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My first brisket...

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    My first brisket...

    It was pretty much a disaster. I was trying to follow Harry Soo's "Back to Fundamentals Hot & Fast Brisket" technique, but the result was certainly not Harry's fault.

    I bought a prime brisket, slightly under 10 lbs, which seemed to be a good size since only my wife and I would be eating it. The night before, I trimmed it, maybe a little too much on the fat cap, I don't know, and injected it with beef broth, and put a Dalmatian rub on it and eased it into the refrigerator.

    I was figuring on a 6 hour total cook and hold time. At 11:15am I fired up the RecTec and set it to 400 degrees per the instructions in Harry's video. I put the brisket in at noon, spritzed it with water and closed the cover. The meat temp was at 48 degrees. I spritzed it again after an hour. At 2 hours the meat temp was 150 degrees but the bark didn't feel set so I sat back to wait out the stall a little. Only there was no stall. By hour 3 the internal temp was 190 degrees and I had no idea what to do next except to pull the meat and wrap it in foil, reduce the temp to 205 degrees and hope for the best. After 2 hours of that, I took the brisket off, opened the foil and let it cool down a little before slicing it.

    The flat was dry but had a nice smoke ring and came apart with a gentle pull. The point was more moist but the most moist meat was the layer of flat underneath the point. I don't understand that at all unless it just benefited a lot from the layer of separating fat.

    In any case, neither the flat nor the point tasted all that good, moist or not.

    I'd like to hear from folks on the forum, what I did wrong and what you think I could have done to fix things when they started to go sideways. I'm not discouraged because I knew it wasn't going to be easy to get it right the first time, but after seeing how much meat was left over from what is pretty much the smallest brisket available, I have to think it might be too wasteful to cook for just 2 people.

    #2
    Sorry to hear it didn't go as well as you hoped for. I don't know that I can help with what went wrong, but I just wanted to say there are lots of things you can do with those leftovers. For my first and only brisket cook, i made a smoked brisket Chili that came out great. I'm sure you could get some more leftover suggestions from the pitmasters here, and some good advice as well.

    Comment


    #3
    Welcome from Colorado ... and remember that while we all experience the occasional disaster, they’re almost always eminently edible disasters ... 😎 ...

    Comment


      #4
      Welcome to The Pit. Just think of what beef dishes you like. Chili has been mentioned, but tacos are also great. Other things off the top of my mind include omelettes, pot pies steak and cheese sammies, and burritos.

      Comment


        #5
        Can't comment on Mr. Soo's recipe. However it's not shocking there was no stall. Your brisket was not huge and your cook temp was very high.

        Just try a different recipe/rub and you might consider dry brining. There is a boat load of stuff on the free side of the site. Many members have commented that they do not like beef broth injection. I'd guess the majority of members don't inject. I have no facts to back that up.

        Some times, despite your best efforts and planning, you get a piece of meat that is not the best.

        Lastly, welcome from South Louisiana!
        Last edited by NapMaster; May 22, 2019, 09:14 PM.

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          #6
          Prime briskets cooked hot and fast will often skip the stall, nothing odd there. One thing I did notice was you didn’t rest your meat after pulling it. It’s important to let the protein ramp down it’s internal heat gain, otherwise it will tighten up on you. Next time wrap it tight in foil and some towels and rest it in a cooler for a couple of hours before slicing.

          Comment


            #7
            I've never cooked a brisket that hot and fast, but one thought might be that you just got a bad or poorer quality piece of beef than you are used to. Sure, it was graded USDA Prime due to marbling, but beyond that, you don't know anything about the cow it came from.

            Comment


            • Troutman
              Troutman commented
              Editing a comment
              I'll bet he knew how to moo

            • jfmorris
              jfmorris commented
              Editing a comment
              Haha. I bet he/she did at that Troutman!

            #8
            Thanks to you all who responded. Don't know why I didn't think about chili cause we make it all the time from chuck steak, and Ron B., we make omelettes at least once a week, and everything else you folks suggested the leftovers could be used for will keep me trying to get brisket right. Troutman, you're right, I only rested it for an hour and I had cut open the foil pack also at the beginning of the rest. Probably not a great idea. This is too much fun, going to try pork butt next before I try brisket again. Maybe I'll learn something from that experience.

            Comment


            • jfmorris
              jfmorris commented
              Editing a comment
              Boston butts are VERY forgiving. I've done those 225F all the way, and had one get out of control while I was asleep, and cook at up to 340F - the pork was fine (no wrap) - just got done many hours before I was expecting it too. Dry brine, and mix up a batch of Meathead's Memphis Dust, and you won't be disappointed!

            #9
            Meh, it was your first brisket, get over it. Watchoogonnadonow?

            Comment


            • CaptainMike
              CaptainMike commented
              Editing a comment
              Hint: https://amazingribs.com/tested-recip...et-texas-style. Seriously, 5 years ago I would have never dreamed of trying to smoke a brisket. Now, and I will brag a little, I can knock them out of the park. Keep trying, take in all of the advice, and find what works for you.

            #10
            Hot and fast will almost always skip the stall since the high heat is evaporating the liquid coming out of the meat pretty fast. I’d try the next one a little lower temp. I’ve been wanting to go about 300°F...350 might even be good. And with a Prime brisket you should have plenty of fat in there to keep it moist even doing it hot and fast.

            As for leftovers...we don’t often have many. When I cook brisket friends always seem to show up and help finish things off. The last time I had a little left over I made shepherds pie...it was a big hit!

            Comment


              #11
              Try smoking a chuck roast next--it will turn out delicious and not dry. When I'm cooking for just us two, I prefer chuck roast over brisket unless I want a lot of leftovers.

              Here's a great topic on smoking chuck roast: https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...-barrel-cooker

              Since you already put chuck roast in your chili, try Malcolm Reed's Smoked Chili recipe. It's absofrigginlutely delicious. You can also do this recipe with smoked brisket.

              Kathryn

              Comment


              • hubmacfan
                hubmacfan commented
                Editing a comment
                I'm glad you mentioned the chuck roast. I'm a "brisket virgin" and have been wanting to smoke one. However, there's only three in my family and my wife says she doesn't like brisket. I guess I'll try a chuck roast instead.

              • Troutman
                Troutman commented
                Editing a comment
                Man you pulled that post from from DEEP in the archives.

              • fzxdoc
                fzxdoc commented
                Editing a comment
                It’s a golden oldie Troutman.

                K.

              #12
              Personally, I much prefer briskets over chucks. Although chucks are much easier to get right consistently.

              There's only two in my family now (kids are grown), but I still cook 14 lb whole packer briskets. They freeze nicely for future stews.

              And BTW, Malcom (sic) Reed's Killer Hogs AP Rub contains lots of MSG.
              Last edited by TBoneJack; May 23, 2019, 06:30 PM.

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