Attempted my first ever brisket cook this weekend and what a learning experience it was! First, went to the store to get a packer, of course I can't start small so I went with a full 16lb packer. Thought I bought a select but after I opened the package i found that it a "standard grade" piece of brisket. Didn't even know what that was until I looked it up. Thought I would go ahead and give it a try, money already spent. Wasn't much at all to trim and didn't want to trim what was there as I figured it would need the fat content. Dry brine for 24 hours, then used Simply Marvelous' Cow Rub on it. Cook started at 4:30 am as we were going to have it for dinner and figured at least a 10 hour cook with two hours rest. Average cook time was in the 270s with some dips into the 250s. To my surprise this brisket cooked very very fast. I hit 170 2:47 into the cook. I wrapped it with a little over 1/8 cup beef stock. Two different probes registered 203 3:12 more hours. Total cook time 6 hours. Well I had about six more hours to go before dinner so I put in the faux cambro and hoped for the best. I drained a lot of au jus from it before wrapping and putting it to rest. Temps dropped about 10 degrees per hour so I knew I had to warm it back up so I put it in oven at 225 for about an hour. Well needless to say the brisket was very dry, rubbery, and overall the worst brisket I ever ate. The guests said it had good flavor and if you cut it up like burnt ends or dipped in the au jus then it was fine. Otherwise it was ground brisket at best. I assume alot of my failure had to do with the "standard grade" and reheating efforts. Anyway we didn't go hungry and it can only get better from here. 
Before the crutch.

Slicing.

and on the plate.

Before the crutch.
Slicing.
and on the plate.
Comment