First Smoke on MES - DR Pepper Brisket and Jerky

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beef eater

Newbie
Original poster
Feb 17, 2009
8
10
Alpharetta, GA
Howdy all.

Sorry no Qview still no camera.

Sorry I introduced myself last week and then promptly disappeared for a while. I am in the middle of a move currently and have it almost done but have just been too darn tired to get on the computer.

The 2nd day in my new place I did fire up my new MES and cooked a brisket flat. I did soak the brisket 24 hours in Dr Pepper.

Personally - I don't think the Dr Pepper did anything for the brisket but since it was the first I should probably try it again before passing judgment.

I was a little disappointed - don't get me wrong it was still good, but the brisket flat was a little dry and tough. I had a digital thermometer in the meat but it went from 170 to 217 in like 30 min. I thought it would still be ok but no bueno. Had some great bark though. Not sure if this was because the meat didn't have enough marbling or if it was due to not giving the meat a mop every hour like I did on my old bullet smoker. Overall it was a good first smoke.

A couple days later I did some Jerky for the first time.

I think it came out well but will tweak that out a little bit the next go round as well. I did it in the MES at 110 degrees give or take 5 degrees, with some Pecan Flavored Smokin dust with some hickory chips mixed in. Has a good smoke flavor but due to my inexperience not sure if it came out right or not. Would prefer it to be a little sweeter and I need to cut the meat more consistently. Some parts were thinner than 1/4 in and some were up to 1/2 inch.

Any advice using the MES or smoking in general would be welcome.
 
Beef Eater
Wish you had pics, sounds great !!!

As far as dry brisket goes, have you temp tested your MES with a thermometer you know to be accurate? With the temp increase of 170º to 217º in 30 minutes my impression is your MES is running warmer than the factory digital thermo on your smoker.

Also, how many pound brisket was it and what was the total time in the smoker? This will help me and other that are more knowledgeable help your next brisket be more succesful.
 
Hi , and welcome,

A couple of questions may help diagnose what was going on - a temperature spike of 170F to 217F in half an hour is awful fast...
what temperature were you using on the mes for the brisket? how many hours in total? did you have a separate temperature probe inside the mes or were you going by the thermostat reading?
 
Sorry to step on your comments - I must have been typing at the same time as you....
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I first looked at this post cause I thought that you were doin brisket and jerky at the same time. I just wanted to know how that is done.

Any way. I agree with the rest. Check your thermometers. All of them.
Internal temps rising that quickly makes me think that one of your therms is not right. And that would explain tough or dry.
 
Well. I never tested the built in therm that came with the unit. First of my mistakes probably. Will have to check that out.

The thermometer I used was a digital one on a cable and pushed into the thickest part of the flat. It has served me well in the past but I think I will replace that too.

The brisket iteslf was a 6.45 lb flat with a nice coat of fat on one side. I did not trim it. Soaked it in Dr Pepper for 24 hrs then dried it off and coated it with mustard and my rub and let it go another 24.

I didn't really time the brisket since I had a therm in the thing and I was checking it ever 30 min to 1 hour. If I had to guess I would say it was roughly 9 hours in the smoker at 220-230 (If the built in temp is reading right) till I pulled it out. The meat stayed at 160-170 for a long time then the temp spiked to 217 in 30 min to 1 hr. I was sipping a little and watching the tube during all of this but it did jump quick. I wasn't wobbly yet.
 
Dont replace the digitat untill you have tested it

Boil water and put probes in it. Water boils a 212 at sea level.

My guess is the built in is readin LOW!

Look into the Maverick ET-73. It has a probe for both cooking temp and meat temp. And it has a remote unit so you can moniter temps while wachin the tube....
 
Do what I did...I'm an MES user also. Jam that probe thermo thru a tater and shove it in the smoker and turn it on to 100. When the MES reading says 100, note the temp on the probe. Now go up to 125, 150, so on, all the way up to 275. WRITE THEM ALL DOWN. This is your curve to be used when trying to set an agreeable temp in the future. I did this, and it saved me no end of headaches. I still use an internal probe, mind you, but an internal probe can only tell you what HAS happened to the meat. Knowing your MES curve will tell you what's GONNA happen. Best of luck!!
 
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