I shoot for ranges. I love a long slow cook between 225 and two 250 with the dialed in range at 235 - 245 with water bowl for both bark and moisture. Cold meat and low starting heat for smoke ring. Just a thought, not a sermon.
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To reinforce what Uncle Bob said ….. there are a bunch of things that go into cooking a good brisket. Pit temperature is just one of many elements that are important. In some ways, it is probably the least important. Consistency of method is probably the most important.Comment
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Please do not take this as a smart remark. But just cook it. You may fall into 225, 250, 300 or above. Where ever it settles in and you are able to maintain is the place you need to be. As others have said temp is a small portion of this. My sincere advice is dont over think it. My best briskets were the ones where I thought they were going to be the worst.Comment
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Davidnorcross
Agree and keep the smoke clean.Comment
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225 or 250, I don't think it matters much. I think what temp the meat starts at makes a bigger difference. If I see someone start out saying, let the brisket or butt or whatever come to room temp, I stop reading. I start my meat at about 30 F. That effects my time more then the temp of the cooker. The meat stays in the zone where it's picking up smoke a lot longer. Cold, moist meat likes smoke. Meat at 160 stops taking on smoke. So, do you want to start your meat and 70, and have it take on smoke from 70 to 160, or 90 degrees, or from 30 to 160, or 130 degrees worth of cooking time. You can open the cooker and spritz, and that will cool the meat down and make it take longer, but I like my way better.Comment
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My 2 cents and what has worked for me is starting low @225 for the first 2-3 hours then slowly raise my cooking temp up to 275-300 for the remainder of the cook. I do spritz 2-3 times during the low phase of the cook....i've experimented with this and for me I see a difference in the bark...not so much added flavor but a nice crispy exterior...I'm sure it's just me but why change it if it's working right??
So as you can see there's a million ways to skin this cat...keep experimenting and find what works for you and only make small changes each time until you find that "perfect" way you like brisket.
Good luck and happy grilling!!Comment
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275 degrees is the optimal temp to cook in my opinion. I cant taste a bit of difference cooking lower and it shaves A LOT of time off the cook.Comment
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As others have said, I've cooked a lot of BBQ in the range of 225 to 275, and not seen appreciable difference going hotter. Something I've not seen anyone mention though is that MauleGuy is using a pellet cooker. On many of those, my understanding is that smoke generation is usually best down around 225 or even lower. If you run the entire cook at 250 or 275, I am thinking the flavor profile may be a little less smokey than at 225.
I see lots of folks suggest running the first couple of hours on a pellet cooker at 225, or wherever your best smoke setting is, before cranking the temperature up.
The other comment is this - once you wrap the meat, you are no longer getting smoke, and it doesn't really matter if its in the oven or in the smoker at that point. There are several times I cranked the temp to 300F once I wrapped my brisket, to speed up the end of the cook. I don't wrap until the meat reaches about 170F though.Comment
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Bogy you just worry about your flock and if you’re wearing pants or not. I’m just giving my buddy Jim some grief because I know he’s bored with tons of free time to fully read every post in every thread. Plus, it’s always fun to connect comment jokes across multiple threads.
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Nothing has been said about the faux cambro hold. I don't use a cooler with hot towels, I wrap in butcher paper and put the brisket in a table top roaster set on warm, with a small towel on top. I leave it there for a couple hours and get a juices explosion when first cut.. I paid $50 for this one, and it also runs on the invertor in my expedition - that's come in real handy heading out fishing or tailgating.
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