Dry brisket , help!!!!

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Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby BamBam6942 » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:10 pm

I've been following all the advise on this forum and love the tips you guys give . I can't seem to be able to cook a brisket without drying it out. I love the flavor and the bark is great. From start to finish on a 16 pound packer from my butcher shop , I inject budder injection ( name brand) put my store bought brisket rub on and let it sit overnight, pull the brisket and let it get to room temp and slap it on my smoker at 215-230 burning hickory . I smoke it till It reaches around 160-165 and then I pull it and foil it up , pour a little mop sauce on it and cook it till around 195-205 till It passes the poke test , then I set it in a yetti cooler wrapped on towels from 3.5 -5 hours then cut it up . There's always juices running out of the flat and point , but it's like the meat isn't absorbing it. Am I missing simThing in my steps ?
Thanks for your help.
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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby Davidtxs » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:30 pm

what grade ?? select? ,choice ? prime?
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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby Swamp Donkeyz BBQ » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:46 pm

+1 on "what's the grade?" Sounds like you are taking all the right steps. Maybe letting it set out til it gets to room temp could factor in to the equation. How long does it take to get up to room temp? How much liquid are you losing in the process?
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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby BluDawg » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:49 pm

First thing I would change is to stop injecting. The second thing I would change is to bump the smoker temp to a min of 275 and no hotter than 325. The third thing I would change is to forget wrapping during a cook (man cooked meat with fire before there was aluminum foil ). When you get the pit to a mean temp of 300 deg a 16 lb packer will be resting in about 8 hrs. You may be over cooking it during the rest period, forcing all the juices out of the meat. I stopped putting mine in a cooler to rest if the brisket is at 195 you wrap it up in foil towels and put it into a good cooler it will continue to cook . Instead I put it over a drip pan and tent it with foil on the counter top I put a thermo in the middle when the IT drops into the 150's(3-4 hrs) I separate the point and flat and either wrap it and hold or slice what I need. Never slice the whole thing or it will dry out.

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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby BamBam6942 » Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:12 pm

Great picture!!!! Thanks
I'm actually not sure what cut my brisket is , sounds like that needs to be my first step . Ill find out tomorrow . I actually marinated my first brisket any it came out semi moist , I have had zero success with the injecting tho. Let me find out what grade my packer was and ill get back with to you all . Thanks for your suggestions.
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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby k.a.m. » Fri Nov 02, 2012 8:50 pm

Man as much as I hate to agree with Dawg you need to up your temps a bit. There ya go I said it. :P :lol: Dawg, you forgot to tell him you pumped that one with Canola for moisture. :wink: I feel your cooking all the moisture from your brisket. Your last statement says it all "but it's like the meat isn't absorbing it" The brisket doesn't need to absorb anything you need to learn to keep it in. :wink: Putting the brisket on hot or cold in my opinion doesn't make or break it just the smoke ring and that inst flavor or moistness.
First make sure of your actual grate temps don't trust your door therms. try cooking the brisket at temps ranging in the minimum 230° to 250° range and try to keep your temps as close to one or the other. Briskets do not like radical changes in temps very often so figure out a constant and run with it. If your going to foil then at around 160° look at the meat and if your bark is about where you want it and your going to wrap do it then. Sometimes the extra 5° is a lot of moisture lost. When the brisket reaches 195° probe it, if it is smooth remove it and double wrap in foil and rest for about 30 min to 1hr. The flat is the lean part of the brisket and normally yields little moisture after slicing unless it has been injected with a juice with phosphates. The point should yield your moister slices if it has not been injected. It could be that your injection is for flavor only I am not sure as I do not know the name. You could also be a little critical of your finished product it happens I know. :wink: :D
For what its worth no injection and foiled at 160°
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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby BamBam6942 » Fri Nov 02, 2012 9:07 pm

I agree with the door guage , I ran an electric temp guage on the grate this time and it was about 30 degrees off . My temp tends to drop off from 220 to 195 ,my grill doesn't like to run at 220. Lol. I've had to start puting a fan outside the burner box to keep air flow in there to keep up temp. It really likes 250 , I might try cooking it a little hotter . It seems you guys are having better success that way.
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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby dub' » Sat Nov 03, 2012 7:46 am

My flowerpot runs different temps on different days!
With brisket I don't worry unless the grate temp gets over 300F.
I don't inject either-or go nuts about trimming fat.

dub(that applies to myself as well)
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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby DJ » Mon Nov 05, 2012 6:09 pm

235-250*.....other than that, sounds like your doing it right assuming your gauges are correct....I personally have a difficult time telling the difference between the various grades of meats...I do however prefer CAB (Cert Angus Beef), but a brisket from a Hereford cooks up pretty well too....
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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby bmac1223 » Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:08 pm

I thought the old rule of thumb was an hour and half per pound? Yet some of you are saying that a 16lb brisket would only take 8 hrs to cook? I myself struggle with getting consistent results...some are amazing...some not so much. I usually cook them too long judging by the comments here. Just curious on what cooking times should be on brisket and do the same rules apply to pork butt and ribs?
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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby BluDawg » Wed Nov 07, 2012 3:25 pm

I cook between 275-325 brisket & butts take about 40-50 min lb(YMMV). Forget about monitoring the temp on your meat and learn to cook by feel when it probes like Butta its done. Ribs go about 3.5 - 4 hrs until they pass the bend test.
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Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby Swamp Donkeyz BBQ » Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:55 pm

BluDawg wrote:I cook between 275-325 brisket & butts take about 40-50 min lb(YMMV). Forget about monitoring the temp on your meat and learn to cook by feel when it probes like Butta its done. Ribs go about 3.5 - 4 hrs until they pass the bend test.

I agree about not checking temps. I never check the temp on my brisket.


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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby k.a.m. » Wed Nov 07, 2012 6:44 pm

As a rule of thumb I will not check a briskets temps for at least 5hrs. especially if that is all I am cooking. If I am cooking other meats I monitor the briskets appearance more than anything, then at around 5hrs. if I am going to foil I will check the internal temp to see if the brisket has reached my target temp of 160° to 165° if I like the briskets appearance at this point I foil at this time and I insert a digital probe in the brisket on the high side of the flat towards the point through the foil to monitor the brisket up to 195° internal. When it reaches this temp I check the brisket with my therma-pen mainly for tenderness. Not all briskets finish at the same temp and I really do not like punching a lot of holes in my briskets. There are many ways to reach what you want in a finished product, I always figure my briskets at 1.5 hrs. per lb knowing that I can rest the brisket for at least 4hrs wrapped with tender juicy results. I also do not care for my briskets to cook at temps over 260° its a preference thing and one that each person needs to develop his or her method.
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Re: Dry brisket , help!!!!

Postby WylieMike » Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:06 pm

I spent some time with one of the pitmasters at Terry Black's in Austin and grilled (no pun intended) him about their method for cooking brisket. They have an industrial size offset smoker they use. The temperature varies between 350 nearest to the firebox to about 230 farthest from the fire box. They constantly rotate the briskets to account for the difference. They always have one end pointed toward the fire box. Again, they rotate their orientation.

They trim the heck out of their briskets to make them aerodynamic. They use their house rub and don't inject. They cook them between 16-18 hours and wrap in butcher paper the last 8 hours.

The day I was there the briskets in the smoker were do to come off around midnight. I thought that interesting since they don't open 'til 11am. That means they are sitting for close to 10 hours. They do have a smoke box (not sure what it's called) where they hold the meat until it's ready to be sliced.

I thought the brisket I had a 11am that day was very good and moist.

The briskets they use they buy from Sysco. I didn't ask the grade or if I did they didn't tell me. They were probably around the 14-16 pound range but were significantly less after the trimming.

So I don't know. 16-18 hours seems like a very long time. I don't know if I have the courage to cook anything that long.

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