A brisket miracle?

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A brisket miracle?

Postby Grumpy Jonze » 07 Aug 2017, 14:27

Cooked a full packer brisket over the weekend and had a very surprising experience - wondered if anyone had any tips or observations. Am cooking on a Pro Q Frontier Elite.

I got an Australian brisket from Tom Hixson, trimmed it quite heavily (a la Aaron Franklin) bringing it down to about 5kg I reckon. Was aiming for a 7pm serving on Saturday, so allowing for a few hours in a faux cambro I put it on at about midnight on Friday night. I used Heat Beads, having always used supermarket briquettes in the past - so that was a new one for me on top of it being my first brisket. Fire was up to about 250f with the waterpan full by about half midnight, so on the brisket went, with s+p all over. I left the vents half open and went to bed.

Woke up at about 9am and panicked that I'd overslept and the fire may have pretty much gone out, but to my utter, utter amazement, it was holding 270f, empty water pan, and when I probed the brisket it was at 208f all over and beautifully wobbly. It had only had nine hours max cooking, and yet had powered through the stall and finished. Lovely bark, all good. I pulled it, wrapped in tripple layer of foil and towels and put in a faux cambro. It was barely 10am now. It stayed like this until 6pm at which time it had dropped to about 130f, when it was placed back on the smoker (still in the foil) to come back up to 140f, as the ribs finished off. To my delight, when I unwrapped it it was perfect - great bark, smoke ring, flat and point juicy, wonderful eating. Having sat for a good eight hours I had feared the worst, but nope.

Does anyone have any idea how it cooked so quickly? I assume the Heat Beads are much better at holding a higher heat than my normal rubbish, but even so it stormed through the stall. Maybe the lack of water? It worked out well but I want to know if I can repeat the cook at 275f and expect similar results! Picture of the finished brisket (point end) in my avatar. Thanks folks.
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Grumpy Jonze
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