Brisket Help!

[Brew BQ]

Okay, I got a 12.73 pound brisket the other day. Got up this morning and put it on the smoker at 3:15am. Thinking I would pull it off at 4pm, let it sit, and slice her up and be ready to eat at 6pm. Well as luck would have it, it is now sitting in the cooler with towels wrapped around it. I left the thermometer in it and it has gone back down to 195*. The smoker is still chugging away.

What do I need to do to keep it so that I can eat it by 6pm? Any suggestions would be appreciated. It's 10:23am here and seriously considering on breaking out the Saint Arnold's Spring Bock!

[Brew BQ]

It's a little after 11am and my temps are now down to 179*. Do I need to stick it in the oven and if so, what should I set the oven at?

[Pork-Q-Pine]

Keep monitoring the temps. Wrap it really good and keep the cooler in a warm place. Don't keep opening the cooler to check temps. It should keep for many hours. If you get nervous and the temps drop below 140 put it in the smoker all wrapped up in foil and run the smoker at 180 until about an hour before service.

You must have had the smoker running too hot to get the brisket done so fast. I have been using the Mixon fast cook method lately, I get sleep and the brisket is a few notches below competition quality but way better than anything at a restaurant.

BBQ is an art not a science. Keep doing it until you get it right. The failures are still excellent and how else do you want to spend your time?

[Brew BQ]

According to my Maverick ET-73 thermometers I was running at about 247* on the maximum and 192* on the minimum. It averaged about 215*. Either my thermometers are wrong or there is something else. It seems here lately that my briskets are running less than an hour per pound. According to this one, it ran at about 32 minutes a pound. Is this normal? I just gotta figure this out before I try my first comp in June.

Also, I'm not opening my cooler at all. I'm using my Maverick thermometer with the transmitter sitting on the cooler. I do the same thing when it's in the smoker. I don't open it...not even for my wife when she wants to peek. I tell her she can see the finished product when it's done and when it counts!

So, is the danger zone at 140*? My smoker is about dead now since I didn't have anything else to Q today. If it gets in that range, could I put the oven on the lowest setting and go from there?

I'll check back in a bit. I think Mr. Sandman is creeping up on me and I need to take a nap.

[serialgriller]

yeah, keep it wrapped in the foil and set your oven to 200* if you have to. it should be fine.

[Stace]

Once the internal temp has reached 195+ your brisket is thoroughly cooked and there should be no danger zone. Just keep it wrapped and it will be fine and dandy for supper. The danger zone is only in effect if the internal temp never got above 160*

[HoosierTrooper]

A 12.73 lb brisket cooked at an average temperature of 215 and it's done in 6 hours? Something ain't right...

[texasbill]

Your brisket is just fine just cut it up and enjoy.

Bill

[Brew BQ]

So, Ritch over at Gator Pits builds one heck of a pit! He can cut down the time it takes to bbq a brisket? Going to cut into it now and see how it goes. I put it in the oven and let the internal go back up to 171. Hopefully, she aint dry. :banghead:

[BigBoy'Q]

And the verdict is....

[bearbonez]

How'd it come out??

[HoosierTrooper]

Guess we'll never know how Brew BQ's Instant Brisket turned out...

[david brace]

Damn...I saw this thread too late. And I was just about to give my 'expert opinion' :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :D



DB

[Brew BQ]

And the verdict is....

Sorry about that guys. I got carried away with all the food that I forgot to come back.

Well, she was a little dry on the very end of the flat. Smoke ring was not very prominent. I sliced the flat and chopped the point and needless to say, not one drip of BBQ sauce was used and everyone in this house was pleased!

So the final outcome was this...a 12.73 pound brisket was done in 6 hours and 47 minutes, not that great looking for competition standards (I'm guessing on that one since I haven't competed yet), a little dry on the very end but after about 3 or 4 slices they started looking very good, and by golly it tasted better than any of the Q joints down the road!

As for why my briskets have been finishing early, I couldn't tell ya. I checked my Maverick thermometers with a glass of ice water. Also, checked that temp with my Thermo-pen. The result, was it was off by only a few degrees (less than 8 degrees difference). So I must not be getting any over-cooking on the brisket. I do have another question for you guys to ponder...I do trim the heck out of the brisket, so could that actually be cutting down on my time in the smoker? Unless anyone knows that answer right off hand, I guess next time I'll have to weigh the brisket after I trim it and see if that's getting me closer to the 1 hour per pound theory. One last question, what is the number of hours per pound that everyone else uses? Like I said, I just want to get closer on my timing when I do finally compete.

Thanks for all the help, when I really needed it and felt like it was the end of the world!

[Big_g]

On a regular 'ol packer brisket, I'll put it in the smoker around 7 pm at 220ish and let it cruise all night...pull it around 8 am (if the temp is right) wrap it and let it snooze in a cooler til lunch time. Then eat as much as I can :)

[Cliff H.]

This sounds familiar to me.

I was measuring temps from the lid of my uds ( drum ) and found the grate to be 20 deg hotter than the lid. This doesn't happen on every cook but I am taking trustworthy temps at the grate from now on.

[Pork-Q-Pine]

You said you trimmed the heck out of it. That may be part of the puzzle since I don't trim very much as I think the fat cap adds flavor during the cook and can easily be trimmed when you pull it. The lack of fat may have speeded up the process.

[texasbill]

Yeah trimming the heck out of a brisket can cut the cooking time down. Good advice from the ones above on the trimming and timing. Look a brisket it a different piece of meat than most anything else. They have a mind of their own and there is no rigid stadfast way to actually tell you how long a brisket will take to cook. The old 1 to 1 1/2 hours per pound are just estimates and the best way to find out on your smoker and at what temps it takes to get one finished is to just cook a few and keep some notes. If it gets finished before you guessed it would then it will keep fine until you eat it or enter it in a comp.

For myself I find that 1 to 1 1/2 hours (usually closer to 1 hour per pound) on a whole untrimmed packer brisket is about right. I like to cook at 200 to 210 degrees and that is about the timing for me. Sometimes it is longer and sometimes it is shorter. Shorter is better when cooking for comps cause brisket that is not finished is sure hard to win with.

Bill

[ezgoin]

I've smoked briskets from the same case, same weight, and same grade that varied two to six hours in cooking time. Each piece of meat is different.

I'm lazy, so I don't trim what the heat's going to render anyway, and I don't wrap until they're done. I think allowing the fat to render instead of trimming also allows for a moister brisket without wrapping.

I've held brisket in a cooler or cambro for almost nine hours and had it still be too hot to slice easily if I didn't let them set out for about an hour.

[DoubleBarrelSmoker]

why trim a brisket:? :? I never do and i think the fat adds to the moisture

[Oli]

I'm lazy, so I don't trim what the heat's going to render anyway,.

not too lazy to keep stokin the fire for a few more hours than needed. but I guess with fast eddys thats not a problem is it.


i am more like 45-50 minutes a pound @ 270. and have held them in a cooler up to 6 hours.

...a brisket will gain approx 10 degrees an hour at 225.

[ezgoin]

not too lazy to keep stokin the fire for a few more hours than needed. but I guess with fast eddys thats not a problem is it.


i am more like 45-50 minutes a pound @ 270. and have held them in a cooler up to 6 hours.

...a brisket will gain approx 10 degrees an hour at 225.


I do like my shuteye.

[serialgriller]

...a brisket will gain approx 10 degrees an hour at 225.

does ron know you stole his charts and graphs????:D :D

[Oli]

the only time ron ever see's 225 is when he is lighting the fire.....

[Michiana Mark]

Sorry about that guys. I got carried away with all the food that I forgot to come back.

Well, she was a little dry on the very end of the flat. Smoke ring was not very prominent. I sliced the flat and chopped the point and needless to say, not one drip of BBQ sauce was used and everyone in this house was pleased!

So the final outcome was this...a 12.73 pound brisket was done in 6 hours and 47 minutes, not that great looking for competition standards (I'm guessing on that one since I haven't competed yet), a little dry on the very end but after about 3 or 4 slices they started looking very good, and by golly it tasted better than any of the Q joints down the road!

As for why my briskets have been finishing early, I couldn't tell ya. I checked my Maverick thermometers with a glass of ice water. Also, checked that temp with my Thermo-pen. The result, was it was off by only a few degrees (less than 8 degrees difference). So I must not be getting any over-cooking on the brisket. I do have another question for you guys to ponder...I do trim the heck out of the brisket, so could that actually be cutting down on my time in the smoker? Unless anyone knows that answer right off hand, I guess next time I'll have to weigh the brisket after I trim it and see if that's getting me closer to the 1 hour per pound theory. One last question, what is the number of hours per pound that everyone else uses? Like I said, I just want to get closer on my timing when I do finally compete.

Thanks for all the help, when I really needed it and felt like it was the end of the world!

Brew, I always check my therms by putting them in boiling water. Water boils at 212 at sea level. Check your temp with your therm-pen and then check your Mavericks. My digital therm probes are always going bad. Also you don't cook to 32, but to 190-200. Also my Gator pit thermos are used for reference only. I stick a digital probe next to where I'm cooking through a potato. Placing the probe on the grate allows it to pickup the temp of the grate not the air. Hope this helps.

[Deep South]

Trimming is a sin in my book, before OR after.

I spent all night cooking a brisket last summer and made the mistake of letting someone else do the cutting when I was finished.

He was a kitchen manager at a popular BBQ joint in town and I was MORTIFIED to find he sliced off every bit of fat and smoke ring and threw it away... I could have cried.