I have done brisket before on oven and Electric smoker but over the weekend I tried making it on MB600 and it turned out horrible.
It was a 15lb piece that I trimmed down to about 12. Seasoned it with Killer Hogs TX brisket rub and put it in fridge for about 12 hours.
Put is on smoker at 250 (based on MB controller) but my Thermpro on the grate was showing between 220-225 so I upped the temp until that prove showed 250-255.
Was planning to do unwrapped but after 11 hours it was still stuck at 180, so I wrapped it with some tallow and cooked for another few hours until it showed 200 internal. Took it out wrapped in towel and out it in cooler overnight.
When I cut it, it had beautiful smoke ring but it was dry and color was very white. Also it is totally tasteless.
This leads leads me to believe that the temp was too high and it did not cook correctly. Also, maybe Masterbuilt ambient probe is correct and my Thermpro is the one with issue?
by ajamils
38 Comments
Trim that dorsal fin off, also make sure the ambient probe is not touching metal, only air, or that could throw off the reading
Going a bit low too long could be the reason. The flat doesn’t have any marbling it’ll lose all the water. I’d crank up to at least 275 and wrap/boat around 160 internal or when bark looks nice. 180 is already out of the stall a bit late to wrap by then imo.
The more you go past that key point of 212F at the meat surface, higher the chances it will reach temp without the transformation
Need evaporative but not boiling heat for water in the meat, for the transformation (collagen breakdown and gelatinization) to be reliable.
Oof sorry mate, my jaw hurts just looking at these pictures
Damn good smoke ring tho
My opinion, never do an unwrapped brisket and never do a brisket at 225. Low and slow is a lie. I personally do the offset at 250-300 until it hits stall (about 180). I check the meat and see if I like the bark. Once I like the bark, I wrap in butchers paper with tallow I make from the rendered trim. At this point, smoke doesn’t matter anymore and you could move it into your over to finish if you wanted. But I finish out at 250-300 until it hits 203. Then take it out, wrap it tight in a towel, and place that into a cooler. I use a cheap backpack cooler so there is less space and I rest it for at least 3 hours.
Looking at your pics, it looks to me that your brisket started with very little fat content if any at all. I can also tell by your smoke ring (pink) that this was subjected to smoke for waaaay too long imo.
Good luck, hope this helps.
Side note: when doing 250-300 make sure you don’t have direct heat hitting your brisket. I use a tin pan filled with water as a heat shield since my offset is smaller
Don’t go on temperature. Go with how it feels with an instant thermometer. If it goes in like butter, it’s done.
Overnight in a cooler could have brought temp up too high, but also the low temps could dry it out
I googled your model, could your sear mode have gone on. I don’t see how people think 225 is too low. It’s the lowest you can go but none the less it’s a big piece of meat and not going to render that much fat.
I can’t really say but that’s one big ass smoke ring. You gotta go in there.
Need a bit more fat cap I’d guess.
My usual is to do 6 hours at 225 … usually gets the meat up to ~= 160ish – if it has a good crust and the fat is melting on the surface its ready for the wrap, imho.
I render a bunch of the fat from my trim to get tallow that I use on the wrap.
Wrap and leave it on another 6 to 12 hours at 225 or 3-5 hours at 275 (usually longer and lower) — whatever it takes so the whole brisket goes floppy and pliable in the butcher paper. Drop that in a cooler for 3-5 hours, slice, eat.
I don’t like the meat you have there – looks very lean. Does not look to me like the connective material ever fully rendered… or maybe cooled down and re-solidified?
What type of brisket was it? If I’m going to do a 20 hour smoke/hot hold, I will pay whatever for prime. I’m not wasting my time and energy on anything less. Also, you gotta let that bad by cool down the 160° of you do a hot hold. Don’t wrap it at 200 or it’ll continue to cook.
Lastly, as others have said, cook to feel – not temp. My last brisket was done at 198° others weren’t done till 206°. Every piece of meat is different.
I’d suggest a dry brine. Salt can help meats hold on to moisture and additionally help the flavor. I personally do a 9:1 NaCl:MSG and salt my meats 12ish hours before I smoke.
what is just the flat? my BIL had a cow processesed locally and what they labeled as “brisket” was just the flat, which looks a lot like your first photo. i smoked it this weekend with a couple other store-bought briskets that were the whole flat/point.
i smoked it to 165 then wrapped it in butcher paper with some tallow. once it got to 204, i pulled and rested for until the temp came down to 180. i kept the butcher paper completely intact and wrapped over that with saran wrap and put in a food warmer for about 16 hours. it was good and moist when i unwrapped and cut into slices.
what kinda brisket was it?
Why did you cut all the fat off?
I will totally admit I’m not an expert on smoking
I have had to learn that my smoker has a knob with temperatures on it. And the values of said temperatures are up to my smoker to reach depending on its mood that day
That being said I set the temperature on the smoker and based on the weight of the meat I’m smoking I can gauge what the internal temp will be after so many hours
Personally I go by what the thermapen reads more than what the temp is set to on the knob
I’m no expert, but if it were me I’d guess that you allowed the stall (when it was stuck at 180 unwrapped) to go on for too long. The awesome-looking smoke rings look great, but are abnormal, which corroborates that these cooked too long at too low of a temp.
And secondary to that, the fat cap may have been trimmed too much.
What was the fatcap like before the cook? I can’t see much fat in your pics which is darn near impossible to do unless there’s very little on the brisket to begin with. Too much fat isn’t ideal but you need some to protect against the brisket getting too parched, which in turn helps retain flavor in the interior, not just on the bark.
https://preview.redd.it/0azlhuhdxsmf1.jpeg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=24578977f390e70e7e80fc3f51b3426e20010fcc
This is what it looked like before it went into the smoker. I might have trimmed it little too much.
When that happens, I’ll slice whatever is decent and chop up the rest for chili.
You undercooked it. If you have leftovers, fry a piece like bacon and I’ll bet the tasteless dry sections will turn edible.
You made the standard rookie mistake of obsessing too much over temperatures like 95% of the brisket failures posted here. It’s not a steak that you cook to IT – it’s a temperature-time relationship like pasteurization; the higher the temperature, the less time it takes to gelatinize. Needed to give it more time at the higher temps for the connective tissue to gelatinize. Throw the leave-in to the side so you can stop obsessing. Get an instant read and go by feel. Only use the temps to take notes that you can revisit in the future. End of the day, it is WAY harder to overcook a brisket than people will make you believe, and an overcooked brisket will taste and chew significantly better than an undercooked one.
Cooking temperatures don’t matter as much as people want to believe they do. I’ve done good briskets both super low and hot and fast and there’s minimal difference. Once you have a good bark set, the only thing that matters is getting the connective tissue to break down, whether that’s by letting it get hot or whether you pull it early and give it a long heated rest. With auto smokers the key is going to be running at a temperature that gives you good airflow over the meat without too much direct heat blasting the bottom. Experiment and find what works for you. I tend to run things on a high shelf with something to break the direct heat.
Also could have used a better trim than you gave it based on the mohawk and super thin sections. Same as cooking – it’s almost always better to overtrim than undertrim. A good brisket trim really only needs a handful of very deliberate cuts. If you find yourself slowly cutting bits away for half an hour trying to minimize waste, get yourself a meat grinder. The decrepit overcooked dangling bits are better off in the trash than taking good meat and bark with them.
Is it dry or is it firm and *seems* to be dry?
I’ve never had a brisket be done at 200°. It’ll cut firm and stiff. It won’t taste as good. It’s not fully rendered. I learned that lesson a long time ago.
Even at the oft quoted 203° I’ve very rarely had a brisket be fully done. 205° is most often when I pull them, going off probe feel. And yes, there’s a big difference in the finished product.
I think you under cooked this one, not over cooked.
I also smoke at 250-300 and wrap at the stall in butcher paper.
I think you went way too aggressive on the trim. I’d highly recommend trying a foil boat next time. It can especially help keep the flat from drying out. Also, be careful of when you put it into a cooler. If you take it right off the smoker at 200+, wrap it in a towel and throw it in a cooler, it’s just going to keep cooking. Let it drop in temp a bit before you stick it in the cooler. I let it drop to 175 at least, then put it in the cooler (pre-heated with boiling water) with a probe still in it. When the probe reads 145, I take it out and slice it.
On the bright side, you at least nailed the smoke ring and got a decent looking bark.
Is that modeled from a Scottie Cameron?
Hmm…I do all mine on low 180-220 for about 6hour then just raise temp to 275 until it hits 201 – 203 IT. Pull it, wrap in tin foil, then put in a cooler with towels until we’re ready to eat. Has always come out good. Could just be luck tho I suppose. And costco brisket whole packers with some trimming
Is this a select brisket?
OP, Ive had a MB1050 since launch.
Don’t smoke on the bottom cast iron grates.
They are too hot, and dry things out too fast.
Use the middle rack, and place a drip pan under.
I did a 18lb this weekend, turned out great. Probably the 50th brisket that’s rolled off that pit.
You’re saying it had a nice red smoke ring but was tasteless? What wood did you use?
Did you remove all the fat?
I’m pretty sure that’s the Ocarina of Time
Undercooked, heat up a slice of the flat, pull.it apart in your hands once reheated, you should see the connective tissue when you pull, it surrounds the meat fibers.
Brisket is done based on the process and equipment each person uses, easiest way is when it probes tender at the thickest point where the flat and point meet.
The rest allows the collagen to continue to break down over time, this is why most BBQ places hold brisket overnight
This happened to me before. Turns out, I put it in the cooler before it cooled and the cooler trapped the heat from the brisket and caused it to continue to cook way past optimal temp. I started waiting an hour before putting in the cooler to allow the temp to drop and the brisket always stayed perfectly juicy.
Cooked to hot by my eye
I still see the fat between the muscle fibers, I did this to my first brisket. Had to put it in a warmer at the gas station I was working at to fix it when I took the leftovers for lunch lol.
You could always make chili with it!
DRY
*disclaimer, wrote the first 2 before seeing your comments*
You also have to bring into account that the meat will keep cooking after it’s off the grill. Internal may read 200 but the outside is higher and will continue to cook for awhile.
I live in a valley and did 205 once and the meat came out dry after a 2 hour rest. I now pull at 195 and it’s perfect Everytime. I wrap mine at the stall to maintain the moister, fat and push through. When I pull it out it goes in a cooler I have set aside for meat only. I know some people put it in oven, as resting in cooler temps will cause the fibers to stiffen faster and squeeze the juices out.
Your smoke penetration is good, and I’m sure the flavor is good. Just dump the fat on or a good sauce and it’s still a success!
Also I had a Masterbuilt 30in tower smoker and it was decent like 4 times, then the temp module burned out and their customer service was trash. So I went to a wood/charcoal offset. A lot more work but great results.
Your stall temp in my opinion was to high at 180. Usually about 160-165 I like to wrap mines in butcher paper for the remainder of the cook. Once the internal hits about 200-202 then I rest. Of course this is my opinion. Water tray can help too.