Brisket question!

[dannysmith43]

Hi,

I know there is a lot of brisket threads, so I apologise for creating another one. I've just been to the butchers and got me some brisket for cooking. I was surprised how cheap it is, so it's probably not the top dog stuff. They sold me 5lb of it for a tenner! So I was planning on an 8 hour @ 225-250 with a few hours wrapping in a cooler. Does that sound enough to get up to 195-200? I'm planning to start at 8am, ready to eat for 6pm, so 10 hours in total.

It's got a fair amount of fat on and in it, if I get the temp up to 200ish, should I expect that to melt away?

My bigger and probably sillier question is, if I decide that 5lb is too much (might cut and freeze half) would I expect to drastically reduce the cooking time? My logic says it's still needs to be cooked slow, so surely I would still need a similar amount of time to get it up to temp.

I know it's all about experimentation but I'm trying to get as close to 6pm as I can to avoid drying it out or under cooking it.

I will be using a Weber 57cm kettle and planning to use oak chips to smoke it btw!

Thanks all!

[essexsmoker]

Cook time depends more on thickness than size so it could take just as long. Personally I'd cook the lot and then freeze the cooked stuff. To be honest for 10 quid it doesn't matter if you kill it. Just boil it up in chilli con carne. It's when you spend 50 quid on usda that you wanna be careful.

I believe 203 is the target.

[Kiska95]

Hi Danny

Yep keep it big and freeze or use the rest after cooking like Essex said. I am about to do a one that's 8.5kg on Monday and that will take best part of 18hrs but cook to temp not time. The last one I did (T & G - £50) at 6.5KG took 15 hours, double foiled after 8 hours and then took off at 195 and allowed to rest in towels (in the foil) in a cooler. It was still warm 4 hrs later so the tip is start earlier and rest well. They all cook differently! Have fun

[dannysmith43]

Cook time depends more on thickness than size so it could take just as long. Personally I'd cook the lot and then freeze the cooked stuff. To be honest for 10 quid it doesn't matter if you kill it. Just boil it up in chilli con carne. It's when you spend 50 quid on usda that you wanna be careful.

I believe 203 is the target.

Thanks I went with the whole lot! Been on for 6 hours at the moment, internal temp just hit 180 and the heat beads are still strong. Wrapped in foil at around 169. Looks great, not much of a bark though, I guess that's for next time.

I'm a little unsure of what to pull it off at 195 / 200 / 203 I thought 195 coz I'm going to wrap it for a couple of hours afterwards in a cooler and I think it will still keep cooking....fingers crossed

[Kiska95]

They say 195 as it will continue to cook to 205 when resting, I find it less than that. At that temp you can still carve ok, higher IT and it will be like pulled pork and more difficult to slice but I like mine soft an juicy

[dannysmith43]

They say 195 as it will continue to cook to 205 when resting, I find it less than that. At that temp you can still carve ok, higher IT and it will be like pulled pork and more difficult to slice but I like mine soft an juicy

Great, so if take off at 195, rewrap it in foil and leave for 3 hours..it's slicable...making a brisket sandwich type burger so that's perfect. Thanks

[Kiska95]

Mine would be still in foil from the smoker and left on in the cooler you can put an extra layer on. Bark is a bit softer but not massively so

[essexsmoker]

195 is OK , as it will keep cooking for some time. 203 is what I've gone to but it depends on the lump you have. I foil at 150 too. Personally I'd go higher as I would rather have the pulled texture. Then lower next time. However next time it might be different again.
Last time I did brisket I finished in the oven full blast as high as it goes for 10 mins. Was lovely and crunchy on the outside but still soft and moist.

[dannysmith43]

Thanks for the replies guys, so the brisket. I'm really pleased how well the temperature side of things went, it's the longest cook I've done so far (8.30am to 3.30pm). The grill stayed between 225 and 275 for the majority of the cook, I even went out shopping for 3 hours, came back and still cooking great. I used the Aussie HeatBeads, so will continue with them for a longer cooks like this.
I pulled the brisket at 194, wrapped it and put in an insulated box for keeping food warm, Ended up leaving it in for about 3 hours wrapped. The meat was like pulled pork but very tasty, although, on the 5lb slab, there was very little meat, it was pretty much all fat. I manage to get 4 very full sub rolls worth of meat out of it, that was a bit dissapointing but I guess that's why it was cheap.
It was very tasty, probably could of trimmed it better and definitely more rub, there wasn't much of a bark on it. I'm still really pleased as it was my first long cook and it was really a doddle in terms of keeping the temps up.

I'm turning my attention to pulled pork for this weekend or the one after, looking forward to the that. thanks for all your input guys.

[essexsmoker]

At least it gives you an excuse to try it again! Lol. Maybe 3 rest hrs was too long for a small bit of meat and it went too far? Did you measure temp after half hour reast maybe it went way past 203.

Good luck with the PP. Let us know how it goes.