in and you are at 187 IT? That sounds normal if you are running at 250 degrees with a paper wrap. It's looking good, don't freak out now. Get to 200-205 and do the probe test.

If it isn't like jelly, then you can go into the hold by wrapping it with towels and putting it in a cooler. Check the tenderness every hour.
If it is like jelly, and the probe goes easy in, place on the counter for about 20-30 and let rest. Then carve.

 

[slater]

Hey man, that crust looks perfectly normal. ~9 hours in and you are at 187 IT? That sounds normal if you are running at 250 degrees with a paper wrap. It's looking good, don't freak out now. Get to 200-205 and do the probe test.

If it isn't like jelly, then you can go into the hold by wrapping it with towels and putting it in a cooler. Check the tenderness every hour.
If it is like jelly, and the probe goes easy in, place on the counter for about 20-30 and let rest. Then carve.

I know we cant rush bbq, but I want to go get my morning bass fishing session in!
Im twitching over here....
Creaping at 201 right now, Its not butter or peanut butter just yet, think 205 will hopefully be the sweet spot.

 

[slater]

She's being a hott mess & I want to break-up with her & get a younger model...
The thicker areas are to temp & butter & the thinner flat outside edges area is cold & tough still...
Plenty of juices now in the butcher paper, Also have it wrapped in foil on the outside of the paper as just trying to contain everything. May have not been the best idea....
Moved the probe to the thinner area & im at 191, keep on trucking....
Pit at 270,

 

[slater]

208 was the number for me, shes butter now & hopefully dont overdue it on the "hold" like Tucker mentioned.
In a cooler now even though probably doesnt need it.
We'll see.......

 

[slater]

As I cut into it, its definitely moist, sorry I threw bbq sauce on it!
Found a good simple recipe: I accidentally but 5 Tbl spoons of worcest. but came out great!
I found this recipe in the article Franklin BBQ, By The Numbers on Yahoo! Food.

"Sweet Sauce"
by Aaron Franklin

14 oz. ketchup
5 oz. water
2.5 oz. apple cider vinegar
2.5 oz. white vinegar
4.5 Tbsp. brown sugar
2.5 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. chili powder
.5 Tbsp. Kosher salt
.5 Tbsp coarse-ground black pepper
1 tsp. cumin

Mix all ingredients in a pot and simmer until the flavors are well combined, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Once cool, store in an air-tight jar or bottle in the refrigerator. “It should stay good for months!” says Aaron.

Note: Ounce measurements above are fluid ounces, not ounces by weight.

 

[pc farmer]

Looks pretty good to me.

 

[TuckersBarbeque]

View attachment 475095 View attachment 475096 View attachment 475097 View attachment 475098


View attachment 475099
As I cut into it, its definitely moist, sorry I threw bbq sauce on it!
Found a good simple recipe: I accidentally but 5 Tbl spoons of worcest. but came out great!
I found this recipe in the article Franklin BBQ, By The Numbers on Yahoo! Food.

"Sweet Sauce"
by Aaron Franklin

14 oz. ketchup
5 oz. water
2.5 oz. apple cider vinegar
2.5 oz. white vinegar
4.5 Tbsp. brown sugar
2.5 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp. chili powder
.5 Tbsp. Kosher salt
.5 Tbsp coarse-ground black pepper
1 tsp. cumin

Mix all ingredients in a pot and simmer until the flavors are well combined, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Once cool, store in an air-tight jar or bottle in the refrigerator. “It should stay good for months!” says Aaron.

Note: Ounce measurements above are fluid ounces, not ounces by weight.

So how did you like it??? Anything you want differently?