Brisket

Topperz · December 2017

Getting ready to do my first brisket on my XL. Brisket is all trimmed, rubbed and ready to go. For a cook at 225 deg grill temp, any ideas on time? I’m thinking 1.5 hrs per pound...does this sound about right? Final weight is 10lbs

trying to decide between cooking all night vs getting up early (5am) and starting then?

Using apple or cherry wood as that’s what I have in stock...any preferences?

Does anyone inject and do you see any benefits?

has anyone added a water pan in with it for moisture?

Thanks for for the help everyone.

dsrguns · December 2017

What time do plan on serving? At 225 your cook time per pound sounds about right although as some Brisket magicians say, "the cow drives the cook". I have had good results cooking at about 265. I like to give myself about a 4 hour window to finish before serving. This allows me extra time to bump it up if the Brisket is being stubborn and gives me the necessary time for a FTC. Just my 2 cents as others have more experience and may offer better info. Good luck and have fun with the cook.

Topperz · December 2017

Thanks dsr Planning to eat around 5 - 6 pm ish.

Foghorn · December 2017

Welcome aboard.

I’ve basically divided my brisket cooks into small and large. For large briskets I cook overnight. For a 10 pounder I’d get up early and cook at about 275. You can even light the egg and get it set up at the right temp just before you go to bed. Then get up about 5 AM and just drop the trimmed and rubbed brisket on the warm and stable egg. It saves the time of lighting/stabilizing/waiting for good smoke in the morning which always takes more time than I plan.

lousubcap · December 2017

For those who may be wondering why I haven't rolled in with comments on the OP's questions, we have exchanged e-mails on this cook.
But as @dsrguns notes, the key is to finish inside the FTC window then you are home-free.

dsrguns · December 2017

Your am start time sounds like the best choice. Monitor your IT and figure some time for the stall. If it seems like you will not finish before your planned serving time, bump the temp up and if necessary you could wrap the brisket to speed things up as well. I don't inject and there is no need for a water pan. I have used apple with good results, can't comment on the cherry. I will be doing a brisket for tomorrow evening as well, 16 pound untrimmed.

SSQUAL612 · December 2017

225 was always my temp for brisket cooks before I got my BGE, but after reading lots of great post from the Masterbrisketors I have increased to anywhere from 250-270 . Brisket is a fun, rewarding cook so enjoy.

Topperz · December 2017

Thanks guys. Much appreciated. I got many answers from lousubcap but just prodding for other thoughts / recommendations on the subject. Thanks so much for the advise Lou...looking forward to a fun cook...cheers

R2Egg2Q · December 2017

I’d start the cook in the AM and cook hotter than 225 and use the cherry wood instead of apple. I’ve injected and not injected and it may help a little with moisture (and perhaps a little flavor depending on what’s in your injection) but really not a substantial difference IMO. Water in the pan is optional. If you go with a dry pan put an air gap under it.

Topperz · January 2018

Here's a recap of my cook

. I definitely learned a lot on my first Brisket...LOL.

A very special thank you to @dsrguns and @lousubcap for their advise prior to the cook and assistance when needed during the cook

. It was greatly appreciated!!

Set the egg up the night prior with wood etc so all I had to do was go and light in the am. Got up at 4am and struck a match to it. Waited until 5 am for the egg to completely settle out at 250 deg ( I was looking for 250 - 270 for a cooking temp). Put the brisket on at 5:30am.

Here's where it got interesting...I've never done a long cook in the 4 years I've had the XL egg...mostly 3-4 hours or so at the most as all my long cooks have been on the LG egg and it loads differently than the XL. The grill is further away from the fire on the LG etc. So, I loaded the egg up fuller than normal and away we went. It was -22 deg C at 4am so the egg took longer than normal to heat up...I had it stabilized and hooked up my DIGIQ. Let the DIGIQ run for another 30 minutes prior to putting meat on. So, being tired, I went to grab an hours sleep and this proved to be my downfall as I went back out to the egg at 7:00 and it was at 400 deg. I can only assume more of the charcoal / wood caught causing the spike. This could be because of the DigiQ??

It took about an hour to get the egg stabilized back down to 250 deg but the meat cooked faster than planned. It was during this time that I was sending emails to dsrguns & lousbcap asking for advise and was lucky they were online and able to assist. It's because of them, I decided to wrap at 11:00am to keep it from drying out. Brisket was completely finished at 2pm, I removed it from the egg, unwrapped and let cool for 30 min. Wrapped it up and put in the cooler with hot towels.

Served it at 6pm and it was slightly overdone (not by much actually as it was very moist) but actually tasted very good. After the whole ordeal, the beer tasted mighty fine

My butcher actually cut the brisket in half when I bought it...I didn't know any better at the time but I would never let that happen again after watching the videos @lousubcap shared with me. The bark actually turned out really good but in the picture, it looks like if the rub was just sprinkled on but it was spread around evenly.

I can't wait to take what I've learnt and do another one.

Thanks so much for the support guys..lesson learned...never leave the fire :-)

Cheers!!
Rick

lousubcap · January 2018

Way to document your cook. Congrats on the outcome. Now that the beer has worn off, remember all the key points for reference for the next one. It's all about practice.
You can leave the fire but the key is to know when it is stable (with or w/o a controller). If nothing has changed in 45 mins to an hour then you are there. I run w/o a controller and if on an over-night cook time table, I will fire up the BGE a good two-three hours before the protein load.
BTW your result looks and sounds better than my 2018 inaugural brisket of yesterday.

Photo Egg · January 2018

Takes way longer to stabilized the fire and ice cold ceramics in the Egg.
Your controller was over compensating for all the cold elements including the ten pound cold piece of brisket. As soon as everything truly stabilized your fire was over stoked.
It's always a learning experience. Start your controller temp lower and creep it up.
Sounds like it all worked out, excellent!

The Cen-Tex Smoker · January 2018

Foghorn said:

Welcome aboard.

I’ve basically divided my brisket cooks into small and large. For large briskets I cook overnight. For a 10 pounder I’d get up early and cook at about 275. You can even light the egg and get it set up at the right temp just before you go to bed. Then get up about 5 AM and just drop the trimmed and rubbed brisket on the warm and stable egg. It saves the time of lighting/stabilizing/waiting for good smoke in the morning which always takes more time than I plan.

This was my go-to move if I ever had one going on early am. I would just let it run all night at 250 and then throw the brisket on and go back to bed. took 5 min and the fire was already rock solid. I don't have that luxury with the dishwasher anymore but I have cooked for like 8 hours then blast cooled and finished later with good results.

If it's -22c and 5 am, you are likely not going to find me anywhere nearby

Foghorn · January 2018

"If it's -22c and 5 am, you are likely not going to find me anywhere nearby"

Wimp.

dsrguns · January 2018

Glad to hear your cook went well. Take what you learned from this cook and apply it to your next. I find Brisket cooks to be very rewarding. I am consistently nailing mine now but there is always variables that will come into play. My most recent brisket was finished with an IT of 189. It stalled at 153 and took 3 hours to get into the 160's. From there it didn't take long until it was finished. Every cook is different in some ways and knowing what to look for and how to deal with it make these cooks enjoyable. Patience and confidence are your allies.

Brisket

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