Brisket help.

waltinva

We want to try brisket.  All we could find were flats in the 4.5 to 5 lb. range.  I bought what I thought were the best two. Tried to get an even thickness but all of them tapered down pretty thin at one end.  Cooking time?  Everything I have read seems geared to a larger cut of meat.  We have had the xl bge for a couple of months now and love it. Any help greatly appreciated.

ncbbq

I was in the same boat. I wanted to try brisked and only found flats in that range. I've done three and they got progressively better but still not where I want it. There have all been edible though which is a good thing. A lot of the brisket pro's on here say it is very difficult to get great results with these small flats. From my experience I am inclined to agree with them. With that said I think my last one was 4 lbs and took 6 or 7 hours at a 225 - 250 dome temp range. Time is just an estimate and you need to look for an internal temperature of 195 - 200. They also say that the temperature is also another guideline and using a probe to test tenderness is the ultimate way to test for doneness. Since I have limited experience I went mainly on temperature in my prior attempts (which may be my problem). Definitely give those small flats a try. All of the ones I have done have been decent to good, just not great. I would be interested to hear your results. Also hopefully some of the more experienced brisket cooks here will offer some additional advice. What little I know I've learned from them and trial and error. Eventually I want to get a whole packer just been afraid to ruin a big chunk of meat.

I wrote up what I did on my latest attempt in another thread if you are interested.

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1140616/3rd-brisket-and-first-maverick-cook

booksw

like ncbbq I am also a brisket newbie and I will say that patience is the word.  You can't be on a time schedule- After its cooked you wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil and then a bath towel and place that in a warmed up cooler for at least an hour or even several hours so that is where your wiggle room is with the time.  I made one for my daughters 8th grade graduation dinner.  We had guests coming over at 7 PM and we had to be at the graduation at 4 PM.  I put a 6 lb flat on my large BGE at 10:30 the night before and it did not get up to temperature until a little after 3 PM.  Part of that is because the fire went very low in the middle of the night for 2-3 hours and part of that is because we had a very long stall.  What I keep reading and hearing is that patience is the key word (sometimes alternating with bourbon) and don't be too much of a planner- consider it a learning experience!  There is tons on this site to read about brisket so I would say read read read and then relax and have fun and let the meat lead you.  My daughter and I are going to try a packer next week!

lousubcap

The above posts capture all the challenges with brisket-especially a flat.  I always figure at least 2 hrs/# at a calibrated dome of 250-270*F. What follows are a few great links-

Check these sites for more info;

http://www.amazingribs.com/recipes/beef/texas_brisket.html
http://www.bubbatim.com/
http://www.nakedwhiz.com/recipes.htm
http://playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.com/1996/03/brisket.html
All the info you will ever need.

BTW- some will basically braise the flat on the BGE-search that topic and you should find a thread by travisstrick that has yielded great results.  All in the journey-