I love the Texas Brisket recipe but I seem to get the most inconsistent results of any of the recipes.
Most of the time, it turns out great. I’ve never had anything come out tough or leathery like people warn about. What has happened (three times now) is that sometimes I end up with brisket that doesn’t slice at all. It ends up falling apart like this:

This happened most recently two weeks ago. While it still made really tasty “pulled beef†sandwiches, I didn’t get the nice slices I was hoping for.
I keep much better cooking notes nowadays, so I can say that this one followed the recipe very closely. I didn’t use Big Bad Beef Rub this time but rather a similar store-bought rub that I was trying to use up. Other than that, I did everything else as prescribed. Dry brine, beef broth injection, foil through the stall, resting for about two hours.
I do wonder if maybe it stayed at 203 F for too long. I knew I’d be out for part of the afternoon so I used my CyberQ’s “Ramp†mode. Both the WSM and the meat were holding at 203 when I got back but I’m not sure for how long.
Fortunately I was just serving to my family who are used to my occasional barbecue mishaps and didn’t mind pulled beef sandwiches at all, but this did also happen once when I was serving a crowd.
So what does it mean when the meat falls apart like that? Was it the particular brisket meat? Was it overdone? I wish I knew.
Most of the time, it turns out great. I’ve never had anything come out tough or leathery like people warn about. What has happened (three times now) is that sometimes I end up with brisket that doesn’t slice at all. It ends up falling apart like this:
This happened most recently two weeks ago. While it still made really tasty “pulled beef†sandwiches, I didn’t get the nice slices I was hoping for.
I keep much better cooking notes nowadays, so I can say that this one followed the recipe very closely. I didn’t use Big Bad Beef Rub this time but rather a similar store-bought rub that I was trying to use up. Other than that, I did everything else as prescribed. Dry brine, beef broth injection, foil through the stall, resting for about two hours.
I do wonder if maybe it stayed at 203 F for too long. I knew I’d be out for part of the afternoon so I used my CyberQ’s “Ramp†mode. Both the WSM and the meat were holding at 203 when I got back but I’m not sure for how long.
Fortunately I was just serving to my family who are used to my occasional barbecue mishaps and didn’t mind pulled beef sandwiches at all, but this did also happen once when I was serving a crowd.
So what does it mean when the meat falls apart like that? Was it the particular brisket meat? Was it overdone? I wish I knew.
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