Help - How To Get Brisket Moist ???

I look for probe tender on the flat. If it slides in and out like butter your good to go. Let it rest and blammo. tender juicy brisket. I don't temp. so somebody else can address that. I wrap when the bark is the color I want.

Yep, always cook to probe tenderness, not temp. Here's my brisket method (very similar to Bludawg's), give it a try next time!:-D
CENTRAL TEXAS BRISKET
To make a true central Texas style brisket you'll need four key ingredients, beef, kosher salt, coarse black pepper and smoke! Here's my method.
Start with a whole packer brisket. A whole packer consist of two parts, the point (fattier portion) and the flat (the leaner portion). Be sure and ask your market manager or butcher for that cut.
Once you have found your brisket, trim the fat cap layer down to about 1/4 inch or less. The idea is to have a thin layer of fat that will render down, marry up with your spice rub and become a sticky, crunchy and flavorful part of the bark.
After the fat has been trimmed down, I like to apply some cooking oil which helps the rub to adhere to the meat and activates the natural oils in the spices.
The spice rub will consist of a 50/50 blend of kosher salt and 16 mesh coarse ground black pepper. I like to dust mine with a little garlic powder as well but the important things are the salt and pepper. Coat the meat well with the rub and allow the rub to mix in with the oil for 30 minutes to an hour.
Heat the pit to 275 (different cookers like to run at different temperatures and you may be cooking at higher or lower temps but the method remains the same, only cooking time is effected).Smoke the brisket for 4 hours, after the first 4 hours wrap the brisket in butcher paper and continue cooking at 275, checking the flat for tenderness after 3 more hours of cooking. To do this simply find a sharp pointed object such as a thermometer or skewer and poke the flat in several places, (always determine doneness by probing for tenderness, not IT) when it has the feel of room temperature butter it's time to pull the brisket off of the cooker.
Allow the brisket (still wrapped in butcher paper) to rest on the kitchen counter for a minimum of 2 hours, at the end of the rest period it's ready for slicing. Slice against the grain and enjoy.:-D
Using this method I can usually get a 15 pound whole packer done in 7 to 8 hours (not counting resting time).:wink:

I take my brisket out to a nice romantic dinner, then on the way home i play barry white in the car. Done deal!

You're pulling them too early.

Seems counter-intuitive, I know.

Learn how to read your slices. When you slice it, is it dry but the slices hold together? It's undrcooked. Is it dry but the brisket slices crumble while slicing? It's overcooked. Without even knowing what your slices looked like, I'm pretty sure yours were undercooked. Ignore the point, ignore the temp. When the thickest part of the flat probes tender, it's done. The moistness will come from all of the fat and connective tissue being cooked long enough to finally break down and annoint your brisket with its juicy offerings. Accept them, but don't give up on them by pulling your brisket too early. :thumb:

Just did a brisket this past weekend. Came out great. I used Blu's method. 275 wrap after 4 hours, cook until probe tender then rest on counter wrapped. That's it. Rub can be whatever you like, but the method is tried and true.

Sean "Puffy" Coals said:

I take my brisket out to a nice romantic dinner, then on the way home i play barry white in the car. Done deal!

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I LOLed in the office! :clap2:

Revelation said:

Thanks Guys !! I had a feeling the were undercooked.

Old Bill: what if my barks not right after 4 hours do I still wrap it or go for color then wrap ?? Plus I've never cooke at 275 but willing to try.

What if I wrap after 5 hours them wrap - cook for another 2-3 then probe or probe every hour Etc. ??

Want to try another this weekend so I really want to try to get this one right

Thanks again

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Well, if you feel like you want more color then you could smoke it a little longer if you wish but I can tell you that after 4 hours at 275 the bark is well established and the great thing about wrapping in butcher paper as apposed to foil is that the bark is preserved pretty well because paper breathes and doesn't steam it to death like foil will.:grin:
Following the plan that I gave you, you will have a very dark, spicy, crunchy bark made of the rub and the rendered down fat cap.:wink:

If you're dead set on cooking by temp here is what will get you in the park
Inject with beef broth cook till you have the colour around 160 to 170 wrap it tight with foil put a probe into the thickest part of the flat cook till 203 pull it and seal up that probe hole immediately rest it in a cooler for at least 4 hrs and blamo it will be good.

AlwaysSmokey said:

I look for probe tender on the flat. If it slides in and out like butter your good to go. Let it rest and blammo. tender juicy brisket. I don't temp. so somebody else can address that. I wrap when the bark is the color I want.

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This is the path to brisket wisdom.

Keep a steady smoker temp, wrap when your bark looks right, pull when it's probe tender. Everything else is secondary.

I can usually cook a pretty decent brisket and thought it was pretty close to what oldbill said till I got to thinking about it.

I usually cook mine a little lower and with a few more spices and aluminum foil instead of butcher paper. Im definitely gonna try one his way though.

The bludawg brisket method should be a sticky. The a brisket question comes up daily!

It should be in the welcome section. :-D

Did a flat for the first time and ended up pulling early it was undercooked but man I did a lot better for the first time because I read about it here.

In Blu's method, does it matter how big the brisket is or do you just put in on for 4 hours and then wrap regardless of size and weight??

BBQKO said:

In Blu's method, does it matter how big the brisket is or do you just put in on for 4 hours and then wrap regardless of size and weight??

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Yes, smoke for four and then finish it wrapped.:grin:

WHY is MY Meat Dry???

Allow me to channel my inner Alton Brown.
Critters are held together by collagen it is between the muscle fibers. Blood and plasma run through the fibers( Mostly water) Basic Laws of physics tell us that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. What happens when you heat up a pot of water?? When you heat it the molecules move faster and expand when they expand and volume increases until the pot Boils over. The same thing happens inside the muscle fibers once the pressures is great enough this moisture( water Blood Plasma) is forced to the surface and along with rendering fat enters the atmosphere ( this is the Smell that make ya Hongry). Pumping more of a water based solution in has no effect as it is forced out as the fibers constrict and the pressure builds up.
Now back to the Collagen, as the collagen gets hot it undergoes a transformation and turns into gelatin it is the Gelatin that is the Moisture in the meat. God and the Critter put it there all you need to do is extract it through proper cooking. This is why under cooked briskets are DRY and Chewy

BBQ RULES FOR SUCCESS

"YOU CAN NOT COOK GREAT BBQ ON A CONSISTENT BASIS COOKING TO AN INTERNAL TEMP OR BY TIME(XXX MIN PER LB) YOU MUST COOK BY FEEL!"For a Brisket that is probe tender inthe thickest part of the Flat, Pork Butts when the Bone wiggles lose, Ribs pass the Bend Test. These are the only reliable methods to indicate the proper time to declare the cook completed with success.

BluDawgs Brisket

K.I S.S. some of the best brisket you will ever eat! Total cook time including the rest 8 hrs or less. I promise it will be as moist as mornin dew on the lilly, tender as a mothers love, pure beefy smoky goodness.

1 packer 12-15 lb
Trim off the hard fat on each side of the flat thin the fat cap to 1/4"

Mix your Rub
1 part kosher salt 4 parts Med grind Black peppa by volume( this is a true 50/50 BY weight)
apply a coat of rub you need to be able to see the meat through the rub clearly.

Pre heat the pit to 300 deg
place brisket on the pit Fat Cap Down and point to the firebox unless it is a RF cooker then point to away from FB

Maintain pit between 275-325 if cookin on a stick burner
cook Brisket 4 hrs
remove from pit wrap in a single layer of Butcher paper Return to pit Fat cap up.
after 1 hr probe the thicket part of the Flat only! If it isn't *probe tender it should be within 1 hr.
once it is probe tender remove from the pit keep it wrapped in the paper you cooked it in and allow it to rest on your counter until the Internal temp reaches 150 this will take about two hrs.
Don't ever slice more than you can eat big pieces retain moisture and won't dry up on you like slices will.
*PROBE TENDER>This is the feel that is mimicked by cutting room temperature butter with a hot knife, there should be no drag

Sticky material right there ^^^^

Decoy205 said:

Sticky material right there ^^^^

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Shhhh! Beef prices are high enough as it is, if you let the whole world know how easy it really is to cook a decent brisket beef will get even more scarce and we'll be paying $25 a lb. in no time!!!:shock: