Brisket FAIL, please god help me

[cccq]

Here's my 1 cent. I have only done one brisket so I am still learning. The one I did turned out great thanks to this site in large part. I got to an IT of around 205 and probed like butter sooner than I expected. I was ready with a faux cambro. It sat wrapped in foil for about 4ish hours in the cooler. Still hot (around 150 degrees I think) when It was time to eat and started slicing. I think the time in the cambro helped a lot.

I got the cooler ready by pouring boiling water in there to bring the temps up in the cooler then put towels in and left them to soak up the water and closed it. When the brisket was done on the smoker I kept it in foil and put it in a aluminum pan and put it in the cooler (on top of the hot wet towels). I don't know if you have to pre-heat the cooler so to speak but I reasoned that it helped increase the time it took for the temp to drop. Thus allowing more time for the collagen to breakdown without over cooking the brisket. If you are cooking it on the way up to temp then why can't you cook it on the way down as well.

I am doing a brisket next weekend and will be doing the same thing.

[Polarbear777]

Cambro is essential. I never bother to preheat my cheap cooler. I just have it wrapped in foil and drop it in. 4+ hours in the cambro it’s still above 140F.

If if you need to hold for more than that, I’d pre heat the cooler.

Just as a note my standard timing is (all at 225F cooker), 8-9 hours (overnight) to good bark, wrap in foil, 3 or so hours until probe tender (using thermometer to let me know when it’s near 200F), then some more foil and into the cambro for about 4 hours, so total time is about 16 hours.

Lots of folks are successful running hotter as you see above in This thread.

[PaynTrain]

Beautiful

[cccq]

man that looks good

[dbray45]

I am going to throw this out there. I may not have been doing a lot of things correctly - after reading this.

I do use a water pan full of boiling water, sometimes I put some red wine, carrots, celery, and onion in the mixture. Smoke it until it is 185 in the center of the thickest part. From time to time I put olive oil on the meat while cooking.

I do let it cool covered in plastic and foil and then put it into the fridge over night after it has cooled down. The next day I run it on a meat slicer at a pretty thin thickness across the grain and what we don't eat in a couple of days, we vacuum seal and freeze for dinners and sandwiches at a later date. It is always seriously tasty and fall apart.

I am going to try some of the things in this thread

[vandy]

If the meat is juicy and tasty I don't see that you are doing anything wrong.

[PaynTrain]

OK fellow cookers, it has been vacuum bagged in the fridge for a month, and it is going down Friday night. Straight dalmatian, broth injection, and 220-240 is the plan. I have not done an over night cook before, anyone with a Yoder stick burner have any advice/feedback? I was planning to get it dialed in, and set alarm to pop out of my chair, and check the fire.

I am so excited to make a run at this again, as I have failed the last 4 or so times! Stay tuned, and thanks for all the great feedback everyone:
Huskee
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edible hen
TallTrees
realdocBBQ
jfmorris
Troutman
MBMorgan
Mosca
HorseDoctor
fzxdoc
Sephon
DWCowles
Gunderich_1
Polarbear777

[jfmorris]

Good luck! I've been there, done that. My tip - once you decide to wrap it in foil, take it inside to the oven, and go to bed. I've spent many nights with 60 minute timers on my iPhone waking me up to stock the fire on the stick burner, sleeping (or not sleeping) on the couch or in a recliner...

[Huskee]

I've never cooked overnight in my stickburner, I usually start at 4 or 5am instead of cooking overnight. If you don't want your house smelling like a BBQ joint, you could set up your Weber kettle to hold the wrapped brisket in 'power cambro' mode at 160-180 for a few hrs instead of your house oven. You have options. Have a great cook!

[Gunderich_1]

Let us know how you made out. Inquiring minds want to know! Hope it went well.

[fzxdoc]

Here's wishing you well, PaynTrain on your upcoming brisket cook. I bet it will be delicious!

Kathryn

[Craigar]

Good luck! If all else fails, try using a chuck roast. I got tired of mine turning into just another pot roast, so I started using chuckies. BUT, now that I have listened to the latest Pit Cast Round Table about brisket, I am thinking about smoking a brisket over Memorial Day weekend. My problem is the lack of patience...and the lack of talent.

[ColonialDawg]

Get some sleep, then cook hot and fast starting around 10 AM. Smoke at 300 degrees, spritz with water every so often when crust sets, wrap in foil when meat is 170, done when probed like butter. I cook a 10-12 pound packer brisket in 5 hours.

Haha, just throwing a curve ball. I’m in the hot and fast camp.

Good luck!

[Dr ROK]

As a side note we will also be injecting this weekend with an injection made with Minors beef base, Minors Au Jus base, 450 super phosphate, msg and Worcestershire sauce and slathered with home made Beefonaise as a binder and rubbed with BBBR and black Ops brisket rub. I will let you know how it turns out as I don't usually inject.

Powersmoke_80 That sounds fantastic. How did it turn out?

[Powersmoke_80]

It turned out fantastic, we took 4th out of 40 teams

[PaynTrain]

Dr ROK, do you have the recipe you used for this injection?

[goosebr160]

I haven't attempted a brisket since I failed miserably 5 years ago. This thread has made me want to give it another shot! I think this will be one of my first cooks when I get my PBC!

[fzxdoc]

You're going to love doing briskets on your PBC, goosebr160 .

Kathryn

[Sephon]

AND?!?!?!?! PaynTrain

How did it turn out?

[PaynTrain]

Sephon Long story!! Short version is that my brisket is getting another week of curing in the fridge, and will meet it's demise this weekend! I hope to have updates soon after!!!

[PaynTrain]

Well, with all your fantastic advice, I did it!! Even better is that I did it on vacation with my Weber kettle, as it is light for travel!! It turned out amazing, multiple confirmations, and the leftovers were damn near as good reheated. I wet aged it for around 40 days or so, after we trimmed it, in a vacuum bag. I didn't end up injecting, due to travelling constraints. I went low and slow with indirect at 225-250 for about 18 hours (one significant temp drop off from 0300 to 0500 due to Bourbon and sleep). Then we put it in a Weber pan with the aujus (with onion chunks) and double covered it in foil for the crutch. Once tender probe, I wrapped it all in towels, and let it rest in the oven (turned off) to rest for 4 hours. It was amazing. The only rip I have now is I took it a tad too long in the crutch, and not too much of the meat would hold up under it's own weight @ 1/4" cuts. Of all the issues I have had with my briskets, this one was a pleasant issue!! Come off a little sooner next time, and it will be dead on. Thanks for all the help cooker cousins!

[HorseDoctor]

Awesome looking brisket!!! Now you’ve got some basics & a little momentum!!! Lookout world PaynTrain is ready to cook!!! Congrats!

[fzxdoc]

That looks amazing, PaynTrain. I think you've rounded the corner, brisketwise. Congrats!
K.

[cccq]

Looks mighty fine!.

[Nuke em]

Looking at the picture that your holding with your fingers....that my boy, is prob tender. I don’t even need to poke it to tell. I could tell that from here. Good job.

[Mo Porkplease]

That brisket looks awesome, now I am really hungry...this was a great thread. I am glad everything turned out well for you Payn. All of us have been abused by brisket at some point. I refused to cook it on my offset cooker for years because I was too impatient. Some great recommendations here. I usually trim the fat down to a quarter to eighth of an inch on my packers and it always seems to come out really tender and juicy. I am a crutch and cambro convert who usually lets it sit in the cooler for a minimum of three hours after hitting 205. I never cooked a good brisket until I got the PBC. It gave me confidence to cook them on its big brother, the UDS. To me brisket is always a work in progress, AND I LOVE TO PRACTICE TRYING TO MAKE IT PERFECT.

[PaynTrain]

That is where I am now Mo Porkplease! I feel I finally slayed the giant, and am now ready to perfect the craft. This thread has been fantastic, such great people taking the time to help out a fellow cooker.

[bluesmoke]

This thread caught my eye because I cooked a brisket this weekend and the results did not turn out as my past several briskets. I'm cooking on a BGE (with BBQ Guru) and try to keep things simple and consistent. I get my meat from a local butcher so these are likely grass fed and maybe a bit leaner than I would like. But I've done several with good results. This time was a 14 lb packer. I cooked same as usual--225 with a few oak chunks, 50/50 salt&pepper. I usually don't plan ahead enough to wet age, but at least I'm consistent. I wrapped in butcher paper after getting through the stall, around 170. It seemed to hit another slight stall around 190. The temp actually dropped into the high 180s. As it was getting close to serving time I cranked up the heat a little to 250 for the last couple of hours. It hit 203 at about 16 hours and had a good feel. It sat in my faux cambro (cooler with towels) for about 2 hours. Bark was good and the point was very juicy, but a few portions did not cut well. Some cuts broke apart a little but this may also be due to my knife needing sharpening. The flat was a little dry but had good beef flavor. Overall, it feels like maybe I overcooked it and/or it was leaner than my normal cut. But I've never had this problem so am not really sure if my diagnosis is correct. Any thoughts? Thanks