Beef Brisket Failure

Ladeback69

When I smoke a brisket I use a basic rub I like and put it on the day before. I get the grill to temp put some wood on and let that get going before I put the meat on. I let it smoke for a few hours before I check the temp. When it gets to 165 its basically there and you could take it off if you want our wrap it in foil and take it a little higher. I also like doing a full brisket or just the tip. The tip has the most fat and tastes the best to me, meat candy. Give it another try and try a tip this time.

cazzy

Ladeback69 said:

When I smoke a brisket I use a basic rub I like and put it on the day before. I get the grill to temp put some wood on and let that get going before I put the meat on. I let it smoke for a few hours before I check the temp. When it gets to 165 its basically there and you could take it off if you want our wrap it in foil and take it a little higher. I also like doing a full brisket or just the tip. The tip has the most fat and tastes the best to me, meat candy. Give it another try and try a tip this time.

Outside of the foil, I agree. The tip? Where are you from?

nolaegghead

Zmokin said:

OK, I stopped at the Sierra Smokehouse and bought a 1/4 lb of smoked beef brisket today on my way home from work.  I've decided my first attempt was not a failure.  I'm putting the blame on the meat, my personal preferences, and maybe a tad over-cooked based on the less marbling.  The brisket as prepared by a professional with lots of winning awards decorating his walls I could tell was more marbled than the cut I had.  But it still exhibited some of the texture I find un-appealing.  I attribute that to my preference for rare to medium rare beef.  I think my displeasure in my result is I just generally don't care for beef that is well-done.  It really needs to be smothered in a gravy of some kind for me to like it.  So a pot roast loaded with gravy, or Beef Stroganoff, I like.  I will be able to get through my sliced brisket as either French Dip sandwiches or beef & Swiss cheese with lots of mayonnaise.  I do like beef ribs with a nice BBQ glaze on them, preferably a bourbon based BBQ sauce.  I've decided I won't try a plain brisket again.  I will continue to smoke Pastrami & ribs to high temps, and I will smoke a rib roast to medium rare and tri-tip to medium, but plain beef brisket is officially off my repertoire.  Thanks for all the feedback.

You may very well be right - your brisket isn't bad but you just don't like it.  

There's a phenomenon where people who like meat well done won't eat well done meat if there's any trace of red (happens all the time, especially with ribeye), I think you might like pastrami better than brisket because of the opposite.  The cure keeps the meat red even though it's well done.  Well, and pastrami tastes completely different.

Dirty little secret with brisket and boston butt, ribs, wings, and other "well-done" meats is they're actually dry as hell.  The muscle fibers denatured and squeezed out most of the water.  But reality is 99% perception, right?  You perceive that dry meat to be moist because it's tender and it has an abundance of fat and gelatin that appear to your palate as moist meat.  If you render out the fat and/or gelatin, they appear dry. 

So all that collagen and connective tissue converts to gelatin and breaks down.  Once you hit that point, it's done.  This might happen at 140F if you sous vide it for three days, or at 195 or 205 on the smoker.  It's important to check for tenderness.  Temp is not an indicator of doneness.  It's a guideline if you're following some protocol, but each chunk o meat is different.  You cook too long and you're outside your window of deliciousness.

I see a lot of people, I don't think this is true in your situation, but they claim their brisket is dry and overcooked when in fact it's undercooked.  Anyway, brisket has a little narrower window than other chef cut meats but it can really shine.

BBQBiezy

I wouldn't marinade in an acid like vinegar for very long at all. Left long enough the acid can begin to denature the proteins causing them to "cook."

nolaegghead

BBQBiezy said:

I wouldn't marinade in an acid like vinegar for very long at all. Left long enough the acid can begin to denature the proteins causing them to "cook."

I agree.  Not that the reaction is always bad, it's a way to "pickle" meat.  That said, pickled meat that's grilled can get weird.  Also, it can make the outside texture kind of "mushy".

Zmokin

BBQBiezy said:

I wouldn't marinade in an acid like vinegar for very long at all. Left long enough the acid can begin to denature the proteins causing them to "cook."

I think then my marinade, even though it was a diluted vinegar, may have also contributed to the texture problem I'm experiencing.