Hmmm....Interesting

WudEyeDoo

I have cooked 2 briskets now. The first was a couple months ago. I know I cooked at too low temp (220 dome) and that 10.5 pound brisket took 27 hours! It sure was good but too much trouble.[p]Last night I decided to try this 9.5 pound brisket at the higher temps suggested lately. I also get to try out my NuTemp 701 armed with 2 transmitters. Man its great to have so many gadgets to play with! I used my plate setter, drip pan on setter filled with near boiling water, grid with brisket on the BGE extended grid so the meat was well above the drip pan. I stuck one probe in the top down and through the bottom of meat so I could measure air temp just under meat. I used the other to measure air temp just above the meat. The Polder was used to measure internal meat temp.[p]All set now, meat goes on at 8:00 p.m. By midnight, dome temp is 260, "below" air temp is 175, "above" air temp is 200. I set my NuTemps for high and low alarms with the low alarm on the probe measuring temp below the meat. This is the main reason I got that gadget, so I can sleep in peace, which I did.[p]I wake up at 6:00 a.m. and check the temps from bedside (pretty cool, huh). What? The air temp BELOW the meat reads 261 and the temp above the meat was 221. I would have thought with a plate setter AND a water filled drip pan that the air temp below the meat would always remain a little lower than the air above it(like it was when I went to bed). Wrong. At some point in the night that changed. If I had set the alarms opposite of the way I did, I would have gotten the alarm during the night.[p]Anyway, I know 261 is way too high so I scramble out of bed and go out to check my brisket. Oh-oh, internal meat temp is 217 degrees! In 10 hours! I quickly take it off, wrap in foil and towel. Put in cooler for a couple hours. Time to slice, I see the bottom is way too done and assume I'm going to have some tough piece of leather to chew on for all my efforts. Wrong again! That brisket was tender (except for the bottom 1/4 inch which I threw away). Man was I surprised.[p]Moral to the story? I know I cooked this one too high, too fast but it turned out much better than I would have guessed. Maybe we HAVE been cooking a little too low and slow in the past. Any thoughts?[p]Bob

Marv

WudEyeDoo, I think that is what some of have been saying for some time.
Should have kept the part you tossed out, would be good in beans or hash or some other dish. [p]Marv

Marv

WudEyeDoo, In the south, the part you tossed out are called 'burnt ends' and are prized as some of the best eatin'[p]Marv

ravnhaus

Marv ,
At a local BBQ shack here (Austin, TX) they serve the burnt pieces as samples as you wait in line for your order. Something about the taste gets the appetite going!

Marv

ravnhaus,
I do the same thing at my catered events. I try not to give out too much LOL 'cause I like to use them in my baked beans.[p]Marv

Unknown

Marv ,
My grandkids fight over burnt ends.
Jim

Nature Boy

WudEyeDoo,
When I tried Elder's suggestion of cooking at 270 dome, elevated over a pizza stone, and the 7 pounder was done in 10 hours, it was then I realized that 20 hour cooks are not necessary. That was before I started measuring grid temps, but was probably at 250 grid level for the whole cook, and the results were much better than expected.[p]While a 20 hours brisket can be mighty fine, those ultra-slow cooks are not necessary. Though they can sometimes be convenient for overnighters.[p]Beers onya
NB

Unknown

WudEyeDoo,
You can cook at those temp but you would need to turn the at least once to cure the problem of the whole underside burning. I would guess that during the night you may have a heat spike also, by tasting the underside to see if the rub burned you could have determined that.
Jim

Unknown

Nature Boy,
Competing we start a 12 to 13 pound brisket at 8 to 9pm for turn at noon to 1pm the next day. Cook at 225 to 250º, this allow us to get 6 to7 hours of sleep. If it finishes early it goes into a dry cooler, if it stalls you may have to use the Texas Crutch to get it finished (hate it when that happens). We do keep an eye on the bottom so we don't burn it and turn as needed. If the bottom does burn you can normally taste a little bitterness, temp spikes are your enemy.
Jim

Citizen Q

WudEyeDoo,
Multiple transmitting Nu-temps? Below temp? Above temp? Plate setters and water filled drip pans? How does the brisket even fit? Sounds like alot of trouble and hoopla to achieve a brisket that's merely better than expected.[p]The whole point of BBQ is LOW AND SLOW. 10 or 12 hours is just too short to achieve the proper breakdown of the fats in the brisket. Add to that any temp over 212 is boiling away the water from the beef, making it significantly drier than a 200 degree cook. Any temp over 250 and your roasting the meat more than anything else, its too hot to put a good smoke on the meat. Not that there's anything wrong with a roasted brisket, I've tried it this way a couple of times and I can't say that it was bad, but it wasn't even close to Barbeque'd. For me, nothing beats the brisket on a raised grid over a dry foil drip pan at 200 for 18-22 hours.
Success in simplicity.[p]Just my opinion (and that of those at my table).[p]Good Q to ya,
C~Q