1st Brisket: Observations

WudEyeDoo

I slow cooked my first brisket this weekend. It was a 10.5 pound whole brisket. Used JJ's rub, applied the night before. Cooked indirect with plate setter(legs up), drip pan with water in it on plate setter, grid with v-rack.[p]I was originally shooting for a dome temp of 210 to 220. The brisket hit the plateau people have mentioned before at about the 16 to 17 hour mark between 150 and 153 internal temp. Hours went by, getting nowhere! Thank goodness this forum had clued me in advance about this or I wouldn't have known what to do. I just waited...and waited. Finally it broke thru and started climbing, but much slower than I expected. [p]I think Nature Boy is right when he says "when cooking indirect with liquid in the drip pan, kick the dome temp up to at least 250". I wish I had done that from the beginning. I finally did, but not until around the 20 hour mark. [p]How long did it take to cook this 10.5 pound brisket? 27 hours!!! By the way, that was just to 188 degree internal meat temp. I couldn't wait any longer to get it to 190-200. Is this normal? My polder and instant read therm. are correct, BTW. I checked all that just before beginning the cook.[p]I am happy to report that the brisket turned out great, I was pretty proud of the finished product. Thank you to Nature Boy and Citizen Q for your previous posts on brisket. They helped a lot. [p]Bob

Nature Boy

WudEyeDoo,
Nice work! Sounds like a major success. And yes, 188 was probably a fine temp to pull it off at, especially considering the time that that guy cooked. A fork poke will give you all the info you need. And I expect it passed the fork test just fine after all of the time your chunk-o-chest had to break down.[p]Using 250 dome temp will cut your cooking time quite a bit, and without any noticeable drop in the final results....texture/tenderness/moisture. [p]congrats on the success!
NB