This is my first time cooking brisket with my Pit Boss PB260. I tested with a smaller 3-4lb brisket and used a wireless thermo probe. I also used a ThermoPro probe on the grate with a clip to monitor ambient temperature because, for some reason, the Pit Boss temp was fluctuating, and at one point, there was a 40-degree difference between both.
Steps I took:
– Pre-heated smoker to 200
– Wrapped at 175 degrees
– Took out at 205 degrees several hours later
– Let it rest for an hour and 20 minutes
The outcome of my brisket:
– taste was there, and on the thinner side, it was more cooked (dry) vs the thicker side
– I don’t think I got a whole bark crisp feeling.. it was very moist and even peeling off
– Fat did not render, I believe
Concerns:
This was a fairly small brisket that took me 7+ hours to cook. I feel like that is too long, and I could only imagine how long a bigger slab would take.
I'm confused about ambient temperatures and have seen different recommendations. If the Smoker sensor isn't accurate, should I trust my ThermaPro on the grate clip more?
Example: If I set my Pellet smoker to 200 and the smoked sensor reads 200 or 210, but the ThermaPro sensor reads 170-180, should I crank my pellet smoker to 225 to get that 200 reading from my ThermaPro Sensor?
by erose00
19 Comments
225 is the temp you should be smoking at the whole time. Don’t wrap until you get the bark you want. Get a water pan in there. I’ve put a water pan in for my ribs and it has helped with spreading the heat. My experience your mileage may vary.
You don’t pull a brisket until it’s probe tender. And you pull it and rest it for many hours as possible as soon as it’s probe tender. 205 was probably too high.
Also, 200 is way too low for a brisket. 250 is where you want to be. Your bark will be better at 250.
As for the difference in your temperature readings, just do some ice water or boiling water tests to confirm your therma probe is accurate. If it is, use that as your source of truth. If it’s not, get one that is accurate and use that. Built in sensors in grills are notoriously inaccurate.
A few thoughts:
– I don’t think anything is “wrong” here, just data points for future cooks
– cook a whole brisket, not just a flat. Flats are much easier to dry out
– 200 is on the low end, I cook at 275 and bark is consistently good
– I wouldn’t personally mess with fine tuning temps until I did a few full brisket at higher temps
– I’ve recently been toying with extended hot holds, and while I truly screwed one up (oven had an auto-shutoff feature I wasn’t aware of), the second one – a 24 hour oven hold at 170, after hitting 203 on the cook – is one of the best I’ve ever done
The internal thermometers of smokers and grills are absolute shit and never to be trusted. The reason your bark isn’t crisp is because you wrapped it. The reason it’s dry is because it’s only a 3-4 lb piece of meat from the flat and you overcooked it. Brisket flats are sliced for a reason. They will never be as juicy as the point because they lack the internal layer of intramuscular fat.
You just got a part of a brisket (probably 1/3) so those are a bit more difficult to cook. Because you just got the partial, significantly less fat to render. I’ve never cooked a small brisket chunk so other may have better guidance. Just get a full packer next time and have leftovers.
As for the grill, get a grate thermometer to tell you the temp of the meat. Your smoker controls to the temp of the TC not where your meat is, so definitely increase your temp to get your target.
A flat is always going to be harder to keep moist. One thing that stands out to me is the rest time. I haven’t smoked a flat on its own before, but I would say 1 hour is not long enough. For cook temp, with less fat to render, I would say 225 would be a better temp to smoke if you are getting the bark that you want. Also, were you keeping a close eye on the brisket for doneness around the 200 mark? It’s possible it was already probe tender before reaching 205.
When it comes to helping the brisket retain moister, try putting a water tray in the grill chamber. Try cooking the brisket fat side down in a pellet smoker that is smaller, with a heat source closer to the meat. You can also “cheat” with a flat and inject it with tallow before smoking, along with putting tallow into the wrap.
225 is the lowest I’d go for smoking anything. As long as temps stay between 225 and 275 I’m happy.
Also, BBQ is about feel, not necessarily meat temps. The brisket should jiggle like jelly and the probe should pierce it like butter.
I like your method of starting on your smoker at 200-ish to get the smoke, etc.
If you are keeping a constant monitor on the temp then you will notice the stall period. Once you are 1/2 to 3/4 way through the stall then wrap it and stick it in your oven at 325 until the lowest internal temp is 203-ish.
Also, maybe buy one of the lost cost mechanical meat thermometers to check your internal temp.
I’ve finished several briskets above 213-ish internal temp and the longer I rest, the better they taste. Especially after an overnight soak in the fridge then reheated.
Lastly, the more pictures I take the less the quality of my finished product
-Edit= these other suggestons are mostly silly so far
Others have already made appropriate comments. The only thing I will add is I like to rest it at a minimum of 2 hours wrapped in an old towel in a dry cooler. But longer is better, like 5 hours. It will still be piping hot.
I think I’m missing something. How did the brisket get to 205 if the smoker was at 200 the whole time? The thermodynamics does not check out.
While I have a pellet smoker, I have never pulled off a brisket on my pellet smoker that I liked.
I have a big offset i use for that.
The bark issue, is something i have seen trying to do brisket on my pellet grill, tome seems to be related to the lack of smoke. It seems to take more smoke to get the bark right.
Not sure if a pellet tube or similar can remedy this
Never cook to a temperature when smoking unless it’s poultry. The point of smoking meat for an extended period of time is to break down all the collagen and connective tissue. There is no exact temperature that all of it will break down.
For the bark – you must make sure it has set before you wrap (i.e. poke it a bit and make sure it isn’t coming off or loose). Wrap it based on color, texture (bark should be a little harder than where you want to end up if you are wrapping, and fat should be very squishy), and whether bark has set, rather than internal temp.
Your cooking temp was way too low. I start mine at 225° for the first 3 hours then bump it up to 250° until the wrap. I finish the cook at 275°.
Also don’t try to smoke just a flat if you are new to briskets. Next time smoke a whole brisket or just the point. Very easy to dry out the point as it’s not as marbled and fatty
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy too low. Dude bump that pit temp by at least 50 degrees next time. And if you tried to smoke just a pre trimmed flat it’s likely that it didn’t have much fat on it. Also looks like it was wrapped prematurely before bark set and got blasted with heat underneath and smoked too low and too slow and just dried.
>3-4lb brisket
That was your first mistake. It’s so small your margin of error is minutes. I tried an 8lb brisket and failed miserably. Now I won’t cook anything smaller than a 14lb and they’ve all come out good to great.
At 200 the fat will never render.
How did you get the brisket to 205 in a 200 degree smoker? It would have taken a full day to get to 200 and virtually impossible to get above that.
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