Strange Brisket Cook (Question)

KamadoDragon

TL;DR: My last brisket cook either did not stall or never came out of the stall, any ideas why?

I'm no stranger to brisket, having lost count of how many I have done over the past few years. This last one showed me that no two cooks are the same and that what we learned along the way is at best a guideline for our next cook.
Case in point...

My standard brisket cook is:

• Prep the brisket with a light layer of red Alaea sea salt, followed by a low salt spice rub a few hours later.
• Get the BGE to temperature, I usually settle for ~250º F because this seems to be it's sweet spot (and this may just be my BGE)...
• Put the brisket on 15 - 18 hours before it should be served, place the temperature probes in and wait.
• At somewhere between 155º F - 170º F the brisket goes into it's stall, decide whether or not to "crutch".
• Eventually the brisket comes out of the stall and the temperature starts it's steady rise again.
• When the brisket is done, take it off the fire, wrap it and hold it for at least an hour before slicing.

This last brisket acted differently, temperature raised fairly quickly to about 140º F then flattened out to a ~ 2-4º F / hour rise, which is typical for the stall. The odd thing is, this brisket never came out of it's "stall" and was done at about 198º F.  Done being defined as "jiggly like Jell-O" and no resistance when inserting the temperature probe.

The only significant difference in this cook was:

• The cut of meat, this one was Prime, I usually buy Select.
• Did not crutch the brisket
• Temperature, I kept the BGE down between 220º F and 235º F which required constant attention (yay bluetooth temperature probes).

The brisket itself was one of my better cooks, so I have no qualms with how it turned out. I was just wondering if any of you seen anything similar in your cooks?

Just wondering...

lousubcap

Always remember, "the cow drives the cook."  That said, I have seen about all manner of variances with a brisket cook but only had one hit the finish-line below 200*F and that was a SRF Black that came in in the low 190's.  As long as you are watching the process of the cook and get the result you want, then declare victory.  
I will also add that the quality of protein going in has a large influence on the outcome-all other thing equal.  
I guess other than the hi-speed cooks that have averaged around 0.7 hrs/lb with the dome at 250-260*F I recently had one that hit 180*F in four hours (straight from the fridge) and then took another 5+ hours to release.  (10+ lbs post-trim.)  FWIW-

KamadoDragon

I am confident that the quality of the cut made a difference in the outcome, so much so in fact that I am seriously considering only cooking primes in the future...

I guess the only way to get to the bottom of this is to make another brisket matching all the variables except temperature.

I'm sure I can find someone to help me eat another brisket...

lousubcap

Good luck with matching the cow variables...  
And you will have no issues with people ready to pound the finished product.  Above all, have fun.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

I don't understand how you never came out of the stall and ended up at 198? Are you saying it never accelerated back up after it initially stalled? Just crept up to 198?

Chubbs

I am confused on the never came out of the stall comment as well. Assume you mean is slowly rose in temp rest of the way as opposed to climbing fairly quickly like first half of cook. 

The main difference in Cook was prime grade beef versus select. Glad it ended well!

KamadoDragon

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I don't understand how you never came out of the stall and ended up at 198? Are you saying it never accelerated back up after it initially stalled? Just crept up to 198?

Chubbs said:

I am confused on the never came out of the stall comment as well. Assume you mean is slowly rose in temp rest of the way as opposed to climbing fairly quickly like first half of cook. 

Correct, I am used to seeing the Stall / plateau start at 160º F and then after several hours speed back up (there is a good graph here). This time is just stayed at the 2º-4º / hour range for the rest of the cook.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with the final product, I just found the behavior strange and wondered if anyone else had ever seen this.

In retrospect I should have saved the temp graph from my probes for reference... Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

Brisket_Fanatic

It came out of the stall as it finished close to 200. Brisket has you know if a picky thing but a steady slow increase like you experienced is not uncommon. I have had briskets cook at all sorts of different speeds and quality definitely will change how they cook as they contain more fat which contains less water weight than muscle fiber. 

Thatgrimguy

All this technology makes people cook different. All I know for sure at this point is some briskets take longer before they jiggle right. Haven't left a probe in one since my first couple.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Thatgrimguy said:

All this technology makes people cook different. All I know for sure at this point is some briskets take longer before they jiggle right. Haven't left a probe in one since my first couple.

I don’t leave probes in anymore either. I start to poke them when the time seems right

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Brisket_Fanatic said:

It came out of the stall as it finished close to 200. Brisket has you know if a picky thing but a steady slow increase like you experienced is not uncommon. I have had briskets cook at all sorts of different speeds and quality definitely will change how they cook as they contain more fat which contains less water weight than muscle fiber. 

Brisket_Fanatic said:

It came out of the stall as it finished close to 200. Brisket has you know if a picky thing but a steady slow increase like you experienced is not uncommon. I have had briskets cook at all sorts of different speeds and quality definitely will change how they cook as they contain more fat which contains less water weight than muscle fiber. 

If you are looking for an opinion- I think it was that you were cooking at such a low temp. Hard to get moving through the stall at those temps when you don’t wrap. If you think about it, it’s difficult to get to 200 when you are cooking at 220. If you were at 275, I think you would have seen a more traditional stall and release. 

flexfusion

I think Can-Tex Smoker makes a very good point.  Cooking at 225º and pulling around 200º mean your temperatures are almost equalized.  Seems strong to me ever to get anything done this way.  I've started cooking all low and slow cooks with a minimum temperature of 250º.  In fact the last butt I cooked was at 285º and it was the best I've ever cooked.  Thanks to the SMOBOT I can now maintain a constant temperate and not worry about chasing the highs and lows anymore.