Picture is of the brisket I smoked for the 4th of July.
Process:
Heavy pepper rub. 12 hour smoke at 225° with SuperSmoke for first hour. At 165 internal, wrapped in butcher paper and added rendered beef tallow from trimmings. Put back on til 200 internal and rested in warm oven for several hours.
Overall – great bark and smoke ring. However, there was no “flop” and a little dry on the inside.
Going to try another brisket this weekend. How can I produce the same bark/smoke ring, but have it be a little more moist on the inside?
Bought beef tallow that I’ll plan to use during wrap phase. Thanks in advance!
by RollieInParadise
42 Comments
What did you do when you took it off BBQ? Did you rest on counter so it stopped cooking or straight in the oven? If straight in the oven it likely just kept cooking and over cooked.
What temps was you oven you were holding in? Must can do 170 but can go up and down. I find 170 is too hold to hold.
Don’t rest in a heated oven.
Rest in a cooler, wrapped in butcher paper, wrapped in towels
Resting in a heated oven keeps the cooking process going, and not allowing the juices and fat and meat to pull back, thus drying out
Get the highest grade/best marbled brisket you can afford to justify. Don’t trim all the fat cap off. Don’t just cook to temperature, cook to tenderness instead.
Leave some fat on it … that has zero fat…..
To add on to what others have said, make sure and still have a probe in there however you are resting.
Let temp come down to around 160 internal before putting in hot box.
Cook it low temp and slow smoke
If you smoked a full packer and there was no “flop” then it wasn’t done cooking.
No need to buy any tallow, you already have plenty: render out the trim and save it in a mason jar.
Why did you pull it from the smoker at 200? What told you it was done?
What was in the rub besides pepper?
Epic smoke ring and beautiful bark!
Beware of over trimming. Don’t cook to a temperature, cook to a feel – mine are ranging from 198 to 208 when I pull. Revisit your rest protocol.
Your answer is likely somewhere in those three.
Rest in a cooler wrapped in a towel instead of oven warm.
If you pulled at 200 and put it in a warm over there is a chance that it cooked up to 210 or so before it started dropping.
We need to pin a post that says DO NOT REST IN HEATED OVEN
Beef broth and butter will be your best friends
Leave fat use the trimmed fat to render in an aluminum pan in the smoker. Every hour I use a bbq brush to baste the brisket. If you have a top tray put the fat over the brisket if you want to it just have it dripped over the brisket or to catch in the pan. I find the fat dried up makes a a tasty carnitas type chicharron. Great to snack on. I also chopped them up and makes a nice bean chili dip if you add a little bitch of hatch peppers and a little bit of Chipotle sauce. Also wrap your brisket up around 165-170⁰F. Aluminum foil if you’re out of butchers paper. Make sure you add some of that rendered fat in the wrapper. Im sure you’ll do fine.
Make sure you rest the brisket at least 3 hours. I place it in an aluminum tray, wrap it with more foil and put it in an igloo cooler. I put a blanket over the cooler and a weight on top. Has not failed. I got this tip from a neighbor and its never failed.
In my opinion, the brisket grade matters immensely. I try to cook nothing less than prime. I’ll do Angus choice if there’s nothing else. Try to be very selective with your briskets and look for one that has intermuscular fat. Also, when resting, let it cool down to about 150. Then hold in oven or even your pellet smoker at 150 until you’re ready to eat.
Three notes:
First, this is a piece of brisket flat. It’s already a leaner portion of the brisket and will be a bit drier than the point.
Second, the “juiciness” of a cut of meat is actually the rendered fat, not actual moisture. Trimming off all the fat in the cap removes the fat that would otherwise render and seep down into the muscle tissue. Brushing tallow helps, but it won’t be the volume provided by the fat cap.
Third, the longer meat is in a smoker, the more moisture is going to evaporate out of the cut. If your smoking temperature is only 20 degrees above the final pull temperature, it will take a LONG time to reach temp (heat transfer rate/law of diminishing returns). I routinely smoke at 250-275 and it doesn’t dry out the meat.
Idk
That looks superb to me.
When you rest it in a heated oven, the oven should be on 300°F at least. For a couple hours.
Where is the fatcap?
I see a grand total of ZERO fat left on that thing. Also, what grade was it? Select, Choice, Prime? Looks like a lower fat grade, which means less juicy potential
Looks like it’s already mentioned but during the trim process leave about 1/8 inch of fat on top especially over the flat. That’s thin enough to render down and keep the flat moist. Also I like to put some tallow on it at the start if I’m smoking it overnight, and then some more when I wrap it in paper or do a boat or whatever.
P.S. that bark and ring look great! I need to upgrade my Traeger for one with super smoke one day.
Gotta leave about 1/4 inch of fat or so. If you have a hard time telling how much is left when trimming, I had success poking with a toothpick. It gets much tougher when you’re through the fat
Bark and smoke ring on point tho 🤌
I take mine out when it is probe tender. I’ve seen some done as low as 190 and some as high as 209. There is no “magic temperature” because every brisket is different.
Also, i cool mine to 180 then wrap in towels and put in a small cooler to hold temp until I’m ready to rest and carve.
Keep trying and find what works best for you. What i do may not be in your best interest.
Couple of suggestions. First, as others have said, leave a good amount of fat on. And, never cook just the flat. Second, ditch the warming oven. That’s likely your main issues. I wrap mine in a towel and put it in a high efficiency cooler for at least a couple of hours. I just use a Wal Mart brand Yeti knock off. It will stay warm without external heat. You can leave it in there for hours and it stays warms. All the juices reabsorb leaving the meat juicy without all the juice running out when you cut it. Lastly, you’ve got to get a decent quality brisket. I prefer Costco- prime grade if they have it. I’ve gotten it from Wal Mart and other stores and it wasn’t as good. In theory, the point of smoking is to make a cheap, tough, brisket tender. But, nowadays, we expect brisket to be juicy and not need sauce. For that, you’ve got to get better quality meat.
Squirt it with apple juice or water.
I leave a pan of water in with mine too
Believe it or not, more time.
200 is a little low for internal temp. 204-205 is more the spot.
People always say it should be probe tender but I find that to be a little ambiguous. The reall test is it should jiggle like a butt when you poke it with your fingers.
Also, for your next smoke, wrap in foil. Just trust me. Paper is great. But, foil is more fool proof. Paper has gained popularity because people like Franklin do it. But, foil just never misses. Make sure it’s air tight. One piece on the bottom, one piece on top, and fold all four sides neatly 3-4 times. It’s the original Texas crutch and it works beautifully. I do both depending on what I have availability to. The foil method is simply more dependable and a great place for beginners to learn. Another advantage is foil briskets often require less resting.
But, back to this brisket of yours, you simply pulled it too early. Just remember: if it’s not jiggling, it’s not ready.
That bark is superb, btw.
Oh, I forgot to add that that brisket can still be saved. Foil packet like described above, add some beef broth or water (about a quarter cup), place on a baking sheet, and back into a 275-300 oven until jiggly
Ask to have it “mikes way”
The good news is that bark is godly.
If you’re holding in an oven, put a large tray of water in the oven.
I’ve only had dry meat whenever I’ve wrapped it in foil or paper. I’ve had better results not wrapping. Just get a good crust that holds in all the juices. It’s unorthodox but it works.
I’ve only had dry meat whenever I’ve wrapped it in foil or paper. I’ve had better results not wrapping
. Just get a good crust that holds in all the juices. It’s unorthodox but it works.
It was done 4 hours ago
Looks like you over trimmed and overcooked
Bark and ring look great
Did you cut it with a spoon? (Sharpen your knife)
Looks like it was over-trimmed. You can layer bacon on top if that happens to help keep it moist. Keep spraying it with vinegar or water through the cook too.
Depending on the size your brisket the time changes but… I normally I’m doing a large brisket in like a 20-hour smoke, I’ll put a pan underneath it catch all the fat drippings, then at some point I’ll wrap the brisket up in butcher paper to keep it hydrated for a period of time, then after it’s gotten passes thermal stall around 172 then I’ll unwrap it and let The bark set up again and reach his final temperature.
Typically at the very end I’ll take that tray of beef fat and I’ll set the brisket in it and let it absorb as much as it can, it rehydrates and makes a juicy for rewarming it up later.
Did you trim all the fat off?
Spray with water bottle
The hell is super smoke
Looks like the resting in the warm oven might be the culprit here. I know what some do is wrap in butcher paper before baking in the oven to 200 then into the cooler