Ran between 275-300 on the drum. It stalled at 159 for about 1 1/2 hours and someone said wrap it and someone else said put it in a pan. I ended up up putting in an aluminum pan and covered it with foil. I had a pan with a bunch of the fat on a rack under it and I poured some of the juice in with it. It got up to 197 faster than I thought it would so I uncovered it. It went down to 194 and I checked it every 15 - 20 minutes for probe tender. The point felt probe tender first and finally at about 203 or so the flat did too. What I felt was probe tender anyway. Slid in super easy. Wrapped it in butchers paper and put it in the cooler for a little over two hours with a towel over it as well. When I took it out it wasn't the jiggly meat I had expected but wasn’t real firm either. I sliced the flat and could tell it was dry. The point actually was juicy and had great bend too it. Whole smoke time was close to 9 hours.
That is great info!
It sounds like you did things well. The flat is always the problem child and the point is the amazing piece.
With a brisket dry and tough = undercooked, dry and fall apart = over cooked, dry and inedible = burnt lol.
Pan vs foil wrap is a preference but both should do the trick of keeping moisture in, and adding some fat and juice like you did was very wise when panning.
Butcher paper seems to be a little bit different but very similar. I don't butcher paper wrap so can't really speak to it. Hell I run my briskets named due to the MES retaining moisture well.
I think things get better with your trimming lessons learned AND now you can also move on to picking a better piece of meat while at the store.
Basically the more bendy the flat muscle is, while still being nice and thick, the more tender the meat is. So just start folding those suckers over and the ones that fold the most are showing you they are more tender and flexible. Those briskets cuts will be best.
Also, I don't like buying briskets under 15lbs or so. Why? I trim away that thin portion of the flat and on a good and thick 15lb brisket that could be about 3 pounds of the brisket gone (but reused in other dishes).
Then you trim fat which reduces weight more.
Finally after cooking it seems a brisket loses about 40-50% of it's weight so a 15 lbs brisket gets trimmed down to like an 11 pound brisket, which then cooks down to about 5-7lb brisket.
Buying a smaller brisket, then putting in all that time and effort to get less than 4 pounds of meat, is all a shame to me lol. This is why when I do brisket I just go ahead and make 2.
Yes that turns out to be a lot of brisket but I eat on it all week, share it, and I basically slice and vac seal the entirety of the 2nd brisket.
Vac sealed and reheated brisket is just as good as it was when it was vac sealed so there is NO quality or flavor loss. May as well have brisket out of the freezer whenever you want it :D
So I think meat selection will kick up your game big time, then it's on to tuning seasoning as well which is easy. I'm a Salt, Pepper x2, Onion, and Garlic (SPOG) guy. That seasoning combo is magic and is what most commercial seasonings/rubs list as their 1st four ingredients anyhow so may as well get max flavor for minimum cost and know it will be amazing! :D
