Racing brisket, advice requested

sllofoot

I've cooked 6-7 briskets, and a slew of pork butts.  So this low and slow thing is not new to me per se but this one has me stumped.   This is my first prime brisket and I was hoping to give it to a grieving family who lost a grandfather this afternoon but I'm concerned it won't be edible.

I've got the grill temp set at 250, and it got a bit overzealous and hit 260 for a bit, but a 12lb brisket is showing 183 IT after only... 5 hours.  It's probed in the flat and was wrapped at 3.5 hours.   What the hell do I do now?    At this point I may be reduced to hoping my probe's wires are on the fritz and it'll tell me something different when I check it with a different thermometer as I get closer to 200.   I can't imagine the point will be edible if we're "done" in 6-7 hours.   Might it be worth seperating them before I cooler it and putting the point back on for a couple more hours?

lousubcap

Not sure why you think the point won't be edible when the brisket is "done" especially if going by the feel.  If the brisket was 12 lbs pre-trim then you likely trimmed somewhere around 1-2 lbs of fat so you are looking at 10+ lbs.

I plan for about 1 hr/lb with 260-280*F on the calibrated dome thermo but have seen them go as quickly as 0.7 hrs/lb and as long as 1.3hrs/lb.  You sound like you are in that window.  You can drop the temp and slow it down.  If you wrapped in foil you are speeding up the cook so you can unwrap and let it run nekked to the finish.  FWIW-

BTW- you are doing a very generous thing.  I'm sure it will be appreciated across the board. 

piney

@sllofoot you are a very thoughtful person. I'm sure the brisket will be wonderful. If I we you I would do as @lousubcap suggested unwrap and maybe drop pit temp a little and don't forget you can FTC and hold this thing for hours. Good luck my friend.
 

sllofoot

Thank you all for the advice and positive thoughts!

As for why I thought the point might not be any good... What I've run into before, and it was the case this time too, is that the flat ends up decent but the point still has far too much intra-muscular fat.   I've had this happen cooking at 270 once in the past, on a 21-lb monster that was a bit thin on the flat.   In this case, we had a good thick flat and it was still probably a little underdone compared to what I would've liked.   The point, though.  It was a mess.  Inedible.  I salvaged the best parts and am going to try to make burnt ends out of them after I cook out a bit more of the fat but that's kinda a last chance thing.

So I'll take another shot at it and try to keep the temperature down in that 240 range and probably not wrap at all and see if I can get one done a bit better to take them. 

For what it's worth, the flat was actually at 205 when I pulled it because I got hung up at the shop (I was shooting for 202-203) so I'd have thought the extra time would've helped!   It was extremely pliable and I was actually worried about it coming apart as I removed it from the grill (ala a pork butt).

I also need to do a better job of trimming as this had too much cap fat left on.   I tried to trim it down to that sought-after 1/4" but in some places there was still closer to twice that.

lousubcap

@sllofoot - appreciate the feed-back as too many times that does not happen.  I believe you are on to a major contributor, the pre-cook trim job but I am surprised about the point.  Over the course of the cook it comes in around 7-15*F hotter than the flat when the flat (the indicator) declares victory and it is pure gold for me.  But as has been said around here, "the friggin cow drives the cook."

Regardless, your self-less generosity will carry the day.  You've got this and your recipients will still enjoy the protein but more than that the gesture.  Well-done!