need help diagnosing dry brisket

[Sweaty Paul]

Having recently done chili I know that works. Stew...next time! Thanks for the idea!

[Ahumadora]

Yep. Hard to diagnose from a forum.

[Troutman]

I get a kick out of these posts. All good advice but at the end of the day who really knows? As the old saying goes, every brisket's different, I've busted a few out that should have been golden. Just scratch my head and move on. Makes for decent stew or chili meat at the very least

[Troutman]

Yea I was kinda thinking along the same lines. I've held briskets and pork butts at 170* for up to 2 hours with no ill affect but they are usually wrapped in towels or covered in foil so moisture can't escape. He may have simply dried it out in the oven inadvertently.

[fracmeister]

Thin flats are often problematic. I don’t trim those too aggressively before cooking and might leave almost all of the fat under them.

I think a faux cambro would would be better than a 175 oven

dry brisket is why chopped brisket was invented... you can add in some fat from the point atea

if tough, slice it thin

or so I have heard.... never have this problem myself

[au4stree]

Just came here to say you’ve gotten some good insight thus far, fzxdoc might’ve diagnosed it, holding in oven at 175F will dry it out. I hold my briskets, after I’m happy with probe tenderness, in my cooler.

[Henrik]

Lots of good advice already. I never inject, don't see the need for it. I too, like fzxdoc, would prefer a lower holding temp. A faux cambro (cooler) works well, the oven at 175 without foil around the brisket is gonna dry it out I fear.

Also, after having done many briskets by now, I feel it's important to not only go by temp, but by feel. Grab it and see which parts of it go tender at what times. Don't just go by temp.

[fzxdoc]

I think you should look to the oven as a possible culprit. It was set at 175°. My built-in ovens go through temp swings that are 30 degrees higher and about 20 degrees lower than the set temp. If his behaves like mine do, he may have kept that briskie cooking for longer than he wanted instead of cambroing as he was hoping.

175° is too hot for a warming oven. The lowest most ovens go are 150°. If I use an oven for a cambro, I set it at 150° and stick a spatula in the door to keep it open about an inch or so all the time to offset those oven high temp swings. With the meat thermometer still in, I have never had the meat go below 160° or so several hours of ovening/cambroing time.

Just a thought.

Kathryn

[Sweaty Paul]

I have two suggestions having recently suffered a similar fate. One, like you mentioned, inject. I use beef broth with Butchers BBQ Prime Dust. I recently learned that the Prime Dust was to be injected and sit for 4 hours before smoking (I haven't done that yet). The second trick would be to dry brine, which I didn't see in your post, so I suggest for your consideration. I will also say that the Costco Prime Briskets I have cooked have been vastly superior to the choice briskets I can get at my local stores. Personally I find briskets delicious and extraordinarily frustrating. I won't quit. I took my somewhat firm flat leftovers and made smoked brisket chili which was quite good. Nothing like braising to soften a flat.

Sweaty Paul

[Polarbear777]

You said the point was good. Was it tender and non-resistant? Possible there wasn’t enough time to break down the collagen. Also possible it went too long. Paper will still allow some evaporation so it’s possible it had dried out. Should be able to poke a pairing knife in and twist easily. If not it was probably under cooked.

[Loren]

I second (or third) the floppy brisket criteria for selecting a brisket. Finding floppy beef (teeheehee 🤣) really has seemed to ensure a better end result - so much so that I stopped injected beef broth or wrapping unless I am in a hurry.

I should note that I only cook Prime (I work at Costco, so there is little reason to drive somewhere else to buy meat at a significantly higher price - our brisket is currently $3.99 a lb. ).

[mountainsmoker]

Always remember the flat is thinner and has less fat in it than the point. I also never wrap, or wrap after the stall. It sounds like he wrapped during the stall. Since the point was fine and flat was tough I can only conclude you got a bad piece of brisket. It does happen and there is nothing you can do about it. I have been working with my local butcher an he knows what I want and after a few years I just call him for my pork and beef. I hope Backroadmeats makes a great business for himself.

[Oak Smoke]

It would seem to me that if the point was good and the flat was dry it points to a lean flat. Most of the time the point is better marbled than the flat. I use CAB briskets, but I check them over closely when I pick one out. I look for marbling in the flat and flexibly over all. I also age mine at least 50 days. The best I've had was aged 70 days. I'm sure that's pushing the envelope, but it was great.

[Sonoman]

Thanks for the replies so far and keep them coming. It's always good to learn from others' experience.

I will ask him if he probed it prior to taking it out, but based on his reaction when I probed it I doubt he did. I started probing my briskets in the 190's after over-cooking a Prime brisket a few years ago.

I was not aware CAB was less consistent than before. I usually buy mine from a foodservice store and had good luck in the past...better luck than with Costco Prime brisket, which I am still trying to understand. I have never done Wagyu. He purchased his from the foodservice store I usually go to

I told him about picking the wobbly one when he first started buying brisket, so am sure he did this one too. Also, it was wet-aged for 5 weeks due to schedule conflicts and it was pretty wobbly when we trimmed it.

I hear you on being hyper-critical after reading AR, but I felt his disappointment because we know how good it COULD be!

Thanks again and keep the comments coming!

[Ahumadora]

yup, always get the wobbly well marbeld one.