Cryo-aged Costco Prime on hot and fast for Dad's Day

[realdocBBQ]

So I posted a while back about my 'old' brisket I was a little worried about. A quick recap:

15lb Costco Prime
Talk about painful - $2.79 a pound! Yeah, no kidding!

I wet-aged that thing in the cryovac in my drink fridge at work for proabably 80-90 days.
Then gave it to one of my partners to take home and stick in his deep freeze because at home there was 'no room in the inn.'

Fast forward... oh, about 15-1 months - (this thing was packed in mid-Dec 2020)

I told my partner I was gonna want it for the weekend, so he left it out in his sink to thaw overnight, I think on like... Tuesday. He brought it to me at work and when I felt it, the thing did NOT feel cool and I started to be a little uncomfortable. DOH. I threw it immediately back in my drink fridge where it sat until this morning, I went and grabbed it from my office after church and came home to try it out.

So I was a little nervous it was gonna stick. I mean, really nervous. But honestly, when I opened it up, it was FINE. Absolutely FINE. A little 'richer' meat smell than most briskets when I first opened it up, which I expected from previous wet-age experiments. But didn't smell the least bit 'off'.

I did rinse it off very well, as the blood and juices inside were quite dark and the fat was much more of a brownish color than I liked - I know this is just from sitting so long in that blood and juice, again, smelled fine.

Due to the fat being a bit off-putting colorwise, I trimmed things a bit more aggressively than I would have most of the time. I actually took off over 6 lbs of scrap. The fat was very soft and the brisket itself was quite tender, I mean this thing is FLOPPY. It is by FAR the floppiest brisket I think I've ever had. I don't know how much of that was picking the right piece of meat to begin with, or how much of it came about from the extended aging, or what, but I am thinking this thing is going to be TENDER.

So because I was lazy last night and didn't get it put on to smoke overnight, I am doing a hot & fast experiment today. Put the Yoder pellet smoker @ 350ºF, a water pan underneath and an extra small pellet tube to try to get a little more smoke on it in a short time.

Here's a pic with it trimmed up.




And here it is after just about an hour on the smoker.



So whaddya think? Should I drop the temp to 300ºF or so, or just ride with it as it is? I think I've got time, I got it on the smoker about 1130-1140 or so, if I get it done in 5h I'm fine, we should eat around 6 or so, so I think I've got time to turn it down a little. I would 'guess' about 5h or less cook time at 300ºF, or maybe 3.5-4h at 350ºF. I could be way off, but as tender as this thing felt, I don't think it's gonna take too long with a hot & fast cook. I haven't used a water pan with brisket before, but considering how heavily I trimmed it down, and the higher temps, I figured something like a water pan underneath wouldn't be a bad thing.

Thoughts?

[pkadare]

Sounds awesome! Can't wait to see the results! Putting on my pedant hat though, that red liquid is myoglobin and not blood. It is a protein found in striated muscles.

[realdocBBQ]

Yeah yeah, I know, but this stuff was definitely more 'bloody' - and dark bloody looking at that. Like it was almost black, and a pretty fair amount of it, too. Just needed to be washed off.

[realdocBBQ]

2 hours in, quite a lot of juice and gelatinous stuff oozing out.



I stuck a little piece of wood under the middle towards the back to promote that stuff running off. I'm thinking there's so much that has run out, I need to change my water pan, or remove it altogether. The bark on the bottom felt pretty soft, thinking this is from so much steam coming off the water pan at the higher temp.



That water pan looks like it's completely covered in goo. Not just a layer of fat on the water, really looks gelatinous. lol

[Mosca]

I’m thinking, trust the process. All kinds of weird things can happen with briskets, any deviation is just a guess. Let it do what it does. It’s a big hunk of meat. Cook it.

[realdocBBQ]

Well, I'll be honest, this was pretty disappointing.

Flat was dry, very dry.

Point was juicy but I overseasoned. First bite off the cutting board was GREAT. Like overseasoning for a 1-bite judging for competition, right? Right. After a few bites off the plate, it was too salty.

So I learned some things.

I shoulda wrapped it earlier, tried to save some of the moisture. It was up about 180 before I wrapped. I was trying to get good bark.


If I do it again as a hot & fast, I'll do more like 300ºF, I'll temp it as it goes with my Fireboard (didn't put this on until I wrapped it), probably avoid the water pan (bottom bark was soggy), wrap earlier with some au jus and likely would inject as well. And less salt. <sigh>

Pretty disappointing, sadly. The flat can make chopped brisket sammiches when mixed with some sauce or something. Could do some chili with the point chunks, but no one in my house eats chili but me, either.

Hope this helps some other folks do better than I did.

[CandySueQ]

You could cook it some with beef consume (not broth) and rehydrate that flat. I'd even do it if it were sliced up.

[jfmorris]

Well, I am least glad this didn't go bad on you, but sorry to hear it was dried out.

I've not pursued a hot and fast cook of a brisket or butt at 350, just 300, and I do think wrapping earlier can help prevent drying things out too much at the higher temperatures. Do burnt ends with plenty of sauce with the leftover point - surely someone in the house will eat those! . Nothing wrong with chopped brisket sandwiches from the flat either.

[Jerod Broussard]

Wrapping collects moisture, it doesn't cause the meat to hold it in for a more juicy result.

I rarely wrap before 190.

My worst was a Prime wrapped at 160.

[rlozinak]

Sorry to hear it was dry.

[Hulagn1971]

I've always done briskets hot and fast. Temp runs around 300 degrees up to 320-325. I've never used a water pan. Kosher salt and 16 mesh pepper mixed at 1 part salt and 4 parts pepper (pretty much 50/50 by weight). Fat cap down for the first 4 hours, then pull it off, wrap in butcher paper and back on the cooker with the fat cap facing up. Start checking for probe tenderness at the thickest part of the flat after an hour. If it isn't probe tender, check every 15 minutes or so as it will be (might take another hour). Probe tender is what you are shooting for. You cannot judge tenderness by time or meat temp. When probe tender, rest it on the counter still wrapped till the temp hits 150 then slice and serve. If your flat was dry it was most likely undercooked, not overcooked.
This is a good guide to follow for brisket:

Undercooked - Tough and dry but able to slice into pencil thin slices

Slightly undercooked - slightly tender with some moisture, able to slice into pencil thin slices.

Perfectly cooked - tender and moist, able to slice into pencil thin slices.

Slightly overcooked - tender and moist, when slicing into pencil thin slices the slices start to crumble

Overcooked - tender and moist but the brisket is falling apart when you slice it.

[realdocBBQ]

I've always done briskets hot and fast. Temp runs around 300 degrees up to 320-325. I've never used a water pan. Kosher salt and 16 mesh pepper mixed at 1 part salt and 4 parts pepper (pretty much 50/50 by weight). Fat cap down for the first 4 hours, then pull it off, wrap in butcher paper and back on the cooker with the fat cap facing up. Start checking for probe tenderness at the thickest part of the flat after an hour. If it isn't probe tender, check every 15 minutes or so as it will be (might take another hour). Probe tender is what you are shooting for. You cannot judge tenderness by time or meat temp. When probe tender, rest it on the counter still wrapped till the temp hits 150 then slice and serve. If your flat was dry it was most likely undercooked, not overcooked.
This is a good guide to follow for brisket:

Undercooked - Tough and dry but able to slice into pencil thin slices

Slightly undercooked - slightly tender with some moisture, able to slice into pencil thin slices.

Perfectly cooked - tender and moist, able to slice into pencil thin slices.

Slightly overcooked - tender and moist, when slicing into pencil thin slices the slices start to crumble

Overcooked - tender and moist but the brisket is falling apart when you slice it.

I see where you're coming from, but I disagree with the classifications - there's no way this was undercooked. In fact, part of the flat was so dry and hard I didn't even bother with it, it's still sitting in the fridge in a big chunk. I can do some pics or video if you want, it wasn't undercooked.