18lb brisket cooking with Egg Genius

ChuckWill · October 2019

Hello all looking for some help with cooking with the Egg Genius. Just bought it for long cooks, had the Stoker but had issues with inconsistencies with food and grill temp probes so trying out the Genius.
Bought a nice 18lb brisket USDA Prime, have cooked them a few times in the past but haven’t been able to record times of past cooks due concerns with the stoker. Need help with how long I should be planning for cooking. I have always started with 250 until temp of brisket reached 150 and then backed cooking temp down to 225 and pull the brisket at 185 internal temp to rest wrapped in a cooler for minimum 3 hours.
I am cooking for a large group and rest time is going to be really long (8+ hours). My big question or more looking to see if all agree. Typically a cook at 225 with no temp change would be 1 1/2 hours per pound and 250 no change is about 1 hour per pound - Agree? This would be for brisket cooked to 200 internal temp.

Thanks all for input

GoooDawgs · October 2019

I'm sure @lousubcap will be around shortly as he's one of the brisket yodas of the group. But a few thoughts:

- 185 is pretty low to pull it. Go by feel not by temp. Some people say wait until you can stick a toothpick or temp probe in it and it feels like hot knife through butter - but I'm more in the wait til it feels like peanut butter camp FWIW...

- I wouldn't back the temp down once it hits 150. If anything I increase the temp to help it get through the stall that occurs in the 160s.

- 8+ hour hold is risky if you don't have high quality gasket sealed cooler. Any way you can pull it off closer to when you'd eat? A 3-4 hour rest is ideal, you don't want to gamble with food safety especially with a big group. If you do go for the 8+ hours, you need to monitor the ambient temp to make sure it's above 140 degrees the entire time. Franklin holds his brisket 12 hours, but again it's in a very controlled environment where he knows it's 140 degrees.

Good luck and post pics!

lousubcap · October 2019

Welcome aboard and continue to have fun.

Regarding your above cook plans here are some thoughts I offered in the two briskets on the XL thread:

Locking your BGE in at the 250-275*F (thermo calibrated?) range I would always plan for about an hour/lb with the goal of finishing inside the 2-6 hour prior to serve window. BTW-your weight can be reduced by a good 2-3 lbs based on the trim job.

Here's the challenge, I have had a 5 lb point only brisket cook take 10 hours at the above temp and a 13 lb packer finish in 8+ hours. Thus my 2-6 hour target finish window.

No worries if early as there are ways to keep the brisket happy for many hours well beyond a reasonable FTC window. Better to finish early than late as it really does benefit from a protracted hold and you are not sweating punching it home.

And as above regarding when to pull-base the finish line on the feel as described by @GoooDawgs in the thick part of the flat.

Check your PM for some insights.

haroldopsf · October 2019

While I agree that you should pull by feel like others said, I find that the temp is generally close to 200 (I've pulled anywhere from 196 to 205). For reference, I've cooked about 10 Costco primes, and 20ish SRF blacks in the past year and a half.

I won't even start checking until 195.
185 would have been way too low for the ones I've cooked, they would have been still tough.

ChuckWill · October 2019

Wow thank you all for the help and insight.
With the Genius being new doing a Boston Butt Sunday night for practice with new device. I plan to let the brisket rest in a Yeti cooler for the 8+ hours. I am hoping that will keep the temps for how long I need. I have an all day meeting with my team away from the Brisket which is the problem I do have the ability to let is rest for 3 hours and then move it to a frig but then that means reheating....hoping to avoid the reheating

18lb brisket cooking with Egg Genius

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