Pellet spitter brisket advice?

[Chasdev]

As stated below, I dusted off the CampChef 24 pellet rig and have cooked baby backs, stuffed and wrapped jalapenos and chicken drums, so far so good.
This morning I picked up a great looking prime 1 brisket fron HEB and it's sucking up some dry rub in the fridge right now.
It too is going on the pellet cooker and I'm thinking I want to go lower and longer than stickburner cooking will allow (at least on my cheap offset rig) so the question is, how low and how slow?
I did one at 225 a few years ago but it took almost 20 hours to finish so I'm thinking 250?
Advise please, I'm aiming for top ten all time (non-injected and non-hot held) briskets, so help!

 

[h8that4u]

The last one on I did, I started at 180 degrees for the first 5 hours, then as I was heading to bed I set the temp to 200 degrees, that went for 8.5 hours, I then set the temp to 225 and it took about another 6.5 hours to finish. I did this for some neighbors and they said it was the best they have had. I also made them a cake for the 4th that turned out really good.

 

[sandyut]

I would run it at 275 start to finish. It will turn out great!

if you have time to kill, run it at 180 for an hour first…I’ve done both and cant tell the difference Beside just adding more time to the cook.

Skip the low and slow on butts and briskets.

 

[DougE]

If it has the PID controller, run on LS for an hour or two, switch to HS for another hour or so, then crank the temp to around to around 280°/smoke level 10 the rest of the way.

 

[912smoker]

Do you plan to add a smoke tube?

Keith

 

[schlotz]

I'm with the others, 275º all the way.

 

[Chasdev]

No smoke tube but I'm burning pecan shell pellets followed by oak pellets if the pecan runs low.
I'm off smoke adders ever since I had one catch fire and try to burn down the cooker.
How about butcher paper wrap on a low and slow?

 

[Chasdev]

NIce cake!

 

[Torch&Tone]

Pellet smokers let you walk away for a bit, but make sure - especially when going extra low & slow - that the hopper has enough pellets in it before you do! Definitely have the probes/alarms to let you know of overtemp or undertemp, and the proximity to do something about it quickly.

At some point, a longer cook is just diminishing returns; most of the smoke that is absorbed does seem to be earlier in the process. I like lo smoke for a bit, hi smoke until stall, brown paper until done (at this stage, the pellets really aren't adding anything besides heat), but straight 275 all the way no paper also works. I think quality of the meat - and even trimming, and the pre-seasoning - are more important decisions.

I'm sure you've noticed, pellet smokers don't generally give the meat quite as much smokiness as the stick burners (I've seen/heard plenty of theories on why but very little proof behind them). Hence the popularity of the smoke tubes/trays... until they try to burn your place down, apparently!

 

[Chasdev]

My little 24 CampChef will run overnight no problem, if I fill it before I hit the sack.
The smoke tube (serpintine tray really) fire was my fault, I lit it in more than one place and apparantly that was enough to light the whole dang thing.
It burned the paint off half the lid but a replacement lid was cheap and easy so no big deal.
I'm going to burn what is said to the cure for lack of smoke flavor in pellet spitters, that is to burn pecan shell pellets.
I've been sitting on a box full for months and months so I'll be in a position to comment on smoke profile tomorrow.

 

[sandyut]

No smoke tube but I'm burning pecan shell pellets followed by oak pellets if the pecan runs low.
I'm off smoke adders ever since I had one catch fire and try to burn down the cooker.
How about butcher paper wrap on a low and slow?

I did it once = PITA. No value. 275 start to finish = great brisket.

there is no magic to low and slow. It’s just slow. I read a lot when I started and believe this myth of low and slow. seriously skip it. Briskets and butt = 275 start to finish, ribs 250 6 hours or till done. I never wrap anything.

 

[Chasdev]

So, before I hit the sack the interal temps were around 160 cooking at 250 since around 1:00 in the afternoon.
Reaching that internal temp in that amount of time made me think it might get done while I was sleeping so I lowered the cook temp to 200 overnight.
At 6:00AM the internal temp was 170 and I raised the cook temp back to 250.
Question is since it was more or less cooked at SousVide temp overnight, should I consider it fully cooked at a lower temp than my normal high 190's low 200's?
I'm going to start probing soon and probing for tenderness and doing the flop test to help me decide when to pull, but I wanted to hear what you guys think doing an 8 hour mid cook "hold" does to a brisket in terms of internal "done" temp vs tenderness?

 

[schlotz]

Temp is ONLY a guideline, tenderness is the measure for being done. Probing the flat all over yielding the feel of going into a jar of peanut butter is what you are looking for. Ignore the point! I have yet to find a full packer probe tender throughout the flat with the IT (thickest part of the flat) less then 193º regardless if it was Choice, Prime or Wagyu. Continue on smoking and once the IT reaches at least 190º you can start probing. If not tender wait for a 3º rise in IT and repeat.

 

[Chasdev]

Flat's at 192 point reads 178, I picked it up and it's still stiff so onward we go!
I'm pretty much anticipating overcooked flat, I'm a point kind of guy anyway..
Now with pics..higher temps are flat lower are point.

 

[Chasdev]

It's done and by that I mean DONE!
The point probed so soft it offered zero resistance but the center of the flat was still tough.
I let it ride another two hours hoping to get some tender into the flat but when I finally decided to pull it off, it was stuck to the cooking grate and when I tried force it just broke into large pieces with the bottom still attached to the cook grate.
I made pulled brisket!
No pictures, the shame is thick around here right now...a $70 HEB Prime one brisket down for the count.
Time to get chopping and planning my next batch of chili.

 

[schlotz]

It happens, but smoked brisket chili is great stuff! Brisket stuck to the grate tells me the heat source is located such that smoking the brisket with the fat cap down might be a good idea. Looking at the photo all the probes were used in the brisket. Have you validated your grate temps?

 

[Chasdev]

Last week I cooked some baby backs and sampled temps left to right and they matched the internal temp sensor with some variation but all readings were close to what was indicated on the unit's digital readout.
Now I'm thinking the brisket was too large and the meat was touching the built in sensor which drove the logic chip to add more pellets to get the input data to match the set temp I selected.
On top of which I did not pre warm the meat before placing so it was well under 40F when it was placed.
A few years ago I cooked a smaller brisket for 20+ hours and it did not toast the underside, in fact it came out pretty darn good.
On my stickburner I always elevate the meat above the lowest cook grate level to try to avoid excess radiant heat from the plates directly under the cook grate.
Probably a good idea to use an elevated cooling rack in this thing next time too.
I was thinking about making another batch of chili so here goes!