I'm fairly new to cooking brisket and had an issue last weekend.
So last Sat I'm in Costco and pick up a 7 lb brisket flat, head home, do a real light trim, then apply pretty much standard rub, smoked salt, pepper, garlic etc. and let it sit overnight.
Sunday, up early, and brisket goes onto the smoker at 8: AM. Since I have a Masterbuilt vertical, what I have done is to smoke with fat cap down to protect the meat. Smoke for 4 hrs at about 220, gave me an internal of about 165-170.
Flipped the brisket over to fat cap up, into 2 layers of foil, added a little broth, whorchestershire, dale's etc, sealed and into oven. Initially had oven up around 300, but as soon as internal started to climb again (less than an hour) dropped oven down to 220 or so. Within a few hours internal was up into the 190's so I dropped oven temp to 200. Soon internal settled in at 195. I like to to have good slicing texture rather than going up to 203 or so for pulled texture. I let things ride with internal never getting above 196, until 6:PM. So in total, 4 hrs smoke, 6 hrs oven. Let brisket rest until 8:PM. and cut some thick slices for dinner.
I noticed a few things. Brisket had good texture, and cut easily, but did not have the usual flavor, was kind of bland. Another thing looking at the cross section of the cut, there was little or no marbling within the meat. Fat cap had been reduced quite a bit but was somewhat still there.
So my thinking is, holding at 195 IT gave me about the texture I was looking for, for slicing and chopping. But I either had a very lean brisket with little internal marbling for flavor and juiciness, or that by maintaining the IT at 195 for to long I may have rendered all the fat out of the meat, leaving it a little dry and bland. By the way, the au jus cookoff had some fat but not an extreme amount. Even now, a few days later, looking at the cross section of the cut, there is some upper fat, good smoke, but the internal of the meat is so lean and compact it almost looks like an 1 1/2" thick piece of loin.
.
Your thoughts???
So last Sat I'm in Costco and pick up a 7 lb brisket flat, head home, do a real light trim, then apply pretty much standard rub, smoked salt, pepper, garlic etc. and let it sit overnight.
Sunday, up early, and brisket goes onto the smoker at 8: AM. Since I have a Masterbuilt vertical, what I have done is to smoke with fat cap down to protect the meat. Smoke for 4 hrs at about 220, gave me an internal of about 165-170.
Flipped the brisket over to fat cap up, into 2 layers of foil, added a little broth, whorchestershire, dale's etc, sealed and into oven. Initially had oven up around 300, but as soon as internal started to climb again (less than an hour) dropped oven down to 220 or so. Within a few hours internal was up into the 190's so I dropped oven temp to 200. Soon internal settled in at 195. I like to to have good slicing texture rather than going up to 203 or so for pulled texture. I let things ride with internal never getting above 196, until 6:PM. So in total, 4 hrs smoke, 6 hrs oven. Let brisket rest until 8:PM. and cut some thick slices for dinner.
I noticed a few things. Brisket had good texture, and cut easily, but did not have the usual flavor, was kind of bland. Another thing looking at the cross section of the cut, there was little or no marbling within the meat. Fat cap had been reduced quite a bit but was somewhat still there.
So my thinking is, holding at 195 IT gave me about the texture I was looking for, for slicing and chopping. But I either had a very lean brisket with little internal marbling for flavor and juiciness, or that by maintaining the IT at 195 for to long I may have rendered all the fat out of the meat, leaving it a little dry and bland. By the way, the au jus cookoff had some fat but not an extreme amount. Even now, a few days later, looking at the cross section of the cut, there is some upper fat, good smoke, but the internal of the meat is so lean and compact it almost looks like an 1 1/2" thick piece of loin.
.
Your thoughts???
