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My second full packer brisket

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njl
njl Posts: 1,123
in EggHead Forum
Hoping to duplicate my success in https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1215846/my-first-packer-brisket/p1
I'm doing pretty much the same thing.  I got another Costco prime "baby brisket".  This one was only 9.3lbs before trimming, and a full packer.
Like last time, I trimmed and dalmation rubbed it the night before, and put it in a foiled over foil roasting pan in the fridge.  I moved that to the counter this morning before lighting the egg, got stable at about 250F dome, and put it on.
 
8:12am started, 260F dome
0h IT 47F
1h IT 113F, probe 227F, dome 250F
2:15 IT 147F, probe 255F, dome 265F
3:10 IT 162F, probe 252F, dome 265F
4h IT 170F, probe 248F, dome 260F
Foiled
5:10 IT 188F, probe 264F, dome 275F

This one seems to be cooking a bit faster than the last...hitting 170F in the flat 1.5h faster than the last one.
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,970
    edited November 2018
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    Mine is at 160 after 7 hours. same size as yours and roughly same some temp. Stubborn as a mule. Going to have to bump and wrap this one to hit my 2:30 wheels up time
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • njl
    njl Posts: 1,123
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    I'm at 198F now at 5.5h.  I guess it's time to stick it in a few places, see if it's "done", then FTC it for a while.  
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  • njl
    njl Posts: 1,123
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    I called it done...it's been FTC'd at just about 6 hours total cooking time.
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,970
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    I went out to wrap and it had finally shaken loose. Sitting at 178 now with an hour before I need to wrap and cooler. Bark is just getting as dark as I like so I’m letting it roll nekid until I pack it up 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,384
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    Sounds like taking advantage of the carry-over effect to bring it home.  Have fun at school @The Cen-Tex Smoker . 
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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  • njl
    njl Posts: 1,123
    edited November 2018
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    I had mine FTC (with one of the towels in the bottom of the cooler moistened by 1C boiling water) for 2.5 hours.  Decided it was time to slice...removed it and it was 146F in the flat.  I just ate some and it turned out fine.  I took a small plate to a neighbor who said it was on par with the popular local BBQ place where she likes to get brisket.  I may be cooking her one at some point. :)

    Wife and I each had a few slices for dinner.

    So...now I have a big dish of sliced brisket in the fridge for a function Monday....and I'm planning to use sous vide to warm it back up...probably a couple hours at 160F or so.  I'm wondering if I can trust zip-locks for that, or if I need to foodsaver it?
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  • njl
    njl Posts: 1,123
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    I ended up not wanting to rely on ziplocs to stay water-tight.  It turned out I only had 4lbs of brisket left this morning when I went to package it up in foodsaver bags.  I don't know where the rest of it went :)

    But seriously, how much "weight" is lost to evaporation when cooking a typical brisket?

    To reheat, I sous vide'd 2 foodsaver bags, each with about 2lbs of sliced brisket and all the congealed juices I could get out of the glass dish (minus the fat I could easily remove).  They warmed up at 165F for a little more than 2 hours.  This worked perfectly, and in no time, it was all gone.  When it was time to eat, I just cut open the foodsaver bags and dumped them into a big glass dish.
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,970
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    nice work. SV is the best way to warm brisket. I prefer it around 130-140 to warm it up just to keep it a little more gentle while still being safe temp to hold. 

    As far as how much brisket is lost: 50% yield on brisket would be considered best i class. Between trimming and water lost it's probably closer to 40% yield from bag to plate. 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • njl
    njl Posts: 1,123
    edited November 2018
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    Wow...I had no idea it was normal to lose that much.  I was curious...because I did give a neighbor a small taste, and my wife and I both made dinner out of it Saturday and Sunday...so I figure we may have eaten very roughly around a pound of cooked brisket.  That would be a yield of somewhere around 5lbs from a 9.3lb (before trimming) starting weight.

    As for the SV warm-up, I figured another couple hours "cooking" sealed in its juices could only help the flat slices.
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,970
    edited November 2018
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    5lbs from a 9.3lb packer is pretty good. Most bbq places trim very aggressively as every bite has to be perfect and they have options to use the trim. Since brisket loses so much during the cook, they actually make more money off the trim in sausage or burgers than they make of the brisket they sell
    over the counter. They will trim off all the thin parts (as they would be overcooked) and they really shape the briskets up a lot more than i do so because anything that sticks
    out will burn as well. Anything that won’t cook perfectly is trimmed off. When I did the meat church class, Matt (meat church) trimmed one and Evan LeRoy (owns a bbq trailer) trimmed one. Matt is a competition guy so he’s going to go in and cut the best slices out. Evan is a restaurant guy and every bite has to be perfect. I was shocked at how much more Evan trimmed than Matt. Matt couldn’t believe it either. Evan told us that he has 100% yield in his trim so he actually tells people “you can never trim to much”. He makes 8oz burgers and sausage with that trim and both have 100% yield. His briskets only have 30-40% so he loves trimming! 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,384
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    @The Cen-Tex Smoker Did Matt mention his trim yield? 
    Great post as I do some aggressive trimming along the margins (edges) of any brisket, and as you can appreciate, even SRF. I'm not into the salvage and repurpose protein skill-set so for me it's a cost of the follow-on pure protein enjoyment.  Thanks for the insights. 
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,970
    edited November 2018
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    lousubcap said:
    @The Cen-Tex Smoker Did Matt mention his trim yield? 
    Great post as I do some aggressive trimming along the margins (edges) of any brisket, and as you can appreciate, even SRF. I'm not into the salvage and repurpose protein skill-set so for me it's a cost of the follow-on pure protein enjoyment.  Thanks for the insights. 
    Matt didn't talk about yield but that's all Evan talked about. Difference between a competition guy and a restaurant guy. Evan has to serve every bite to survive and Matt is pulling 10 slices of a whole brisket to turn in. You can go in there and dig that out of the middle where it's nice and juicy and the rest is giveaway. I bet Evan trimmed 30% before he cooked it. I trimmed my last one for class that way and it made a pretty brisket for sure. And that trim for the burgers....wow. The smoked  burgers were probably better than the brisket (although I didn't even get a bite of that one). I'll definitely trim even more aggressively than I have in the past and make burgers with the trim. 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • Thatgrimguy
    Thatgrimguy Posts: 4,729
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    lousubcap said:
    @The Cen-Tex Smoker Did Matt mention his trim yield? 
    Great post as I do some aggressive trimming along the margins (edges) of any brisket, and as you can appreciate, even SRF. I'm not into the salvage and repurpose protein skill-set so for me it's a cost of the follow-on pure protein enjoyment.  Thanks for the insights. 
    Grind it into a burger that you grill as you put the brisket on. I don't smoke my brisket burgers. I cook them like normal burgers and they are amazing
    XL, Small, Mini & Mini Max Green Egg, Shirley Fab Trailer, 6 gal and 2.5 gal Cajun Fryers, BlueStar 60" Range, 48" Lonestar Grillz Santa Maria, Alto Shaam 1200s, Gozney Dome, Gateway 55g Drum
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  • RedSkip
    RedSkip Posts: 1,400
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    @The Cen-Tex Smoker
    @Thatgrimguy

    Good stuff, thanks for sharing!
    Large BGE - McDonald, PA
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