1st overnight brisket. Already done... WTH?

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tootall87

Newbie
Original poster
Dec 31, 2014
15
15
Morning gents. Need some smoking wisdom. Had my smoker (uds) for about a year now. I am attempting my 1st brisket. 13#er. Put it on the smoker at 2330 last night. Constant 235-240 temp all night using a maverick. Wrapped at about 0400 @ 160 IT. Woke up at 0700 and it's done. I am so confused right now it's not even funny. Poke test is good, smells amazing, reading 199-203 all over the sucker. What am I missing? I thought this was gonna be a 14+ hour cook! Got it wrapped in a cooler. Dinner isn't till 1700. Anything else I can do to preserve my dinner till then?
 
I too, am surprised your brisket finished in such a short time.  I always estimate 1 hour per pound plus 2 hours for briskets and have found this to be very accurate.  Are you sure your smoker temp of 235-240 is accurate?  At any rate keep brisket wrapped in foil and reheat in oven before dinner.  that is really your only option at this point.
 
For a 13 lb'er to be done in 7.5 hours the meat was in a smoker running 300F+. Do you have a heat diffuser in your UDS? If not you can have hot spots that won't register on your Mav especially if the Mav is placed close to the edue of your grate because the meat takes up so much space. The few times I've run my WSM like a UDS (no diffuser) there were definite hot spots on the grate.

Also double check the Mav. If the boil test shows the probe is still good, do a dry run (no meat) in your UDS, moving the probe around to check temps at different spots.

The hot n fast brisket should be fine but will need to be put in the fridge then reheated.
 
You picked the wrong weekend. There's a wrinkle moving through the time/space continuum, which will result in all the clocks changing time.
 
Pretty sure the temp was correct. Never had this far off of a cooking time with anything else in the last year. I do have a diffuser. Pizza pan with lots of holes in it. Still kind of blows my mind. Shows I have a lot to learn still.
 
 
Pretty sure the temp was correct. Never had this far off of a cooking time with anything else in the last year. I do have a diffuser. Pizza pan with lots of holes in it. Still kind of blows my mind. Shows I have a lot to learn still.
Starting from the bottom up, and outside in, can you describe where your brisket was as well as where the tip of the Maverick probe ?
 
 
Starting from the bottom up, and outside in, can you describe where your brisket was as well as where the tip of the Maverick probe ?
 Brisket was on the top rack in the middle, fat side up. Mav probe was placed in the thickest part of the flat, not quite center, and about 3 inches inside the meat. The smoker temp probe was placed under the brisket on the second shelf. It and the analog gauge both read within 5 degrees of each other all night.

After 8 hours wrapped in the cooler the IT was 140* I placed it in a warm oven for about an hour before slicing. Can't really complain about the end result too much considering I had no clue how it was gonna turn out after cooking so fast. Very tender and moist. 

One thing I noticed is I didn't get as pronounced a smoke ring as I would have imagined. I understand after the meat reaches a certain temp it no longer absorbs smoke. Could it be that the temp went from 60 to 160 in only 4.5 hours that the meat just didn't have enough time to absorb more? 

Can't wait for my next one!


 
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Smoke ring is for show did it have the flavor you wanted? If not different or more wood maybe required. I have gotten better smoke rings on a r/s tri tip then briskest.
 
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