Brisket Done Crazy Fast

[ecowper]

Okay, I just had a crazy experience with brisket. Anyone else ever seen this happen?

Started with a bit smaller brisket, only 11.7 lbs. Trimming took it down to something over 8 lbs.
Brisket was a whole prime packer from Costco.
The brisket sat in the cryovac for 10 days, or so, while I was under an air quality burn ban. Before that, I had it in the freezer for a couple months.
I ran the WSM just like I always do .... 250-260, several chunks of oak for smoke.

Brisket hit 160 in 2 hours, 180 4 hours, and I just pulled it at 202 and probe tender after just over 7 hours on the WSM.

I've never had even a smaller brisket finish in less than 10 hours before. I figured 10-11 for this one. The only difference in technique is the brisket wet aging in the cryovac. I normally buy brisket within 2-3 days of when I plan to cook it.

Here's the Fireboard session for today's cook. As you can see, the WSM temp is pretty steady and never "too hot". There is absolutely no stall on this brisket at all.


Anybody seen this? Any ideas? Should I just chalk it up to "every piece of meat is different"?

[kmhfive]

I have seen some faster briskets, I don't even have a working hypothesis yet. Although I'm beginning to think freezing might play a role. I've never taken them out of the cryovac before I was ready to trim and dry brine. But there have been a couple of larger ones in 10 hours.

[ecowper]

Yep, I always leave them in the cryovac until it's time to trim. Freezing could be a contributor, I guess.

[HorseDoctor]

Personally can't imagine how freezing would make a difference. Suspect it was a combination of a small brisket and a 260F+ degrees cook. Prime is also supposedly going to cook a little quicker than lesser grades. Maybe the stars just lined up right...

[ecowper]

I think it's a "stars lined up right" thing .... I always run the cooker at 250-275 ... it doesn't get the brisket done much faster than 225-250.

[jacmac422]

I did one today that was really fast. 15lbs before trimming. Put on at 3am at 225. at 9am was 160 wrapped and 201 at 11am. I would have thought at least 3pm more like 5-6pm. I have never had one that didnt stall before

[ecowper]

Yeah, same here .... no stall at all. Heck, most of my briskets will actually have the internal temp go down during the stall. This one just didn't care about how all this stuff works and did its own thing.

[jacmac422]

My wife said it was the best brisket I have ever made.

[ecowper]

jacmac422 I have found that a longer hold in a cambro or oven makes a big difference. I plan for 2-3 hours .... this ended up being 6, which is a bit too long. Everybody liked it. I was unhappy with the meat being over cooked, basically, and falling apart on me.

[RobertC]

Besides being lighter than usual, was it a different shape? I've often thought that in addition to the pre- and post-trim weight, it's handy to log the maximum, average, and minimum thickness.

[Steve R.]

My last 2 briskets have cooked in what seemed like too little time. The most recent one was approaching 150 in less than 3 hrs, even with me intentionally keeping the temp closer to 225 just to stretch it out and get better bark. I chalk some of that up to my smoker. There is a crazy amount of air flow with that thing, to the point that it just cooks everything a lot faster at a temperature comparable to the Weber kettle. I don't know if air flow is even a real factor in and of itself, but that's all I can come up with.

[DeusDingo]

i've had meat do this before. for me, it's usually when i keep it in the fridge for a long time dry brining (days) uncovered and the meat dries out. i assumed it had something to do with the fact that so much moisture was removed from the dry fridge environment that there wasn't enough left for a stall. my experience with that is also that the meat is not as great as i want so i tend to cover it up now and deal with the stall just to be safe.