- May 29, 2020
- 141
- 111
Did my first brisket yesterday. Small piece that I ordered for curbside pickup from local grocery due to covid19, so I wasn't able to choose what I got.
It was a 3.3lb brisket from Vons. I know very little about briskets, never brought one home to cook it before.
1:30PM-ish: Removed from fridge and seasoned
3PM: Smoker @240, top vent mostly closed, hickory chip in. Brisket goes in and temp probe inserted
5PM: Brisket is already at 170, temp seemed to rise very fast.
5-7PM: Stuck between high 160s and 170. Stopped adding hickory chips at 7PM.
7-8:15: Foil wrapped, went to 196
8:15-8:30: 275: Unwrapped, went down to high 180s
8:30 - 10:30: Wrapped in foil and towel and in cooler
Details:
The ingénue, resting w/simple rub consisting of black pepper and rub. (Rub suggested to me by chef neighbor ). Rested on counter, 68 degrees before it went into the smoker. I assumed that this seemed more like a hunk of mostly the flat than an actual (super small) brisket.
Initial temp was 250. During the first 45 minutes I reduced to 230 and 235 for short periods, then left at 240 for the remainder of smoking. I kept going back to the interweb and reading more info on temperatures and getting confused about which was best. Damn interweb. Using simple electric smoker.
Vent opening: It was a little bit more than below, but I left it pretty closed for the whole smoke. I think that may have been one of my mistakes?
5:00 PM, two hours later. Temp is already 170, and I was unnecessaily worried about it finishing to fast, but of course it then stayed in the low 170's never higher than 175 until 7PM.
At 7PM I finally wrapped in foil and returned to smoker. By 8:15 it was 196. Removed tin foil, set smoker to 275, and returned to rack to "crisp" a bit. Not sure how much crisping occurred, didn't look/feel too different. When it came out a 8:15 it did look pretty good, I'll give it that.
Meat was a little dry, especially towards the tip/end where we started slicing. Had I been at a restaurant I would have been disappointed and given it a grade of low B. Not moist, but still pretty tender/easy to pull apart after slicing. As I got into the cut it improved, but clearly not what I had been hoping for. It did get a nice smoke from the hickory chips I used for the first two hours of smoking.
Thoughts about my next brisket - appreciate any feedback on below, and general suggestions for improvement.
It was a 3.3lb brisket from Vons. I know very little about briskets, never brought one home to cook it before.
1:30PM-ish: Removed from fridge and seasoned
3PM: Smoker @240, top vent mostly closed, hickory chip in. Brisket goes in and temp probe inserted
5PM: Brisket is already at 170, temp seemed to rise very fast.
5-7PM: Stuck between high 160s and 170. Stopped adding hickory chips at 7PM.
7-8:15: Foil wrapped, went to 196
8:15-8:30: 275: Unwrapped, went down to high 180s
8:30 - 10:30: Wrapped in foil and towel and in cooler
Details:
The ingénue, resting w/simple rub consisting of black pepper and rub. (Rub suggested to me by chef neighbor ). Rested on counter, 68 degrees before it went into the smoker. I assumed that this seemed more like a hunk of mostly the flat than an actual (super small) brisket.
Initial temp was 250. During the first 45 minutes I reduced to 230 and 235 for short periods, then left at 240 for the remainder of smoking. I kept going back to the interweb and reading more info on temperatures and getting confused about which was best. Damn interweb. Using simple electric smoker.
Vent opening: It was a little bit more than below, but I left it pretty closed for the whole smoke. I think that may have been one of my mistakes?
5:00 PM, two hours later. Temp is already 170, and I was unnecessaily worried about it finishing to fast, but of course it then stayed in the low 170's never higher than 175 until 7PM.
At 7PM I finally wrapped in foil and returned to smoker. By 8:15 it was 196. Removed tin foil, set smoker to 275, and returned to rack to "crisp" a bit. Not sure how much crisping occurred, didn't look/feel too different. When it came out a 8:15 it did look pretty good, I'll give it that.
Meat was a little dry, especially towards the tip/end where we started slicing. Had I been at a restaurant I would have been disappointed and given it a grade of low B. Not moist, but still pretty tender/easy to pull apart after slicing. As I got into the cut it improved, but clearly not what I had been hoping for. It did get a nice smoke from the hickory chips I used for the first two hours of smoking.
Thoughts about my next brisket - appreciate any feedback on below, and general suggestions for improvement.
- I liked the rub I used, but open to new suggestions. My typical go-to for beef is simply salt/pepper, but the rub did add a great aroma to the brisket.
- I know I didn't trim the fat enought - I didn't check the depth carefully enough and had about a 3/4" layer on part of the brisket. Next time I need to get it down to a more consistent 1/4". (However, w/the driest part of the brisket that huge fat-cap turned out to be helpful. :)
- For small briskets is going w/a higher temp like 250 better due to them being more likely to dry out if in the smoker for a longer time at a lower temp? I was thinking about trying 220 next time...
- I think one mistake is not opening the vent to allow more air flow - what's the recommendation when using an electric smoker like mine, and does the recomended amount of venting change over time?
- I think I should have wrapper earlier 5:45 or 6 when the brisket had clearly stalled. Is that right?
- After wrapping should I have increased, decreased, or not changed my temp? (240)
- Once it reached 195 after wrapping, should I have held that for a while, or is that "done." ? I think I would have failed the toothpick test as the meat was drying out so not sure that would have added value for me.
- Next time I think I would skip the attempt to "crisp" things up by unwrapping setting to 275, as noted I didn't see any big change from that. And leaving it in at that point (I was over 5 hours) just seemed too much.
- The wrap and seemed to work well. Only question is whether I need 2 hours of rest for a small cut.