First Brisket

Jimmy99s

Hey BGEers',

Wanted to post my first brisket - had some fun with it. Picked up a 14lb brisket from Costco. Watched a bunch of Aaron Franklin youtube videos, and read some threads on here leading up. Ended up cooking overnight, checked temps every couple hours or so. 

Did my best with trimming, probably could have removed a bit more fat between the flat and point. Will note for next time.
Stuck with a simple rub mix... 1/4 cup black pepper, 1/4 cup kosher salt, and a sprinkle of Stubb's BBQ rub and Montreal Steak Spice. Left this on in the fridge for a few hours.
Maple Leaf 100% hardwood charcoal, and also some mesquite wood chunks.
Started off lighting the egg in the evening, got it stabilized to 250F dome temp. Brisket went on at 11pm. Maybe this was brave - but really wanted to try the cook this weekend and this was how timing worked best. Temps fluctuated a bit more than I thought they would. Total cook time was 13.5 hours.

12AM - 270F
3AM - 200F
430AM - 250F
7AM - 250F
8AM - 225F --- Internal temp 175F
930AM - 240F
11AM - 260F
1230PM - 260F --- Internal temp 203F

I am pretty new to BGE. Have not invested in a wireless thermometer yet but definitely want to. What is a good one to buy?
Had a huge Newbie moment. I ended up having to add more charcoal. Usually for a regular cook I had been filling to fire box line. At one point in the morning my fire started to get a little cool. So I popped the brisket in the oven for a half hour or so, and fixed up my egg fire back to 240-260F.

Once I hit 205F... did the whole Foil, Towel, Cooler technique. Dinner ended up being about 3 hours after brisket was done. Was good practice, FTC worked well. My temps after the 3 hours were 160F so knew it was still safe (>140F).

Taste was great - my family all really enjoyed it so that was great. I was pretty happy with the bark, smoke ring and tenderness. If anything I think for sure the brisket was slightly overcooked. Next time I aim to pull it off the heat before 205F if I plan to FTC. What is a good temp to pull off at if you are going to FTC for a couple hours before dinner?

Cheers!,






EDIT - can a mod move this to proper subforum? I mistakenly posted this in the "Pork" category. Opps - sorry!

lousubcap

Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.  Above all, have fun as it appears you did.
Your cook is an impressive entry, extremely well documented and with a great outcome.
I sent a PM that may answer a few of your questions.  FWIW-
(Edit:) My PM does not address controllers as I am old school.  Given your results you may want to wait a while.  

johnmitchell

Welcome great cook and even better looking plated pic.

JRWhitee

Nice job on the Brisket

loco_engr

good job with the cook and pics!

DrScotch

I looked up “how to brisket” on the forum, and your post came up. I’ve done a few in my Weber Smokey Mountain, but am doing my first in the egg. Remarkably, I have several similarities to your cook- I also bought a 14 pound brisket, also from Costco, and got it on the egg just before 11 o’clock. Fortunately, I do have a wireless thermometer, and for these low and slow cooks, they are awesome.  I’ll be keeping a close eye on it as the day goes on. Thanks for the post!

Foghorn

That looks like a great first brisket.  I suspect the PM from @lousubcap answered any residual questions. 

I no longer use an in dwelling meat or grate thermometer. I’ve gotten used to not sweating the dome temp drop after I put a big hunk of cold meat on the egg. Just trust the vent settings to keep the fire going through the night and check on things when I wake up. With that said, it took me a few cooks with all the monitoring devices to get to this point. 

As for the finishing temp - that will vary depending on the cow. Usually somewhere between 195 and 205. 

Mark_B_Good

Nice job for the first one. It takes a few tries to hone in on perfection when it comes to brisket, and an overnight was definitely courageous for a first cook! You took the bull by the horns! Ha.

What I would suggest is wrapping it in foil (or butcher paper), when it hits 160F. I swear to myself  this retains moisture, instead of letting it sweat, which is the same reason there is a stall. So the trick is timing, if it could be perfect, you'd be waking up at 8 am and seeing that it's around 160F, wrap to the finish line and the cool in towel/cooler for 2h. 

I've heard many say go to 205F, but man I'm worried about drying it up too. All I can say is I took both my last two briskets to 195F, and they were tasty/juicy as heck.  

On my last one, the flat was a bit dry, but I know why ... remove too much fat.  You need to leave a good 1/2 inch fat on the flat, its critical to maintain moisture in that section of meat.

I've learned with brisket there's two critical things, preparation and dome/ambient temperature. Hard to fix a bad prep (meat not trimmed properly, not dry rubbed ahead of time, fire not built properly with sufficient fuel, etc) ... you ideally want to put it in, and it does its thing at 225F to 250F, until time to wrap in foil, and take it to the finish line. 

One other little trick, I inject beef broth into the meat the same time I do the rib. That gives it an extra juicy finish.

1voyager

You nailed it. Congratulations. 

Regarding your wireless thermometer question, Thermoworks Smoke is a great option, IMHO. I've had mine for about three years and it has performed well.

lkapigian

Welcome ! And awesome cook !