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HELP! Brisket Ready 7 Hours Early!

GeorgiaBorn
GeorgiaBorn Posts: 178
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Good morning. Doing my first brisket. Bought a packer cut that weighed a little over 9lbs after trimming a bit of fat. From everything I read here and on other sites, I was figuring about an hour and a half per pound at 225-235 degrees. So naturally I was thinking it was going to take about 13.5 hours.

I put the brisket on the egg at 1:30am this morning and just checked the temp at 9:45am and it's reading 190-200 degrees from the flat to the point and all points in between. How on earth did this get ready in 8 hours????

So, now my problem....My dinner guests aren't coming until 6:00pm tonight. How do I serve this 8 hours from now so it's not ice cold? And do I slice it now or wait?

Thanks

Comments

  • Crimsongator
    Crimsongator Posts: 5,797
    If you slice now, the brisket will get dry. What are you using to check the brisket temp and have you checked its calibration lately.
  • I am using a regular probe meat thermometer that is pretty darn accurate. I know it's ready because the probe slid into the meat like butter. No resistance at all.

    Right now I have the brisket wrapped in foil, a towel and inside a cooler.

    I am also making burnt ends so I assume that I should leave the brisket in the cooler until I get ready to carve the point off to make the burnt ends. Is that correct? Also, my big question is how do I warm this up for my guests? In the oven before I slice?
  • Crimsongator
    Crimsongator Posts: 5,797
    Yes, I would cut the point off about an hour early and stick it in the egg to render more fat out. Then toss it in sauce and serve.

    As for holding, you have some options. You could add some jus or broth to the foil to help with moisture for the brisket. Be sure to wrap it tight and put it in the oven on the lowest setting and the highest rack. For me, that is 170* The very end of the flat will probably get very dry this way, but you can keep the middle good and moist. Sometime around 2-3 I would take it out, wrap in towels and place in a cooler. You can hold it here for the rest of the time. I would slice it as close to serving as possible to keep it from drying.
  • Thanks Gene. Any thoughts on how this got ready so quickly? I monitored the temp on the egg for the first hour and a half at 225-230. It was steady when I went to sleep at 3am. I did wake up at 7am and checked the temp again it was around 235-240. When I woke up at 9am, the temp was 235, so it doesn't appear that there were any major spikes in temperature during the process. And yes, my BGE thermometer has been calibrated a few times ;)

    Oh, and I did check the calibration on my meat thermometer and it was about 10 degrees high. So, the actual temp of the brisket ranged from 180/185-190.
  • Eggator
    Eggator Posts: 12
    What you describe is usually my experience cooking a packer brisket - I've never had it go the full 1.5 hours per pound rule, it's usually around 1 hour for me. Not sure why! :)

    In my opinion, your brisket should be in great shape by the time your guests get there, especially if you follow Crimson's suggestion to keep it warm for a couple more hours. I've held one in a cooler for 6 hours wrapped in towels and still had it come out very warm for slicing. I definitely agree with not slicing it now.

    No worries, it'll be great and your guests will rave about how tender it is at 6!
  • Crimsongator
    Crimsongator Posts: 5,797
    It all comes down to point thickness and how much fat on the flat end I suspect. A thinner flat with little fat protecting the bottom will take much less time.

    If you are in the 180 range, go ahead and leave it on the egg until you get up to 195. This will also buy you an hour or so before you go to the oven.
  • I had a thought.

    Since I am carving off the point to make the burnt ends and will be putting that back on the Egg at 200 for 1.5-2 hours, what if I took Gene's advice and wrapped the flat in foil, used a bit of beef stock and instead of putting it in the oven at 170, put it back on the egg at 200 while the point got ready?
  • Crimsongator
    Crimsongator Posts: 5,797
    You could do that. My other thought was to leave the thermo in the meat after wrapped so you can monitor the internal temp.