First brisket on BGE good but needs work

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loki993

Newbie
Original poster
Oct 30, 2007
15
10
I did mt first brisket on the BGE this weekend and it came out good but there were a few issues. It was a full packer brisket and I kept it basically intact. Basic salt and pepper rub with a bit of cayanne. It was only my second low smoke with the egg so Im still getting temp control down but id say I averaged about 230. It would creep on my a bit and id lower it then it would drop to 220 ish. All in all not too bad though.

I ran it to 185 and oddly enough it never seemed to stall and if it did it wasn't for very long. So I checked it at 185 and my probe ran right into the point and the flat, both seemed nice and tender. I wrapped in in foil and put in a cooler to rest for about 2 hours maybe longer since it actually took about 2 hours less to cook than id estimated. 

When I finally started cutting it the flat was really dry..the point nice and juicy. The flavor was good, though I think it was a bit over smoked..thats an easy fix though. 

Any ideas? I though my temp and time were fine and like I said it seemed to feel fine when I pulled it...so Im struggling to figure out what I did wrong. Ive seen a couple things say that for whenever reason on the egg people had issues with briskets drying out at low temps and after they bumped the temp to 300 they turned out great....Im not sure. 
 
Not sure, the only thing I can offer is I cook mine to a higher IT, 200-208. You might not have heated it enough to render everything?
 
How many places did you probe? How much fat cap did you leave on? I like to do a hot smoke now a days on mine. 285°-325° pit temp. Start probing the meat at 185° and pull when the probe goes in like its melted butter. Sometimes that's low and sometimes the IT is high. Could be just the piece of meat you had too.
 
Not sure, the only thing I can offer is I cook mine to a higher IT, 200-208. You might not have heated it enough to render everything?
I suppose thays possible but I was afraid id dry it out if I overcooked it.....obviously thats what happened anyway so I could try that. 
 
How many places did you probe? How much fat cap did you leave on? I like to do a hot smoke now a days on mine. 285°-325° pit temp. Start probing the meat at 185° and pull when the probe goes in like its melted butter. Sometimes that's low and sometimes the IT is high. Could be just the piece of meat you had too.
I probed in the thickest part of the point and in the middle of the flat. I left all of the fat cap on, didn't think it would be a problem. There wasn't much fat cap at all on the flat though, MAYBE 1/4 inch at the most. It was thicker on some parts of the point. I suppose it could have been the meat but it was USDA prime. 
 
You can ignore the point when probing.  Just don't worry about it.  Probe the flat at it's thickest part. 

Was the flat dry and kind of tough ? i.e. didn't pass the pull test ?   Or was it dry and crumbly / falling apart ?
 
I suppose thays possible but I was afraid id dry it out if I overcooked it.....obviously thats what happened anyway so I could try that. 


I probed in the thickest part of the point and in the middle of the flat. I left all of the fat cap on, didn't think it would be a problem. There wasn't much fat cap at all on the flat though, MAYBE 1/4 inch at the most. It was thicker on some parts of the point. I suppose it could have been the meat but it was USDA prime. 

The only briskets I've ever had be on the dry side have been Prime. The choice and select have always been nice and moist. Maybe prime isn't all it's cracked up to be, unless it's Amazon Prime!
 
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