Brisket Challenge

dsleight

Going to try my first brisket on Sunday.  Picked up this little baby 5 pound brisket, but after reading up on the forum I may have not done myself any favors.  From the sounds of it, these little ones are more difficult to cook than the full brisket.  I am planning to coat it with the dizzy pig cow lick, set the egg on 225-250 degrees an let it rip.  At the 160 degree mark, I will decide to foil or not based on how dry it looks.........I guess.

tikigriller

You should be fine.  I would only be worried if it was trimmed...but since it is Super Trimmed, it will basically cook itself!

dsleight

tikigriller said:

You should be fine.  I would only be worried if it was trimmed...but since it is Super Trimmed, it will basically cook itself!

Yeah, that is the part that concerns me.  There is very little fat left on this thing.  If I knew anything about briskets, I would probably not have purchased it.  This just falls into the category of not going shopping while you are hungry, it seemed like a good idea at the time.  Anyway, there is always chopped brisket sandwiches if it turns out too bad.  Just soak it in some sauce and throw it between some buns.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Don't buy those anymore. You can buy prime packers at the same price at HEB. You bought a super trimmed select flat. Those are difficult to get right. There is very little fat in the meat and the trim all the good fat off the top as well. Give it a rip- but Iwould wrap that one and maybe take it up to around 205 to get it as tender as you can. It's going to be on the dry side but chop it up with some sauce if it's too dry and you will have some great sandwiches. 

dsleight

OK, put the meat on the egg around 9:00AM.  After sleeping on it and taking in the suggestions posted, I am going to do a combination.  I am going to put it on unwrapped for 1 hour and then wrap in foil until it reaches 190.  After that I am thinking about pulling the foil to dry out the outside a little and finish it to 200 or so.

Anybody see any major issues with this method?

The Cen-Tex Smoker

When do you want to eat? An hour is not long enough in the smoke

dsleight

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

When do you want to eat? An hour is not long enough in the smoke

I would like to eat it around 7:00, but I am not really on a schedule.  How long do you think I could leave it in the smoke?  I was sorta going with your first bit of advice, but I wanted at least a little bit of smoke on it (the only reason I didn't wrap from the start).

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Leave it in for 4-5 hours at 250 or until it hits the stall (around 165 or so) Then wrap with it a little (like 1/4 cup or so) of beef broth or a little espresso or a spritz with 50/50 apple cider vinegar and water to give it a little moisture before you wrap it. Then finish it up like you said. 

dsleight

Here is the final product, I would give it a 7 out of 10 rating.  The brisket hit the stall around 154 and stayed there for approximately 1 hour.  I got nervous and pulled to wrap in foil.  Total cook time for this 5lb brisket was around 7 hours.  It was tender but not real moist (expected since it was so lean to start with).  I pulled it off at 202, it never did probe that easy.  Put in in a towel and cooler for a couple of hours until dinner.

YukonRon

Beautiful cook, looks tasty.

pgprescott

That looks like a nice sammich ahead?