Brisket

Pat20001

I know there are many techniques to doing a brisket but I'm interested in anyone's key learnings from foiling a brisket either before or after the "stall". The brisket I did this weekend had good bark but wasn't extra tender. I cooked until it reached 190 and then put it in a cooler to set. I'm wondering if I had foiled it would it have come out like I wanted it. 

DMW

At 190*, it probably had a bit more cooking to go. With a brisket temp is just an indicator of when to start checking for when the brisket is ready to come off. You want to be able to skewer the flat with a probe with almost no resistance. You want to probe from the top, not the side of the brisket, in the flat. I find briskets are usually happy in the 195*-205* range for choice briskets. Prime and Wagyu can be done earlier, I've had wagyu finish as early as 185*.

JRWhitee

I agree with DMW, I cooked a brisket Friday night and it turned out fantastic just like the last one I did, tender and juicy. At 190 I started probing the brisket and it seemed a little tough in the flat, than again at 194 and it still was a little tough finally at 196 it went in very easy in a couple spots so I pulled and double wrapped in HD foil and into the cooler with towels. I sliced it up a couple hours later and it was fantastic. Every brisket will be different. The one prior was done at 198...

SGH

Pat20001 said:

 I'm interested in anyone's key learnings from foiling a brisket either before or after the "stall". 

Let me first point out that I'm neither a pro nor a Brisket God. But I have seen a few cooked in my time. With that said and out of the way, I will take a stab at part of your question quoted above. While there are numerous reasons for wrapping before or after the stall, I will cite the single most common reason for the before/after choice. Again there are many and all are valid, but these are the most common reasons for most people. 
Wrapping before: To reduce cook time. 
Wrapping after: To impart as much smoke as possible and develop bark as much as possible before wrapping. 
Again there are many other reasons but these are usually the thought more often than not. To the wrapping before, preserving the mahogany color as opposed to creating a meteor would be a very, very close second behind speeding the cook. I mention it here simply because everyone does not like a meteor. 

NoobZero

I just messed one up by going strictly by temp. Ended up overcooking it shooting for 203 degrees. Should have started probing at 190. Lesson learned.

travisstrick

This one was done at 207. 

lousubcap

@travisstrick- Now that is a thing of beauty.  Home-run right there.