The art and science of brisket - I failed this course

[vikkip]

Yesterday I put my third brisket ever on the smoker. It was a beautiful 15.6 pound packer cut, well marbled, and I trimmed it to 1/4". It was also much too long to fit the shelves of my slightly modified, rebuilt GOSM so I split it about halfway lengthwise. Since it was prone to overachieving on temperature, I rebuilt it with a new, smaller, lower BTU burner. It will now run rock solid at 225 without fiddling, which is my overall favorite temperature.

So with the smoker heated to 225 and the 3/4 oak, 1/4 mesquite chunks happily wisping away, I placed the flat on a middle shelf and the deckle/flat on the top, both fat side down, with a traditional salt/pepper sprinkle.

I left the thermometer clipped to a rack for a few hours to confirm that the smoker returned to 225 and remained stable, then inserted it into the thicker chunk. It stalled at 142, I let the smoke run out, wrapped both in peach paper and returned to their respective shelves. By then, a good deal of fat was already rendering. This is the first time I've used the peach paper; I've used foil (don't like the steaming effect) and naked (sometimes dries out). I moved the probe to the flat, and set an alarm for 192F.

The peach paper trapped all the grease, which I wasn't a fan of, but it made it much neater to set to rest in the cooler without a mess. I poked both pieces when the alarm went off (7 am) and they were buttery soft. The thicker piece only read 165F but I brought it in anyhow. They went into the cooler and rested an hour and a half before I took a peek. Lovely black bark, LOTS of grease, and precious moisture inside the peach paper.

The flat tastes like roast beef. Very uninspiring, very well done, bland and only slightly reminiscent of brisket. More like reheated 3x brisket. I chopped half of it, where it will die in barbecue sauce on sandwich buns.

The thick piece, despite reading 165, looks and tastes like brisket should. I sliced enough off the end to flavor up my pintos, and put the remainder back to rest until serving time.

So what did I do wrong? Is the importance of temperature a falsehood? After sufficient time at temperature, can a brisket smoked to a lower temperature truly be done? I'll gladly run the smoker 18-20 hours low and slow to get an exceptional brisket, but how do I know when to pull it if temperature is not the key...just poke it every couple of hours?

I think I have enough of the good stuff to serve for Father's Day dinner. The whole spread is depending on this brisket being tasty.

And yes, my thermometer is accurate, and no, the GOSM definitely did not spike temps during the cook. The peach paper may have impacted it however.

Photo of the flat. I had a lot of rendered fat, guess I got some on the phone camera lens.

 

[vikkip]

Well, the flat made pretty good chopped brisket. Those who like chopped said it was great. I'm not a fan of chopped, I much prefer sliced brisket, and while the sliced brisked didn't "wow", it still garnered some nice comments. It was tender and juicy, soft enough to roll up slices 3/8" thick in either direction, but a bit greasy and not enough smoke for my taste. I'd still like to know what determines the optimal condition to pull brisket off the smoker if anyone cares to reply, and what is the best way to use peach butcher paper to best effect now that I have a whole roll of the stuff.

 

[hardcookin]

Probe tender in the thickest part of the flat. Anywhere from 195-210 it could be probe tender.

Edit:
When you pull the brisket let it sit uncovered for about 5-10 minutes.
Pan and then rest

Use butcher paper when you have desired bark. Remove butcher paper when your brisket is probe tender.

 

[vikkip]

That's what confused the heck out of me. My steel skewer went right through the thickest part of the flat + deckle with less effort that passing through the paper, and the probe sitting 2" away only read 165. It started soft, stiffened up, relaxed again so it did the normal brisket thing, but the low temp had me questioning if it was going to even be cooked through. But after almost 20 hours at 225, it HAD to be cooked through.

Thanks for confirming the peach paper. I had good bark, and it did preserve that with very little sticking. The meat did not have that "steamed" texture that foil can give. But that paper collected grease, and that brisket rendered probably a quart of fat even after trimming the cap to 1/4".