Brisket ...

Jeepster47

Stumbled onto a Costco 12 lb prime brisket that was as limp as a cat sleeping in the sun.  Trimed about 3 lbs of fat and scraps off it ... then cubed about 1.5 lbs of the end of the flat for stew meat.  The remaining 7.5 lbs was coated with salt and pepper.

The egg was filled to the fire ring notches with Rockwood and four chunks of oak smoke wood ... the missus and our company don't like a strong smoke flavor.  The four chunks turned out to be just right.  Installed the Flameboss 200 to handle the night shift and fired up the egg at 9:00pm..  With the egg stabilized at 250 degrees, the brisket went on at 10:00pm ... point towards the rear.  Planned on about 12 hours on the egg and a few hours of FTC as a time buffer.

Went to sleep after a couple of hours and left the FB in charge.  Thee Flameboss text number on my android has a really long and obnoxious country song tied to it, so no worries about sleeping through a drop in pit temp.  Woke up a couple of times during the night, rolled over, and checked the cook on my iPad ... all was good.  It started to down pour halfway through the night, so was glad the Flameboss was in charge and the Smokeware cap had everything covered.  It's not the rain that I worry about, but the black crude that that gets washed off ugly daisy and deposited on the protein. 

Love the Flameboss; neither of my Maverick's have been used to alert on overnight cooks in almost two one-and-a-half years.

Tried the cool down option on this cook.  Had the option set to trigger at a meat temp of 195; to drop the pit temp to 210 degrees.  When the pit temp went past 210 and approached 200, I flinched and manually bumped the temp up to 225 degrees.  It was still raining out and I didn't want to have to restart the fire if it went belly up.

The point end of the brisket hit 195 degrees after 11 hours.  Some probing, jiggling and downright fondling confirmed that it was done, so pulled it and set it on the table for about 20 minutes to stop the cooking.  Then into the FTC it went for 3.5 hours ... was a little nervous about going much longer than that, so started lunch/dinner an hour early.

Here's a pic of the completed brisket resting before the FTC operation:



Our company definitely falls into the spectrum of fussy eaters, but there was no evidence of it this time.  Four of us put away all the point/flat end and were well into the flat before crying uncle.

Will stick with simple salt and pepper and oak smoke wood from now on for brisket.  Rockwood and the Smokeware Cap are standard items.  The Flameboss will continue to handle grave shift control.

Couple of questions:

1) Does prime brisket cook faster than select?  This one finished faster than planned.

2) Do you use the center of the point for temp probe placement?

3) Any additional shielding of the flat during the cook to slow down it's temp rise?  Used an AR this time.

4) What's the longest you've successfully FTCed a brisket?

lousubcap

Great cook and result right there.  Bark is most eggcellent.
Here are my inputs to your above questions;
1.  I have found that the higher the grade the more likely the cook can run faster than lower grade.  I now only cook Costco prime or SRF (black) but did run with choice in the past before Costco wised up.  Generally for me they are probe like buttah in the thick part of the flat somewhere around 200-203*F.  I did have one SRF release in the low 190's but that was a cow messin' with em.
2.  I place the thermo in the thick part of the flat as that is the finish-line driver.
3.  I foil protect the thin part of the flat for several hours of the cook (run with point to the hinge) in an attempt to prevent drying.
4.  I have FTC'd a brisket for 6 hours (the cow definitely had a different script than did I) and the dome thermo was cal checked before and after.  I pre-warmed an el cheapo Igloo cooler with hot water, warmed some towels in the dryer-did the wrap and pack and put the cooler in the sun.  Was still above 140*F.  Some here have gone well beyond that time-frame.  

DMW

Lots of words I'll admit I didn't read, but looks like a winner to me.

As for your questions:

1) Does prime brisket cook faster than select?  This one finished faster than planned. - Yes

2) Do you use the center of the point for temp probe placement? - No, thickest part of the flat.

3) Any additional shielding of the flat during the cook to slow down it's temp rise?  Used an AR this time. - Just make sure it's indirect and shielded from the fire.

4) What's the longest you've successfully FTCed a brisket? - Probably 5 or 6 hours. Have had some of the best brisket ever after an 11 hour FTC by Cen Tex.

Jeepster47

Thanks guys ...

I think we're talking about placing the temp probe in the same place ... I didn't clearly explain my probe placement.  It was inserted in the "point end", out of the fat, but midway between the top and bottom surfaces of the total brisket.

If you are truly probing the thickest part of the flat, then where is the point, temp wise, when the flat is at 195ish?

With only the two of us most times, I've been cooking what our local Krogers calls a center cut brisket.  They divide the brisket into thirds with the center having a little of both the flat and the point.  Kind of a senior citizen sized brisket ... or briskette if you will.  Think I'll be doing more Costco primes from now on.

Thanks for the reassurance on the FTC times ... I used my Pelican with no preheat, so will add some preheat if going longer than 3.5 hours.

DMW

Jeepster47 said:

Thanks guys ...

I think we're talking about placing the temp probe in the same place ... I didn't clearly explain my probe placement.  It was inserted in the "point end", out of the fat, but midway between the top and bottom surfaces of the total brisket.

If you are truly probing the thickest part of the flat, then where is the point, temp wise, when the flat is at 195ish?

With only the two of us most times, I've been cooking what our local Krogers calls a center cut brisket.  They divide the brisket into thirds with the center having a little of both the flat and the point.  Kind of a senior citizen sized brisket ... or briskette if you will.  Think I'll be doing more Costco primes from now on.

Thanks for the reassurance on the FTC times ... I used my Pelican with no preheat, so will add some preheat if going longer than 3.5 hours.

I don't pay attention to temp of the point, it's just along for the ride and will be fine. What I'm looking for is the flat probing smooth like butter, usually happens between 195* and 205*, though some happen earlier (lowest I've had was 187* I think) and some higher, around 210* or so.

Jeepster47

DMW said:

Jeepster47 said:

Thanks guys ...

I think we're talking about placing the temp probe in the same place ... I didn't clearly explain my probe placement.  It was inserted in the "point end", out of the fat, but midway between the top and bottom surfaces of the total brisket.

If you are truly probing the thickest part of the flat, then where is the point, temp wise, when the flat is at 195ish?

With only the two of us most times, I've been cooking what our local Krogers calls a center cut brisket.  They divide the brisket into thirds with the center having a little of both the flat and the point.  Kind of a senior citizen sized brisket ... or briskette if you will.  Think I'll be doing more Costco primes from now on.

Thanks for the reassurance on the FTC times ... I used my Pelican with no preheat, so will add some preheat if going longer than 3.5 hours.

I don't pay attention to temp of the point, it's just along for the ride and will be fine. What I'm looking for is the flat probing smooth like butter, usually happens between 195* and 205*, though some happen earlier (lowest I've had was 187* I think) and some higher, around 210* or so.

Thank you!

blind99

My experience is that the temp on the point doesn't matter much. I am aiming for as much of the beast to be wiggly and done as possible. The thinnest part of the flat is sacrificial. So I try mostly monitor the thickest part of the flat, and do a few random spot temps to see how the rest is doing. 

The point has so much fat and connective tissue it will ride up to 205 or so with no problem. 

One thing to consider is the carryover cooking. If you FTC at 205 degrees it's going to keep cooking for quite a bit. 

DMW

blind99 said:

My experience is that the temp on the point doesn't matter much. I am aiming for as much of the beast to be wiggly and done as possible. The thinnest part of the flat is sacrificial. So I try mostly monitor the thickest part of the flat, and do a few random spot temps to see how the rest is doing. 

The point has so much fat and connective tissue it will ride up to 205 or so with no problem. 

One thing to consider is the carryover cooking. If you FTC at 205 degrees it's going to keep cooking for quite a bit. 

That's a great point (no pun intended). Because of this, I've been letting briskets, and butts, sit out unwrapped for 20-30 minutes before wrapping for FTC.

lousubcap

Given you options with brisket, "good call" with abandoning the Kroger cuts for a whole packer.  You can find them in the low-double figure weights and once trimmed (obviously cut dependent) you will have left-overs but not nearly as much as you think.  Figure around 60% yield for cooked vs pre-cooked weight.  
Most fun cook you can have with the BGE.  

pgprescott

Trick I learned is to dampen a couple towels and nuke them in the micro. Steaming hot. Wrap the meat. Takes a minute or less.