The journey- possible brisket fail

Stew21

Tried my first brisket tonight after a lot of reading on the how to. Followed http://playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.ca/1996/03/brisket.html. Picked up a small flat (probably), Black Angus beef, about 1 lbs. Did sea salt, pepper, cayenne with a mustard / Worcester slather. Set the BGE at 210F (dome thermometer was calibrated about 2 months ago). Some wood chip, plate setter in, grill and drip pan check, brisket on at 2:00 pm. 

At 4:00 turn it up to ~280-3000F. At 5:30 first check, thermometer shows 105-110F, very stiff. No worries, it's suppose to do that, right? Inject beef broth with a little oil and vinegar (was simmering when I did the injection). Now cooking at 300-320F. At 6:30 still not over 120F in the middle and putting the thermometer in and out is like wrestling a stick from a dog. Ok, no prob, wrap in foil, more broth in the foil and open the vent to 350F. 8:00 pm, brisket now at 145F and still stiff as a board. Crap. Now what. Don't want to cook it any more, it's been on for 7 hours.  I'll try the FTC, let's hope that finishes and tenderizes the meat but we aren't having brisket tonight.

Thoughts, little help if you have any ideas.

henapple

1 lb?

Grillmagic

1 pound brisket, isn't that a sandwich...

gerhardk

You failed to include the most important ingredient when smoking, that is patience.  

1 lb brisket is something I have never seen before, small brisket is usually in the 7 to 8 pound range.

Gerhard

Stew21

So, here's the update, couple of hours FTC, still just warm when I pulled it out.  

Looks great, smells great, tender like a piece of jerky.  It looked big enough to feed 2, shrunk a bit with the cook. Reading all the recipes out there they talked about a full size 12-16 lbs flat and point, finishing that in 12-17 hours.  I thought with the smaller size of this one the 7 hours on the egg plus the 2 FTC should be more than enough.  Guess not.  

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Your fail came at the market when you bought a 1lb trimmed chunk of brisket. You were doomed from that point forward. 

a 1lb piece of brisket would have been done in 30-45 minutes at that temp but still would not be tender. You can't get a small cut of brisket like that tender by smoking it. If you aren't buying a whole brisket or at least a whole flat, skip the brisket and do something else. You are wasting time and money cooking 1lb pcs of brisket.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

and throw away whatever you were using to measure internal temp. It is obviously broken.

henapple

@Stew21... It gets better, I promise. Get a thermapen. It's a game changer.
Keep egging
Keep posting
Keep drinking... Ok, the last one is redundant.

TexanOfTheNorth

On a plus note, you did get a nice smoke ring.

Don't give up!

The Cen-Tex Smoker

henapple said:

@Stew21... It gets better, I promise. Get a thermapen. It's a game changer. Keep egging Keep posting Keep drinking... Ok, the last one is redundant.

agreed. I tried those small briskets several times before I knew what I was doing and they were always frustrating. You think "I don't want to waste $50 on a huge hunk of meat and we only have a few people to feed". That all sounds like reasonable thought but brisket just does not work that way. Unfortunately, you are going to have to ruin a few $50 hunks of meat before you get in the groove with brisket. I ruined many but that was long before I knew about this place. You are already ahead of the game by being on here. 

Chalk this one up to the bad guys and try again. 

DMW

Agree with all the prior posts. I had a 3lb brisket piece in the freezer I tried. Should have ground it up for burgers...

JRWhitee

I agree as well, my first Brisket was a 6# flat and was shoe leather. I have since always bought packers, 2nd try was good, 3rd was better and all the rest have been very good. Practice makes perfect. 

Little Steven

Good advice here. You can braise a small piece too.

henapple

Dammit, someone has to do it... "The Travis Method".

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Little Steven said:

Good advice here. You can braise a small piece too.

or brine it and make some corned beef or pastrami

Little Steven

henapple said:

Dammit, someone has to do it... "The Travis Method".

You mean "How I boil my brisket"?

Eggcelsior

Little Steven said:

henapple said:

Dammit, someone has to do it... "The Travis Method".

You mean "How I boil my brisket"?

You're making me verklempt.

Stew21

Ah, so if I want beef, go big or buy a steak!  Guess I'll have to throw a party to justify a full hunk-o-beef.  

Hotch

Oh no, just a few friends and a couple of your neighbors will take all you got left of a good brisket.

You should find a 8-10lb packer and yield about 4-5 lbs on the flat and then go for broke and take the point for another 2-3 hour ride and make some nice burnt ends. 

Relax, egging is a journey not a destination.

Where are you shopping for a brisket at?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

You can do chuck roast or beef chuck ribs if you want beef bbq for a smaller group. practice on a few whole briskets and either save the leftovers or feed the neighbors/church group/fire station

Cookinbob

I found a 9 lb packer @ Walmart. $2.59 per lb. Leftovers made great sammiches.

lousubcap

@henapple-I believe that even "The Master" has moved away from the "how I do it" braise to the traditional Texas method and has placed in a few cooks with his to be named and famous follow-up method.  That said, any flat is a challenge (or another eggscuse for adult supervisory beverage time) but the journey is always worth it, at least for me. Not to mention SWMBO eggscape time >-

JRWhitee

If I ever do a flat again it will definitely be the Travis Method. My last packer I did Travis Method and it was very good.

SteveListello

Go big or don't waste your money.  Go full packer brisket about 12 lbs or more or just get a steak to cook.  Isn't the idea of the BGE to cook large pieces of meat that have a lot of fat content so it slowly cooks out of the meat and tenderizes so to speak as it cooks.  Small pieces of meat will be done cooking in too short of time.  The important thing it seams to me with cooking brisket successfully is to have a full packer piece of meat and to keep the temperature at 225 to 250.  The BGE will take it from there and make it great.