A friend smoked a brisket, about his third or fourth, and he texted me all day for coaching. From what I can tell, he did things correctly and his earlier briskets came out great, but this one was dry and we are trying to figure out why. Any thoughts on how to prevent the brisket from drying out?
Re-creating the timeline from his texts and comments:
- 13-14lb CAB brisket, wet aged for 5 weeks. Trimmed the thick, hard fat on the point end Thursday night.
- Put into Traeger pellet smoker at 6am Saturday morning at 225
- Temp was 140 at 9:30
- Temp 154 at 10:30
- Wrapped in butcher paper around 11:15. He said it was wrapped tight, with double paper (same paper I use...I gave him some of mine since I will never use my entire roll)
- Temp was at 187 at
-
- I arrived at his house at 5:30 and poked the meat through the paper and it felt firm and dry, not like "buttah". Uhh ohh
- Served it around 6:30. The point end was good but the mid and flat were dry. Bummer...
Most of the people at the party thought it was great, but he was pretty bummed and we talked about what could have gone wrong...or what he did differently from what I normally do. I am trying to retain my "trusted coach" status, but clearly we did some things wrong.
Some thoughts...
- the piece of meat is a big variable. Still, we would like to know how to "work the process" and make adjustments to get good results
- I normally inject mine with beef broth. I don't know if it makes a big difference, but it makes me feel better. He didn't inject (we didn't think of it until the next day)
- Did bumping the temp up in the afternoon hurt the meat by taking it too high too fast? I know guys who run theirs up to 300 (including Kreutz in Lockhart) so I don't think that should matter, but maybe it did. I normally start my smokes earlier the night before, around 2-3am, so I don't stress about finish times, but I am sure I have bumped it up too in the past
- Did keeping it in the oven at 175 dry it out? It was still in the paper. I typically use a cooler, which retains high humidity, or I cycle the oven temp between off and 175 to keep it warm but not cook
- Also, he ran it up to 204 and did not poke it as it went up. I had a couple Costco Prime briskets over-cook at 203. Maybe he should have been poking it after it hit 195 or so and taken it out earlier?
Any thoughts on adjustments to improve the result next time? Things to do differently? Things to avoid? It is always a big disappointment to go through the entire process on an expensive piece of meat, only to have it dry on the other end when the party is already going. Looking for ways to improve the final product with greater confidence.
thanks
Re-creating the timeline from his texts and comments:
- 13-14lb CAB brisket, wet aged for 5 weeks. Trimmed the thick, hard fat on the point end Thursday night.
The fat side had thin layer of fat on it. Put it
in a covered baking pan in the fridge overnight. (I stopped by to help trim, drink beer)- Put into Traeger pellet smoker at 6am Saturday morning at 225
- Temp was 140 at 9:30
- Temp 154 at 10:30
- Wrapped in butcher paper around 11:15. He said it was wrapped tight, with double paper (same paper I use...I gave him some of mine since I will never use my entire roll)
- Temp was at 187 at
2:45pm
. He started to worry about finishing on time and resting it 2hrs so bumped the temp up to 275 or 300-
Temp hit 204 at
3:40pm. Put meat, still wrapped in paper, in oven to keep warm until party. He had oven set at 175- I arrived at his house at 5:30 and poked the meat through the paper and it felt firm and dry, not like "buttah". Uhh ohh
- Served it around 6:30. The point end was good but the mid and flat were dry. Bummer...
Most of the people at the party thought it was great, but he was pretty bummed and we talked about what could have gone wrong...or what he did differently from what I normally do. I am trying to retain my "trusted coach" status, but clearly we did some things wrong.
Some thoughts...
- the piece of meat is a big variable. Still, we would like to know how to "work the process" and make adjustments to get good results
- I normally inject mine with beef broth. I don't know if it makes a big difference, but it makes me feel better. He didn't inject (we didn't think of it until the next day)
- Did bumping the temp up in the afternoon hurt the meat by taking it too high too fast? I know guys who run theirs up to 300 (including Kreutz in Lockhart) so I don't think that should matter, but maybe it did. I normally start my smokes earlier the night before, around 2-3am, so I don't stress about finish times, but I am sure I have bumped it up too in the past
- Did keeping it in the oven at 175 dry it out? It was still in the paper. I typically use a cooler, which retains high humidity, or I cycle the oven temp between off and 175 to keep it warm but not cook
- Also, he ran it up to 204 and did not poke it as it went up. I had a couple Costco Prime briskets over-cook at 203. Maybe he should have been poking it after it hit 195 or so and taken it out earlier?
Any thoughts on adjustments to improve the result next time? Things to do differently? Things to avoid? It is always a big disappointment to go through the entire process on an expensive piece of meat, only to have it dry on the other end when the party is already going. Looking for ways to improve the final product with greater confidence.
thanks
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