Not happy with 2nd Brisket

[PSU-85]

My son was home for 10 days after graduating from Arizona State and asked me to make a brisket. He went to the butcher shop and picked up a prime 12# flat. My first brisket was an 8.5# prime flat from the same shop. The first brisket took 14 hours and probably could have gone and hour or two longer. We were planning a small party for 5 PM on Saturday and I wanted to allow plenty of time so I started the brisket at 7:30 of Friday night. I smoked at 180 until 10:30 at which time I bumped it to 225. At 3:30 AM I pulled the brisket (150 and 155 on the probes) and wrapped in butcher paper. Inserted the two probes again and raised the temp to 275 and proceeded back to bed for a little more sleep. When I checked the brisket at 7:00 it was 180 and 185 on the probes. Not wanting the brisket to be done at 10 AM I backed the temperature off to 250. It slowed down but at noon it was ready to come off. Thermapen showed temperature at 200 to 205. My friend gave me a pair of Swaddler Pillows. I pulled the brisket from the paper and wrapped in foil and stuck it in a cooler with the pillows. When I pulled the brisket at 5:15 it was still good and hot. Great bark and smoke ring but it was like a medium well steak with almost no moisture. Flavor was great and it was definitely tender but it just wasn't very moist. I never suspected a 12# piece of meat would cook in less than time my smaller first brisket. I assume the long rest in the cooler is the culprit for the dry brisket. Prime beef isn't cheap so Its somewhat disappointing that the results weren't better.

 

[Rt590127]

Try to keep temps low.. 225. Low and slow

 

[Infantryman]

Sorry to hear it didn't come out like you wanted it. Coolers are great tools all right but they definitely can continue the cooking process in my opinion. Next time you could try opening the cooler periodically to release some of the heat to help cool it down some. I believe that's probably what happened here. As already mentioned in other threads every piece of meat is different and no two cook the same, I use the very rough time frame formula of 1 1/2 hrs to two hours a pound when I cook my briskets, just to get me into the ballpark for timing purposes and it works fairly accurately to try to hit my planned time to eat without using a cooler.

 

[GromitInWA]

This was my first. It was 12.7lbs from Costco. It was very moist and though tender, it did not pull apart as easy I was expecting. Still, we all enjoyed it and the leftovers I've been using for sandwiches are still moist even when microwaved.

I combined Malcolm Reed's cooking technique with Mad Scientist's BBQ prep and rub. I definitely took off too much fat in the prep, but the cook for me was 180F starting at 10.30pm overnight to about 160F IT. I spritzed with 50/50 water/apple cider vinegar an hour in, in the middle of the night, in the morning and before wrapping. I wrapped, put probes at both ends, and then let it go at 250F until 202-205F IT. On my RT-590, the right-hand side is hotter and so I would occasionally move the brisket when one probe was reading >200F and the other still in the 190s. I let sit in a styrofoam cooler for a couple of hours, then took it out and let its IT drop to about 160F before cutting.

Note that I have not yet calibrated my probes and have noticed some differences between my ThermaPen, Meater+ and the Rec-Tec probes. Will probably spend some time on this over the weekend.

 

[animallover526]

Looks nice n juicy!

 

[GLF35]

That looks awesome!!!

 

[PSU-85]

I salvaged the so so brisket with some killer quesadillas. I sweated down a coarsely chopped vidalia onion, added some minced garlic, leftover rub, cumin and a little of the "water" from some fresh salsa and the chopped up brisket. Threw some 10" flour tortillas on a flat top, loaded them up with pepper jack/monterey jack and the brisket. Grilled until the tortillas were nice and brown. Served it up with salsa, sour cream and guacamole. The leftover brisket meal was better than the first meal in my opinion.