- Feb 11, 2018
- 5
- 1
First post - but hopefully tales of success in the future.
This was my third attempt at a brisket. I have been buying small flats at Harris Teeter trying to hone my skill before cooking anything bigger. This time around I found half a choice flat, which may have been my first mistake, but when smoking for my wife and I, we want to limit waste during this experimentation phase.
3.5 Lb Flat - trimmed the thick fat - maybe a little too much - tried to leave a small layer but being half a flat there wasn't much to begin with. Sea Salt **shake shake**, S&P **twist twist** - then same on the other side.
Weber Kettle, snake method, soaked hickory chips, Kingsford charcoal, did the following:
@ 225 for four hours fat up: Probed at hour 3, IT 150 degrees. At hour 4, IT 152 degrees. Temp fluctuates a bit with the Weber but generally 225.
@ 235 for three hours, wrapped in tin foil w/ splash of apple juice: At the end of three hours - meat IT 197 but felt really stiff - panicked, pulled it and let it rest on the counter still wrapped until meat had IT 160 (~40 mins). Sliced against the grain.
Flavor was good but soul, slightly crushed. My biggest issues were the meat was dry and chewy. Dry I can deal with since there is so much au-jouis in the tin foil, a quick bath and we are back to juicy.
The bigger issue was the connective tissues were still intact. Probably should have stayed on the weber and gone with a probe test, but was worried I had overdone it when the meat felt stiff at IT 197. You think I should have kept going with the probe or maybe hold it in a cooler for a few hours? Appreciate any help and next time will do pictures.
This was my third attempt at a brisket. I have been buying small flats at Harris Teeter trying to hone my skill before cooking anything bigger. This time around I found half a choice flat, which may have been my first mistake, but when smoking for my wife and I, we want to limit waste during this experimentation phase.
3.5 Lb Flat - trimmed the thick fat - maybe a little too much - tried to leave a small layer but being half a flat there wasn't much to begin with. Sea Salt **shake shake**, S&P **twist twist** - then same on the other side.
Weber Kettle, snake method, soaked hickory chips, Kingsford charcoal, did the following:
@ 225 for four hours fat up: Probed at hour 3, IT 150 degrees. At hour 4, IT 152 degrees. Temp fluctuates a bit with the Weber but generally 225.
@ 235 for three hours, wrapped in tin foil w/ splash of apple juice: At the end of three hours - meat IT 197 but felt really stiff - panicked, pulled it and let it rest on the counter still wrapped until meat had IT 160 (~40 mins). Sliced against the grain.
Flavor was good but soul, slightly crushed. My biggest issues were the meat was dry and chewy. Dry I can deal with since there is so much au-jouis in the tin foil, a quick bath and we are back to juicy.
The bigger issue was the connective tissues were still intact. Probably should have stayed on the weber and gone with a probe test, but was worried I had overdone it when the meat felt stiff at IT 197. You think I should have kept going with the probe or maybe hold it in a cooler for a few hours? Appreciate any help and next time will do pictures.