First Brisket in WSM

[Guy]

I finally cooked my first Wally World brisket yesterday. I brought the 4 lb. brisket Wednesday afternoon. Saturday morning I injected with Beef Broth, Salted, and applied the BBBR. Left it in the frig overnight. Sunday morning at 3:30 am started the fire using the fuse method. Used chunks of apple and cherry wood. I put water in the water pan and put the meat on the bottom grid over the water pan fat side up. The meat was on by 4:15 am. I have a Maverick 733 hooked up with the meat probe in the thickest part of the meat. I waited about an hour to see what the smoker temp would do and it seemed to be hanging around 235 pretty well. So I went back to sleep around 5:30 am. I woke about 8:15 am and the smoker temp was 250 deg F and IT was 150 deg F. I guess this was OK but the IT had gotten to 150 deg F. faster than I thought it would or should. I closed some vents and got the smoker temp down to around 240 deg. F and let it go. The meat had been cooking 5 hours. Then it was almost 3 more hours before the IT reached 165 deg. F. I decided to wrap it then so I double wrapped in foil with a little Beef Broth inside. Time now was 11:15 am. At 1:15 pm the It reached 205 so I left it there about 30 minutes and then pulled it off into the cooler/cambro wrapped in a towel with the Maverick still hooked up. I left it in the cambro until 4:15 pm. At that time the IT was down to 160 deg F. I unwrapped it and put it under a hot broiler in the oven for about 3.5 minutes a side to try to firm the bark. This may have been my mistake because expect for a small amount of the point the meat was too dry. It was very tender and good flavor, nice bark, but just too dry. I am sure we can make do with adding some sauce and enjoy it. I sliced it instead of cubing because that is what my wife wanted. I would appreciate any feed back from any of the experts as to maybe why it was so dry. Also if I am not giving enough info here let me know.

Here is a picture of the final. It even looks dry. LOL

[CurlingDog]

When this happens to me, i grab some juices, add in a little bit of the rub and cube it up (hush, honey!) and put it back on the fire for a little bit. bye bye dry.

[Guy]

LOL love the "hush honey". Do you put it in foil and then back on the fire? And by juices you mean from the meat or ?

Thanks

[Guy]

CurlingDog, when do you determine to slice or cube?

[CurlingDog]

Yes, back into foil and just bring it up so the sauce and all are warmed up... I have a 180 degree temp on my pellet smoker and that setting gets a lot of use. I also like using the drippings/juices instead of saucing it with BBQ, but if that's preferred by the wife... happy wife, happy life.

[Guy]

One of the great and constant truths.

[JeffJ]

Brisket is one of the most difficult cuts of meat to get right. Your temperature sounded fine (240-250 should not have been a problem). It sounds like you did everything right - dry brined, water in the bowl, wrapped, cambro and kept the temperature in a good, working range.

The only thing that grabbed my attention was that you ran it up to 205 and then kept it in the smoker for an additional 30 minutes after that. It was the only detail of your technique that I question.

For the next one I suggest the following:

Don't completely fill the water bowl. Wrap it at the stall and unwrap when it hits 190. At this point if you didn't fill the water bowl completely it should be empty thus creating a drier environment and you should be able to develop bark while it finishes cooking. pull it out in the 200-203 range and go straight to cambro.

[scorched_porch]

Don't give up. You had a small flat at 4 Lbs so I'd think that would get to temp pretty quick. Your pit temps sound fine to me. I'd wrap at 160 like you did and consider yanking it anywhere from 197 to 205 (I'd err on the lower side). Throw it in the Cambro after that. I add a couple of tablespoons of Ketchup to the broth and drippings for a sauce. Seems to work well for me. All I can think of is that you might have left it on a little long. Hope this helps somehow.

[_John_]

Those things do better after quite a while in the cambro. Did you get the ungraded stuff at Walmart? That is all they carry here now and while it was more challenging I had good results.

[Guy]

John yes I got the lowest on the pole. However, it did have a lot of marble and fat. And I paid a premium. It was not even rated. Very few briskets at all around here.

[Jerod Broussard]

Great advice from Jeff.

I like to just go til it gets barked, then once I wrap, take note of probe tenderness/internal temp. That lets me know how tight or loose it is, and how far I am from 200. I add a little water to the bottom of the foil when I wrap.

Also, brisket slices, especially from the flat, oxidize VERY fast. Lotta surface area. I served about 5 pounds of sliced flat last week, along with the 23 pounds of chopped. I made it a point to pour any and all juices over the slices, and as soon as they were cool enough for a plastic bag, in they went.

The more you cook, the more you get the hang of it.

My first was a Prime flat that I took to 203. I panned it, and it got to 200 quicker than I thought. It wasn't bad, but probably would have been better at 195-ish. Tender galore!!!

**Edit- If you have good bark when you wrap, no matter how long it is wrapped, it always bounces back as it steams off when you unwrap it.

[Guy]

Jerod, please be brutally honest and tell me what you see in my picture of brisket. I see very little smoke ring. I think the bark that you can see on one of the end pieces is pretty good. The rest of it looks like school lunch roast beef. LOL kidding not that critical of myself.

[Jerod Broussard]

I see brisket that has been left out waaaaaaaaay too long to take a picture.

Smoke ring is good for a WSM, it really is. It seems the flow of the gases in that thing allows them to bypass the meat, and get the heck out of dodge. Unless you put the brisket in frozen or really cold from the fridge and spritz the ever-living chrud out of that thing.

Yeah, that bark is kickin chickin.

[Guy]

Jerod, thanks glad it is my photography and not my cooking. LOL Last night I wrapped some meat in foil with BBQ sauce and stuck it in the toaster oven. It came out great on a sandwich. Still tender with plenty of flavor and the sauce hydrated it pretty good.

[CandySueQ]

You really have to go by feel with brisket. Some give it up at 190ish and others 210ish. Here's a photo of my brisket box last Saturday in Hammond, LA. Didn't inject. Was done at 203. Started later and only held it for about an hour. I only turned in 7 slices because I didn't want to share!

[3DJ]

That looks amazing Candy Sue! Wow! That bark, the richness of the color and smoke ring. I'm guessing you did pretty well with that entry!

Jim

[CandySueQ]

Thanks 3DJ! Got all 9s for appearance! Ended up 12th overall with a score of 170.8228. First and second place in brisket had 180, which is perfect. That means that 5 of 6 judges gave the entry 999. When all 6 judges give 999 it's a perfect perfect!

[Guy]

Thanks everyone I really appreciate the encouragement. I will have more questions soon after I digest all of this info.

[Guy]

Candy Sue, I knew you were in a cook off so I did not expect you to reply being busy. But I am thrilled you did. Hope you come to Smokin at the Square in P.cola next year.

[CandySueQ]

I'll be there! One of Ivan's helpers came by to see me in Hammond, she told me when the date was. 3rd weekend in March maybe???