First Briket on BGE.......BV

rabdogg · July 2012

I tried my first brisket last weekend with little success. I put it on at 8 PM Friday night and cooked at 225 until the meat hit 185. Wrapped it in Foil and a towel and Placed in cooler for 3 hours. The flavor was good but it was a little on the dry side. Any suggestions?

LizzieSamps · July 2012

Did the probe slide in and out like butter when you took it off? Why only to 185 I think most cook to a higher temp like 195-205 I have seen. It is about temp but also about how it feels!

The Cen-Tex Smoker · July 2012

Did the probe slide in and out like butter when you took it off? Why only to 185 I think most cook to a higher temp like 195-205 I have seen. It is about temp but also about how it feels!

Atta girl , Lizzie. Good advice. Also would be helpful to know if op had a flat or a packer, or if they understand the difference. Maybe he will chime in and give us a few more clues......

nolaegghead · July 2012

It's tough to smoke it the whole way without drying it out. Here are a few ideas: Use a bigger piece of meat, go prime (more inter-muscle fat, makes it taste more moist), foil it at the start of the stall, and pour in some apple juice or water (partial broil). Cook a little hotter so it dries less. Try the travisstrick half braise method. Injection - never tried it on brisket (other than the brisket I'm corning right now), but you could look it up. Take it off when the flat is done - soft. Undercooking and it's tough, overcooking and it's dry. They're tough to do.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · July 2012

It's tough to smoke it the whole way without drying it out. Here are a few ideas: Use a bigger piece of meat, go prime (more inter-muscle fat, makes it taste more moist), foil it at the start of the stall, and pour in some apple juice or water (partial broil). Cook a little hotter so it dries less. Try the travisstrick half braise method. Injection - never tried it on brisket (other than the brisket I'm corning right now), but you could look it up. Take it off when the flat is done - soft. Undercooking and it's tough, overcooking and it's dry. They're tough to do.

Dude- relax.

nolaegghead · July 2012

It's tough to smoke it the whole way without drying it out. Here are a few ideas: Use a bigger piece of meat, go prime (more inter-muscle fat, makes it taste more moist), foil it at the start of the stall, and pour in some apple juice or water (partial broil). Cook a little hotter so it dries less. Try the travisstrick half braise method. Injection - never tried it on brisket (other than the brisket I'm corning right now), but you could look it up. Take it off when the flat is done - soft. Undercooking and it's tough, overcooking and it's dry. They're tough to do.

Dude- relax.

He said it was dry, not tough. I am very relaxed. Thanks.

bud812 · July 2012

It's tough to smoke it the whole way without drying it out. Here are a few ideas: Use a bigger piece of meat, go prime (more inter-muscle fat, makes it taste more moist), foil it at the start of the stall, and pour in some apple juice or water (partial broil). Cook a little hotter so it dries less. Try the travisstrick half braise method. Injection - never tried it on brisket (other than the brisket I'm corning right now), but you could look it up. Take it off when the flat is done - soft. Undercooking and it's tough, overcooking and it's dry. They're tough to do.

Dude- relax.

+1 Thanks Cen-Tex.

xraypat23 · July 2012

dry/tough, usually undercooked. 185 the internal fats probably haven't broken down enough.

rabdogg · July 2012

sorry for the lack of details - i was typing on the ipad. It was a 9 lb brisket that I did inject with marinade one day prior to cooking. Towards the end, the probe did slide in pretty easily without much resistance. The more I think about it, I may have not let the fats fully render out making it less dry. I will try the Travis method next time - thanks for the input guys. And one comment for nolaegghead - WHO DAT!!

The Cen-Tex Smoker · July 2012

OK- so what you have there is a whole packer with the point and flat together. By the way it crumbled at the edges when you cut it, it was either pretty dry as you say or you need to really sharpen up your knife (and possibly need a bigger knife). I have started to use an electric knife on my briskets and it works really well.

When you slice up a whole packer brisket like this one, it's best to separate the flat and the point muscles and slice them separately. Let us know if you need help here. Once you do it the first time, it super easy after that. The grain runs in multiple directions in the point and it can be tough and stringy if sliced along with the flat

Now for the dryness..........I think you may have pulled it early but it really depends on where you were measuring the temp. The point will be done hours before the flat, meaning the point will come up to temp much faster. If you are measuring in the point area, you could have temps over 200 while the flat is 20-30 degrees cooler or even still in the stall just sitting there. That's why it's critical to measure doneness in the flat. When the probe slides in and out with very little resistance in the thickest part of the flat, you are good to go. I have found this is usually around 195 or even 200 sometimes. haven't seen one done at 185 in quite some time, although that is when I begin to check mine and it can happen. Brisket, more than any other cut, is "done when it's done" and temp is not the final indicator of being done. It's when it finally gives in and becomes tender within a range of temps (Usually 185-205).

I am assuming you cooked at 225 dome thermo temp which is way too low and can cause it to dry out before getting tender. Get that dome thermo at 275+ so you are at 250-260 at the grid level (forgive me if you were talking grid level but I assume dome unless people specify).

Although some of the methods above are very common, none of them are necessary for good brisket. They are another way to get results, but you can do it with smoke, temp, and time and nothing else. I do not ever wrap or use apple juice. It destroys the crust and I don't like the texture of the meat when it's been wrapped. If you follow the same steps you did but bump the temp up to 250-260 at the grid, you'll be done in approx 1 hr per lb and I think you will enjoy the results

Sorry for the novel- you are actually much closer than you think. take 3 things from this and try again

1) Higher grid temp

2) make sure you check for doneness in the flat and pull it when the probe slides in and out in the flat (around 185-200)

3) separate the point and flat before slicing and always each against the grain

Hope this helps and let us know if you have any other questions

Oh yeah, take the dry stuff, chop it up with all that awesome bark you have on there. Warm it up and sauce it and eat it on sandwiches. it will be the best BBQ you've ever had. All is not lost with dry flats. They make great sandwiches when chopped up

rabdogg · July 2012

wow - thanks for the information!! By the way - that brisket was cut with an electric knife. Not all parts were bad, and I did end up dousing it with sauce and putting on Kaiser rolls.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · July 2012

wow - thanks for the information!! By the way - that brisket was cut with an electric knife. Not all parts were bad, and I did end up dousing it with sauce and putting on Kaiser rolls.

Cool- then it was a bit dry on the edges. I've found that cooking at those low temps (225 dome is actually close to 200 at the grid) is too much time and dries them out before they are done. Try the higher temps and see if that works

rabdogg · July 2012

I will. Thank you so much for the information, I am no doubt loving the big green egg family

The Cen-Tex Smoker · July 2012

Good deal. Let us know if you need help.

Little Steven · July 2012

I've salvaged a couple by vac sealing with some stock or sauce and reheating in simmering water

cmkratt · August 2012

I've found that cooking at those low temps (225 dome is actually close to 200 at the grid) is too much time and dries them out before they are done. Try the higher temps and see if that works
Cen-Tex - I've been wondering about that for awhile. The last few brisket cooks, I've been trying to go around 215 - 225 on the grid, and they've all been too dry, even though they passed the probe test just fine. It's also resulted in some long cooks! Next time, I'm going to try 260 on the grid and plan for an hour/ lb.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · August 2012

I've found that cooking at those low temps (225 dome is actually close to 200 at the grid) is too much time and dries them out before they are done. Try the higher temps and see if that works
Cen-Tex - I've been wondering about that for awhile. The last few brisket cooks, I've been trying to go around 215 - 225 on the grid, and they've all been too dry, even though they passed the probe test just fine. It's also resulted in some long cooks! Next time, I'm going to try 260 on the grid and plan for an hour/ lb.

I thinkyou'll like the results much better. Only took me 10 years to figure it out :)

njl · August 2012

Someone else suggested this...and I just tried it with some of my brisket leftovers. No matter how dry it is, you can make something nice from the dry brisket bits by finely chopping it, mixing it in a bowl with some BBQ sauce, and microwaving for a minute or so. I made sandwiches today with the last bits of Sunday's brisket. One end chunk I used looked inedible from the outside (all charred looking), but when chopped up, I found it was a nice mix of not at all overcooked meat and fat (flavor). I chopped it all with the last half slice, mixed in some sauce, and it was enough for 2 sandwiches.

RajunCajun · October 2012

Hang in there....you will get it right. You have a plethora of info here. I would also suggest cooking it fat cap down and then placing the fat cap upwards when you set it in the cooler. Works everytime for me.

Dave in Florida · October 2012

rabdogg said:

I tried my first brisket last weekend with little success. I put it on at 8 PM Friday night and cooked at 225 until the meat hit 185. Wrapped it in Foil and a towel and Placed in cooler for 3 hours. The flavor was good but it was a little on the dry side. Any suggestions?

To low on both areas. I cook at 275 dome but I hear from a pretty reliable source that 300 dome is the temp. Cook to 195 then start probing. When the probe slides in like butter you are there.

gerhardk · October 2012

I bought the egg because of it's ability to do low and slow so easily. All the briskets I have made had a dome temp that I stabilized at 225º and would climb to 250º over the course of the night. The cook time ended up being 1 1/2 hour per pound and all of them turned out tender, great flavour and moist. I only foiled it to hold the brisket at temp in a cooler until meal time. I did not use a mop, spray or pan filled with water or some other liquid.

Gerhard

P.S. I don't want to start anything that says my method is better than yours, just stating that there are different roads to reach your goal.

Howdy, Stranger!

Forums

First Briket on BGE.......BV

Comments