Problem with brisket

[hank1965]

ok guys ive done brisket about 15 times now and Ive only been pleased 3 times.
having an issues getting smoke rings also issue with tenderness or even with dryness
even though I use the same process most every time.
I usually cook till 195f internal temp. and many times I get a dark meat
with no ring texture is usually right except this last time. Point temp was 200
and it was chewy.

Also getting brisket like I see every one else use is difficult the stuff available to me is often very small
and the point is almost pure Hard fat and they are very thin....nothing like I see on TV or on BBQ shows
or even most pics on the internet

I did discover Halal beef at restaurant depot and it is some times better but often not.
yesterday they had these huge corn beef briskets that were beautiful cuts perfect size and thickness and I asked how come
you can get regular brisket like these to which they had no answer

Guys please help me with my brisket
pics also help to see what product you are using
thank you

stats
cooking temp 220-250
cook time 12-14 hours
wood Oak
smoker small offset non reverse flow

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

Hank a couple of quick questions for you. Are you injecting the brisket? If so are you using any unusual ingredients? How long are you letting the meat rest after you take it off the cooker? With regards to smoke ring, there are a couple of things that can cause this. The first being the rub. Truth be told you can fake a smoke ring by the rub you use. Are your wrapping the meat? If so, at what temp?
The type of oak you use can also have an affect on the ring. I get a much more noticeable ring if I use white oak vs red oak.

[Frank_Cox]

biggest thing to remember is to cook by tenderness not by internal temp. your 195F internal temp is real close to normal finish temp but it actually varies a lot between each cut. some have better fat content and marbling than others. temps and cook times are nothing more than guidelines, you should adapt with each cut of meat for actual. I would recommend cooking a couple of them with no rub or very little and get a good baseline for the meat itself and your cooking style. some rubs have higher salt content and depending on the type of salt you may be sucking the moisture out of the meat.also shoot for thin blue smoke if you have not already tried that. smoke ring is a chemical reaction more than it is actual smoke penetration. heavy smoke does not help.

[SoloQue]

Shooting from the cuff, here are some thoughts

Try just cooking a flat, the whole packer is a bugger to accurately cook because of the different cuts reacting differently
Shoot for an even thickness cut that easily flops over when held horizontal by one end.
The better the flop the better the marbling, the better chances of a moist tender finished product.
If you are starting with a rigid board, odds are you are gonna end up with about the same no matter what magic you try.
Maintain the thin blue smoke as much as possible, Frank is dead on that it is a chemical reaction with the moisture of the meat and not smoke being absorbed and any heavy white smoke will leave behind a bitter taste
Keep the salt in your rub down to no more than 25% by weight, when possible let the rubbed brisket sit overnight
I don't wrap my brisket, nor do I use a water pan but I do inject. Internal moisture is a must for a smokeline to develope
Keep the injection simple to see if you get improved results, I know some folks that simply use beef broth.
Leave about 1/4 inch fat cap with cross hatching cuts, cook fat cap up if the bulk of the heat is flowing over the top or fat cap down if you feel the heat flow is in that direction. The fat cap wont render down like a Boston butt however it can be used as a heat shield to keep the brisket from drying out.

Hope these ideas help
Solo

[hank1965]

great information guys.

to answer questions you asked
I have tried both a traditional paprika based rub (paprika salt pepper garlic onion chili powder cumin dried mustard powder) as well as just salt pepper and garlic powder
No I don't inject
I don't know what kind of Oak I use its whats available in bulk at Academy Sport and outdoors
I also use a combo of wood and propane wood for smoke propane for heat I place a metal box over the flame and put charcoal and wood in the box.
I guess I would have to say I usually have white smoke not thin blue how do I achieve this

thanks again for all your help

[Pete Mazz]

1) I never buy brisket this time of year. Most of it goes to corned beef and the prices for regular brisket is high. I try to fold it in half, lengthwise, and if the ends touch, you've got something to work with.

2) I trim almost all the fat. Can't have a good crust if you have to trim the fat off later. I also remove the point and cook separately for burnt ends. I stay simple with brisket and just use salt and pepper and keep overnight. I sometimes inject with beef broth.

3) I always foil when it hits the stall. Knocks about 4 hours off the cook time and keeps it juicy. Makes for some awesome au jus that gets applied after slicing.

4) Rest after cooking (I'm talking about the brisket ) for at least a half hour. 2 hours won't hurt. Wrapped tightly in foil with au jus, of course.

I use propane as well. I just use a cast iron skillet above the burner with chunks of wood for smoke. I like hickory. Oak has always given me a acrid taste. I tend to think it's the high tannin content.

[hank1965]

I havent been wrapping but once I though about it I think I did wrap the one we all liked the most....
still more great info guys thank you...

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

PROPANE? Now there is a nasty word on this forum Looks like someones headed to the

[hank1965]

still wondering about this blue smoke VS white smoke... any more info

[Clover Ridge Smokers]

Blue smoke is a sign of total efficient combustion. White smoke is a sign of inefficient combustion which means you need to make adjustments to your air intakes and exhaust stacks. Many people will tell you that when a pit is running correctly you can't see hardly anything coming out of the stack.

[hank1965]

um ok......if no smoke then.....how do you get smoke flavor...

Better question is this achieved by larger or smaller airflow

[hank1965]

ok went to the Weber site and got a good video illustration of the smoke and they called it black smoke VS white smoke although I could see how the white smoke could be called thin blue.. so I think I have a grasp on this aspect of smoke....

[SoloQue]

If you have an established fire going and are making adjustments to intakes and exhaust this is when you will most likely encounter white smoke. It's not so much about airflow but airflow in ratio to the size fire you are working with. When the intakes are reduced too far the white smoke will start to show which is an indicator that the fire is being starved. By this I mean you are not allowing enough oxygen to enter the FB to maintain the current fuel supply being burned and the internal temp of the FB is dropping to inefficient levels. The same can happen with over adjusting the exhaust. When you close the exhaust to the point that the air is not being pulled fro mthe FB then once again you are starving the fire. To combat white smoke I try to not overdo the initial load of fuel. If I want low and slow I feed the fire on 45 minute schedule based on experience with my smoker. If I am wanting to run a hotter cook I wont neccesarily dump more fuel every 45 minutes but rather I will feed every 30 minutes since my larger fire is burning through the fuel at a faster rate.
To avoid white smoke I leave the exhaust wide open until the nose of the smoker (coolest spot) is close to temp or just over temp. Now I start tweeking the intakes until the nose is holding where my target is and the exhaust is staying almost clear. If you see white smoke as soon as you start the tweek on the intake you probably have not established a hot enough coal base. Check to see if your FB still has fuel to burn, toss in a log if needed and go grab a beverage for another 15-20 minutes. If you FB is overloaded with unlit fuel try banking the coals to form a hot spot in the basket. Once you are able to tweek back the intake to the point your nose is in range you can play with the exhaust to stabilize overal temps.
All that said it is a learning curve as to what size fire you need to run and how often to feed it and that is different between most cookers. Start with a fuel load that is no more than half your basket, that should burn down to a coal bed about 1/4 your basket size. If you can't maintain your target temps without seeing white then you will need to increase the base which will offer more heat and lead to a purer burn.

Too much written here but I hope it paints a readable picture

[Pete Mazz]

This is what thin blue smoke should look like, if you can see it in this pic.

[Frank_Cox]

And SoloQue went "all BTU on him" hahaha!

Sent from my mobile device using Forum Runner

[QueTex]

+1 what Blue ridge says.

You mentioned you cook on a small smoker, what kind is it? Offset, box, or? Pictures? At home I use salt pepper and garlic and never have a problem getting smoke rings on my small offsets using either kingsford and chunks of wood or hard lump plus a few chunks of wood. The one below was cooked on a 16" offset indirect as stated already.

[Pennywise]

If you are using a store bought smaller smoker (as I do at home) then you will fight the smoke by adding too many chunks at a time. Lemme see if I can help you clear a few things up.

1) get a bucket of water and throw about 10 chunks of wood to it. Keep another stack handy that is dry. I've found I use dry wood more in colder weather and water soaked wood in the summer...seems my fire stays hotter in the summer so less flares with the water soaked wood. I have NEVER had bitter meat as long as I stopped using wood after about 135 degrees. Once it reaches that temp, the meat stops taking smoke and starts accumulating it on its surface instead.

2) I wrap almost everything. I mean to tell you, there is nothing more tender than meat wrapped after 150-160 degrees. All that moisture has no where to go but back into the meat. I like to put my briskets into a throw away alum. pan and add Spaten Optimator (beer, malt with a molasses finish) and some beef broth. This will keep the bottom of your brisket from getting firm, and it will let it soak up that juice. Ive found store bought cuts need that extra juice cause you've already trimmed most the fat...and lets be honest if your just cooking to feed your family then you can't afford to go out and get a prime cut.

3) Once you reach your optimal temp (195 sounds good) pull it off and let it sit in the juices for at least an hour. Meat resting is it recovering from the high temps an allowing the juices get back into the meat.

Again like others have said, this is just a guide. Some meat cuts are better than others and don't require as much attention...but for your Price Chopper or HyVee cuts, this works for me.

[QueTex]

good advice Pennywise, yes too much smoke is not yummy, good well cooked meat with a kiss of smoke is. My 16 basically runs indirect semi minion style, (small offsets are not real stickburners lol) basket is 16x14x 6"deep, I layer kingsford first then a couple chunks then a layer of RO lump plus a couple of chunks, then fill the rest with more RO and lay a couple more chunks on top, runs at 290-300 for 7 hours +- .

[Northwoods Traveler]

Last week and couple of us smoking addicts cooked 12 large briskets at one time for a church new years event in our homebuilt pig cooker /smoker. Three hours at 260 degrees heavy apple and hickory smoke with dry rub. Then we put each brisket in a full-size foil chafing pan with sealed cover and more rub and a liter of coke for five more hours. Many people said "best brisket ever".

[Tom_Heath]

I need to work on my brisket. Reading this post makes me hungry.

[Rodcrafter]

That seems like a lot of coke. The bottom line is everyone likes it.

[Culinairezaken]

I used Aaron Franklin's youtube videos to get me started on brisket and it works for me!
He explains it quite simple...

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL ... ovXzAQ3EUu

[Northwoods Traveler]

Thanks for the Aaron Franklin tip, excellent videos. Yes, Rodcrafter we could cut down on the coke, it was easy insurance against drying out 150+ pounds of meat and did help produce a nice steamy tasty end product.

[Rodcrafter]

Cool

[Pennywise]

That seems like a lot of coke. The bottom line is everyone likes it.

Who doesn't like...

OK I couldn't help it!!