***call 911 save the brisket!***

BO,

Sounds like you cooked by time and temperature rather than by feel.

An undercooked brisket will seem slightly dry and tough, whereas an over cooked brisket will crumble apart when you attempt to slice it.

Probe test the brisket until it is tender with no resistance to the probe.


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^^^just what he said. What was your final meat temp.? With a brisket if you want to wrap it instead of going by a time frame wrap it when it gets the color you want on the bark. That could be 140 or 175. Once you wrap or let it run naked most folks start checking for probe tender at 190 and let it cook until the thickest part of the flat gets that way. Depending on the particular cut of brisket that could be anywhere from 190 up to or even over 210.

I agree. Don't cook brisket by time or temp. Cook until probe tender in the thickest part of the flat.

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 in the 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.

I to cook on a CharGriller
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

I wouldn't recommend injecting apple juice in brisket but that is a personal preference.

As mentioned several times above it wasn't done yet. If you have some left wrap it up and throw it in the oven or dice it up and add to chili. The connective tissues will give up and eventually turn to gelatin. That's why it needs to probe like jello, literally.

DriverWild said:

I wouldn't recommend injecting apple juice in brisket but that is a personal preference.

As mentioned several times above it wasn't done yet. If you have some left wrap it up and throw it in the oven or dice it up and add to chili. The connective tissues will give up and eventually turn to gelatin. That's why it needs to probe like jello, literally.

Click to expand...

^ +1 I missed that, I agree, maybe beef broth might be a better choice...

Changing the injection won't effect the way you are currently cooking, only the flavors..

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Bludawg said:

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.

Click to expand...

150? I usually don't start to probe until mid 190's and this is after it's been wrapped a few hours. Is this saying when the temp drops to 150?

It looks awesome, but maybe I'm thinking backwards.:caked:

Cook to Probe tender in the thickest part of the Flat

REST to an IT of 150ish

If you Follow the instructions you don't need to know nor will you care what temp the meat is at because Probe Tender aint a temp it's a feel. Wrap cook 1 hr probe!

Blu is absolutely spot on. Hope you don't mind Blu, but I'm borrowing and editing your last photo to give a clear comparison.

This is Blu's brisket. The arrows point to where the collagen/connective tissue USED to be, but is now gone because it was rendered.





This a slice of brisket that was undercooked. The arrows point to faint lines that are the connective tissues that haven't rendered or broken down yet, leaving a brisket that is dry and somewhat tough.

Ditto to what Blu said. Tried his way and the first one was overcooked....my bad on not reading the instructions correctly. Second time was awesomeness. Third time was a charm. 4th time I'm eating right now!!
Here is the third time picture. If was done on a Traeger at 275 for 4 hours then another 2 wrapped. 13lbs prior to trimming.


Did one this last weekend at a competition on an offset stickburner and it was 8.5lbs before trimming. No injections. No mops. Nothing but rub and smoke. Sorry, no sliced pictures. Just for eating around the smoker, but it turned out great. Definitely get out of the comfort zone with the whole numbers/temp thing. I only worry about it on chicken due to salmonella. Pork and Brisket i know cook by feel. So, when I tell the wife, hold on I have to go feel my meat, it's true!