New smoker here. Cooked a brisket flat over the weekend. My first time. I felt like I hit the right temps and followed the right procedure but it still came out rather tough. It was 3.5 pounds... so it was relatively small. I'm using a WSM 18.5. I'll walk you through what I did and maybe you can tell me what I did wrong.
Prepped the meat with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
When the pit hit 230 i put the meat on (around 10am).
When the meat hit 165 I wrapped it with a little cola/beef broth/red wine/butter mixture.
I let the pit temp come up to 250. I had ribs on there and like the way the higher temp seems to give it a better bark.
Poked the brisket a few times around 415. It felt relatively soft, and the temp reads were 198, 200, and 205.
I pulled it off and wrapped it in a towel for two hours.
Sliced it against the grain.
It had a layer of fat that ran through the middle. The top half of the meat that was between the fat cap and the lower layer of fat was nice and relatively tender. The meat on the bottom though was very tough. I'm wondering if maybe i didnt poke the thermometer deep enough and was mislead by the top half. I dunno... it wasn't bad though. I also didnt really get much of a bark. I'm wondering if that was because of the low temp and the lack of sugar.
Here are a few pics of the day:
Prepped the meat with olive oil, salt, and pepper.
When the pit hit 230 i put the meat on (around 10am).
When the meat hit 165 I wrapped it with a little cola/beef broth/red wine/butter mixture.
I let the pit temp come up to 250. I had ribs on there and like the way the higher temp seems to give it a better bark.
Poked the brisket a few times around 415. It felt relatively soft, and the temp reads were 198, 200, and 205.
I pulled it off and wrapped it in a towel for two hours.
Sliced it against the grain.
It had a layer of fat that ran through the middle. The top half of the meat that was between the fat cap and the lower layer of fat was nice and relatively tender. The meat on the bottom though was very tough. I'm wondering if maybe i didnt poke the thermometer deep enough and was mislead by the top half. I dunno... it wasn't bad though. I also didnt really get much of a bark. I'm wondering if that was because of the low temp and the lack of sugar.
Here are a few pics of the day:
Last edited: