Brisket Bob
New member
Good evening all…
I just got done early today with my first brisket in the Model #1 smoker. Overall the brisket was good (good flavoring), but dry (specifically the brisket flat was really dry…the point was still nice and moist). I was hoping I could get some feedback on what I could do next time to improve.
I will give you as much data as possible. As I said, this was the first brisket that I smoked. I started with a 9 lbs. packer brisket. I did a YouTube search on how to best trim your brisket before smoking. I watched four or five of the ones that seemed to be the most competent. I feel like I followed their directions (kept a ¼ inch of fat around with the fat cap, got rid of hard pieces of fat that would have a hard time rendering). The brisket was trimmed and the rub was applied the night before, wrapped in cling wrap and refrigerated overnight.
I woke up the next morning, and prepared the smoker (approximately 34° in Chicago when I started). I let the brisket rest outside of the fridge for probably 45 minutes before putting it in the smoker. I used 2.5 ounces of cherry and 2 ounces of apple wood. Before closing the door, I added a mini loaf pan to the bottom next to the smoke box with 12 ounces of Coors Light (perhaps 11 ounces…I may have “tested” the beer first…you never can be too careful).
The smoker was set to 225° (which seemed to be consistent with what I read on other posts in the forum…although this might have been too high…thoughts?) I utilized a Maverick ET732 Meat Thermometer and recorded all of the temperatures after each hour of smoking. They are as follows:
After 1 hour (75° for the brisket, 169° for the smoker)
After 2 hours (127° for the brisket, 221° for the smoker)
After 3 hours (162° for the brisket, 219° for the smoker)
After 4 hours (178° for the brisket, 230° for the smoker)
After 5 hours (183° for the brisket, 234° for the smoker)
After 6 hours (187° for the brisket, 217° for the smoker)
After 7 hours (187° for the brisket, 237° for the smoker)
After 8 hours (192° for the brisket, 223° for the smoker)
After 9 hours (201° for the brisket, 234° for the smoker)
After 10 hours (205° for the brisket, 217° for the smoker)
From what I have read, there seems to be no magic temperature to pull it from the smoker. In my head I was thinking 190° seemed about right. I was surprised at the steady rate of increasing temperature of the brisket. I thought that the reason the temperature was increasing so rapidly was due to incorrectly inserting the probe to the meat. I anticipated (due to several posts), but never experienced, was a temperature plateau that would occur after three or four hours. I got nervous that it was cooking too quickly, so after 4 hours, I turned the dial down to (210ish). I realize that the heating element only kicks on when you dip below that number, so moving the dial at that point really didn’t impact the temperature.
The first time I opened the smoker was at the 8.5 hour mark. I wanted to see what was going on. In one of the YouTube clips I watched, the person recommended clipping a corner of the brisket when you’re trimming it so that you knew which way to cut when you were ready to slice the brisket. I had added that piece to the smoker as well. So when I had the door opened at the 8.5 hour mark, I took that piece out to sample. It was extremely dry. I decided to add another beer to the mini-loaf pan to increase the amount of moisture.
I continued to monitor the temperatures. Like I said, I thought I might have incorrectly inserted the probe, so I was convinced that it wasn’t ready, even though the internal temperatures numbers were probably accurate. After 10 hours (and an internal meat temperature of 205) I decided to pull the brisket. I wrapped it in several layers of tin foil. After that, I wrapped it in a large bath towel (I read to do this online too) and put the brisket in a cooler to rest for a little more that three hours (I originally had planned for one hour, but that is when I thought the smoking would take 12 hours). While it was resting, I decided to clean out the smoker. The dripping pan was about two-thirds full (not sure if that is a lot or not and may indicate extreme loss of moisture/fat).
After reflecting on my first brisket on the smoker, I think there are two things I would do differently next time. I would inject the flat with some solution (any recommendation on what?) and start with a lower temperature (200 or 210).
Any red flags here? Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. Sorry for the super long post…I just wanted to give as much info as possible to figure out how I can do it better next time.
Thank you!
(Not so) Brisket Bob
I just got done early today with my first brisket in the Model #1 smoker. Overall the brisket was good (good flavoring), but dry (specifically the brisket flat was really dry…the point was still nice and moist). I was hoping I could get some feedback on what I could do next time to improve.
I will give you as much data as possible. As I said, this was the first brisket that I smoked. I started with a 9 lbs. packer brisket. I did a YouTube search on how to best trim your brisket before smoking. I watched four or five of the ones that seemed to be the most competent. I feel like I followed their directions (kept a ¼ inch of fat around with the fat cap, got rid of hard pieces of fat that would have a hard time rendering). The brisket was trimmed and the rub was applied the night before, wrapped in cling wrap and refrigerated overnight.
I woke up the next morning, and prepared the smoker (approximately 34° in Chicago when I started). I let the brisket rest outside of the fridge for probably 45 minutes before putting it in the smoker. I used 2.5 ounces of cherry and 2 ounces of apple wood. Before closing the door, I added a mini loaf pan to the bottom next to the smoke box with 12 ounces of Coors Light (perhaps 11 ounces…I may have “tested” the beer first…you never can be too careful).
The smoker was set to 225° (which seemed to be consistent with what I read on other posts in the forum…although this might have been too high…thoughts?) I utilized a Maverick ET732 Meat Thermometer and recorded all of the temperatures after each hour of smoking. They are as follows:
After 1 hour (75° for the brisket, 169° for the smoker)
After 2 hours (127° for the brisket, 221° for the smoker)
After 3 hours (162° for the brisket, 219° for the smoker)
After 4 hours (178° for the brisket, 230° for the smoker)
After 5 hours (183° for the brisket, 234° for the smoker)
After 6 hours (187° for the brisket, 217° for the smoker)
After 7 hours (187° for the brisket, 237° for the smoker)
After 8 hours (192° for the brisket, 223° for the smoker)
After 9 hours (201° for the brisket, 234° for the smoker)
After 10 hours (205° for the brisket, 217° for the smoker)
From what I have read, there seems to be no magic temperature to pull it from the smoker. In my head I was thinking 190° seemed about right. I was surprised at the steady rate of increasing temperature of the brisket. I thought that the reason the temperature was increasing so rapidly was due to incorrectly inserting the probe to the meat. I anticipated (due to several posts), but never experienced, was a temperature plateau that would occur after three or four hours. I got nervous that it was cooking too quickly, so after 4 hours, I turned the dial down to (210ish). I realize that the heating element only kicks on when you dip below that number, so moving the dial at that point really didn’t impact the temperature.
The first time I opened the smoker was at the 8.5 hour mark. I wanted to see what was going on. In one of the YouTube clips I watched, the person recommended clipping a corner of the brisket when you’re trimming it so that you knew which way to cut when you were ready to slice the brisket. I had added that piece to the smoker as well. So when I had the door opened at the 8.5 hour mark, I took that piece out to sample. It was extremely dry. I decided to add another beer to the mini-loaf pan to increase the amount of moisture.
I continued to monitor the temperatures. Like I said, I thought I might have incorrectly inserted the probe, so I was convinced that it wasn’t ready, even though the internal temperatures numbers were probably accurate. After 10 hours (and an internal meat temperature of 205) I decided to pull the brisket. I wrapped it in several layers of tin foil. After that, I wrapped it in a large bath towel (I read to do this online too) and put the brisket in a cooler to rest for a little more that three hours (I originally had planned for one hour, but that is when I thought the smoking would take 12 hours). While it was resting, I decided to clean out the smoker. The dripping pan was about two-thirds full (not sure if that is a lot or not and may indicate extreme loss of moisture/fat).
After reflecting on my first brisket on the smoker, I think there are two things I would do differently next time. I would inject the flat with some solution (any recommendation on what?) and start with a lower temperature (200 or 210).
Any red flags here? Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated. Sorry for the super long post…I just wanted to give as much info as possible to figure out how I can do it better next time.
Thank you!
(Not so) Brisket Bob
