Flat Never Getting Tender - Updated

[jpwheels]

Hi all...
I'm relatively new to the meat smoking game having only been at it for 4 years.
I've learned a ton reading here during that time. But this is my first post.

Yesterday, I smoked my second brisket to reheat for dinner today.
It started out as at 13lbs. And it probably went on the smoker @ about 10lbs after trimming.
I smoked it for 10 hours @ 250 until I was happy with the bark.
I then wrapped it in foil with some beef tallow and put in the oven set @ 275 to finish.
At my elevation, water boils @ 199 degrees. And the point hit that temp and probed very tender after about 2.5 hours.
The temp in the thickest part of the flat was only 194, and it wasn't tender.
So I let it keep cooking thinking that the flat would come up to temp and probe tender before too long.
But after a couple of more hours cooking, the flat temp had only risen to 196 and was still not tender.
Although this is only my second full brisket, I've smoked enough pork butts to know that pushing a large cut of meat
beyond 199 or having it sit at that temp for too long leads to the meat drying out.
So I was stumped as to what to do with this brisket.
The point had been sitting @ 199 for an additional 2 hours while I tried to get the flat up to temp and tender.
I knew I could have continued waiting for the flat to get done, but I got really concerned that the point would get dried out and ruined in the process.

So I have two questions;
Is there anything I can do to save this for dinner tonight?

And is there anything I can do differently next time to avoid this issue?

Looking forward to the feedback and help!

jp

Hey everyone. First, I appreciate the welcomes.
Sorry for not getting back to this sooner. I had a computer meltdown.

Here's how it turned out;
I separated the flat from the point per SmokinAl 's suggestion.
I then wrapped in foil with beef tallow and put it in the oven.
When the flat hit 199 degrees, it was probing more tender than the night before. But it still seemed tight to me. Not wanting to push it further to avoid drying it out, I took it out of the oven.
It was pretty floppy! It sliced nicely, and wasn't dry.
So I think testing for tenderness by how flexible the meat is in hand is the way for me to go in addition to probing.
The point couldn't be sliced, it just fell apart. I think that's a sign of being overdone.

All in all, it turned out fine. Everyone who has tasted it thought it was great.

In hindsight, I think I should have rotated the brisket more.
I only rotated it once, so the point was over the hot-spot in my smoker the majority of the time.
I have lots to learn about smoking briskets!


Thanks again for all of the feedback!

jp

 

[SmokinAl]

First of all welcome to SMF!
Take the brisket out & separate the point from the flat.
Wrap the flat in foil or butcher paper & add some liquid ( beef tallow would be the best), but a little beer or even water would work. You just want to steam it to get it tender.
Put it back in the smoker until it probes tender.
You can take the point & slice or pull it, or make burnt ends with it while the flat finishes up. Hope this helps!
Al

 

[02ebz06]

Sounds like some good advice from SmokinAl.

 

[babydocsmoker]

In the future you might drop the temp just a bit, at least to start with. There are a lot of brisket guys on here, and you’ll get a lot of different opinions. But I would say start at a lower temp, build the bark up nice. Spritz along the way. Wrap around 180ish with butcher paper and you can increase the temp there if you want to go a little faster. Go until probe tender. If you don’t like the bark after unwrapping you can throw it back on the smoker without the wrap for a little bit. Wrap it in a clean towel and toss it in a cooler for a couple of hours.

Brisket can be a pain, but oh…is she worth it!

 

[jpwheels]

First of all welcome to SMF!
Take the brisket out & separate the point from the flat.
Wrap the flat in foil or butcher paper & add some liquid ( beef tallow would be the best), but a little beer or even water would work. You just want to steam it to get it tender.
Put it back in the smoker until it probes tender.
You can take the point & slice or pull it, or make burnt ends with it while the flat finishes up. Hope this helps!
Al

Thanks for the welcome Al!

I did briefly consider separating the flat last night and continue cooking it until it got tender. But I just thought it wouldn't take very long for it to get done.
As frustration mounted, I just gave up @ 1 a.m. and turned he oven off.
I vented the brisket about 15 minutes to stop the cooking then wrapped it back up and slid it back into the oven to rest. After about an hour rest, I put it in the fridge.

I just separated the flat, and it's in the oven. We'll see how it turns out!

 

[jpwheels]

In the future you might drop the temp just a bit, at least to start with. There are a lot of brisket guys on here, and you’ll get a lot of different opinions. But I would say start at a lower temp, build the bark up nice. Spritz along the way. Wrap around 180ish with butcher paper and you can increase the temp there if you want to go a little faster. Go until probe tender. If you don’t like the bark after unwrapping you can throw it back on the smoker without the wrap for a little bit. Wrap it in a clean towel and toss it in a cooler for a couple of hours.

Brisket can be a pain, but oh…is she worth it!

Interesting thoughts about starting at a lower temp.

I've never been much of a spritzing guy, even though my pellet smoker has never produced a nice dark bark. But I did spritz hourly on the last butt I did. And it did the trick on building a great bark. I'm now a spritzing believer!

 

[babydocsmoker]

Interesting thoughts about starting at a lower temp.

I've never been much of a spritzing guy, even though my pellet smoker has never produced a nice dark bark. But I did spritz hourly on the last butt I did. And it did the trick on building a great bark. I'm now a spritzing believer!

It will take longer, that’s for sure. But time is part of the recipe. Last brisket I did was a 12 pounder and it took me around 24 hours.

 

[tallbm]

Hi all...
I'm relatively new to the meat smoking game having only been at it for 4 years.
I've learned a ton reading here during that time. But this is my first post.

Yesterday, I smoked my second brisket to reheat for dinner today.
It started out as at 13lbs. And it probably went on the smoker @ about 10lbs after trimming.
I smoked it for 10 hours @ 250 until I was happy with the bark.
I then wrapped it in foil with some beef tallow and put in the oven set @ 275 to finish.
At my elevation, water boils @ 199 degrees. And the point hit that temp and probed very tender after about 2.5 hours.
The temp in the thickest part of the flat was only 194, and it wasn't tender.
So I let it keep cooking thinking that the flat would come up to temp and probe tender before too long.
But after a couple of more hours cooking, the flat temp had only risen to 196 and was still not tender.
Although this is only my second full brisket, I've smoked enough pork butts to know that pushing a large cut of meat
beyond 199 or having it sit at that temp for too long leads to the meat drying out.
So I was stumped as to what to do with this brisket.
The point had been sitting @ 199 for an additional 2 hours while I tried to get the flat up to temp and tender.
I knew I could have continued waiting for the flat to get done, but I got really concerned that the point would get dried out and ruined in the process.

So I have two questions;
Is there anything I can do to save this for dinner tonight?

And is there anything I can do differently next time to avoid this issue?

Looking forward to the feedback and help!

jp

Hi there and welcome!

I think you just got a little spooked. With it wrapped in foil and in the oven, I'm quite positive you just needed the flat to get to a higher temp.

Don't worry about the point. It won't dry out on you AND again you had it wrapped in foil.

The Flat is always the problem child as you are finding out. The point is always ready before hand and is good while waiting on the flat.
I think it would have gotten tender around 202-204F Internal Temp (IT) of the meat.

Minimally I average about 1 brisket every 2 months living in brisket country.

Another thing is that a brisket doesn't care what temp you cook it at, as long as you aren't burning it. So if time starts becoming an issue crank that cooking temp up. I do mine at 275F smoker temp AND I do mine unwrapped the whole way for better flavor.

The best place for the temp probe is the thickest yet center most portion of the flat muscle. When you are doing your tenderness probe testing you will always find that spot is the last to get tender.

I trim off the thinner end of the flat meat so what is left is about uniform in thickness of the entire flat. That will also help you get a better result and avoid burning up and wasting that good flat meat. I reuse that meat for other dishes like stews and grinds etc.

Finally, your brisket is not ruined. You can still turn it into an amazing meal, it just needs more cooking. An easy thing to do is to cut up the tough flat part and throw into a crock pot with a little bbq sauce and let it go until it shreds apart and you will have amazing shredded brisket because it finished getting tender :D

I think you are really close to getting the results you want without having to really change much or add a whole bunch of extra steps. You just have to hang in there. I hope this info helps :D

 

[jpwheels]

Hi there and welcome!

I think you just got a little spooked. With it wrapped in foil and in the oven, I'm quite positive you just needed the flat to get to a higher temp.

Don't worry about the point. It won't dry out on you AND again you had it wrapped in foil.

The Flat is always the problem child as you are finding out. The point is always ready before hand and is good while waiting on the flat.
I think it would have gotten tender around 202-204F Internal Temp (IT) of the meat.

Minimally I average about 1 brisket every 2 months living in brisket country.

Another thing is that a brisket doesn't care what temp you cook it at, as long as you aren't burning it. So if time starts becoming an issue crank that cooking temp up. I do mine at 275F smoker temp AND I do mine unwrapped the whole way for better flavor.

The best place for the temp probe is the thickest yet center most portion of the flat muscle. When you are doing your tenderness probe testing you will always find that spot is the last to get tender.

I trim off the thinner end of the flat meat so what is left is about uniform in thickness of the entire flat. That will also help you get a better result and avoid burning up and wasting that good flat meat. I reuse that meat for other dishes like stews and grinds etc.

Finally, your brisket is not ruined. You can still turn it into an amazing meal, it just needs more cooking. An easy thing to do is to cut up the tough flat part and throw into a crock pot with a little bbq sauce and let it go until it shreds apart and you will have amazing shredded brisket because it finished getting tender :D

I think you are really close to getting the results you want without having to really change much or add a whole bunch of extra steps. You just have to hang in there. I hope this info helps :D

 

[jpwheels]

Thanks for the welcome

You are right -- I was spooked!

 

[tallbm]

Thanks for the welcome

You are right -- I was spooked!

Pulling a brisket early is often an issue when people 1st attempt one.
They usually pull it early because they are running out of time.

An easy solution is to do time planning that ensures success.
For example, in my smoker an unwrapped brisket usually takes about 1hr 5-10min per pound at 275F smoker temp. My smoker holds dead on AND is an MES so moisture/humidity is not an issue.

If I trim my brisket and it comes out to 10 pounds, it usually has a good chance of becoming tender around 11-12hrs into the smoke.
So I note down 12 hours.
THEN, for success, I add 4 hours to that time for a planned 16 hour ordeal.

So if I want to eat it at 12pm noon on Thursday (lunch time) then I will have the 10 pound brisket in my hot smoker the day before at 8pm Wed evening.

Why add 4 hours?
Simple. If it needs more time to get tender and finish then you have 4hours. If not then you can rest it for 4 hours by tightly wrapping in 2 layers of foil and then tightly wrapping in 3 bath towels and setting on the table.
It will be piping hot, ready to slice and serve 4 hours later.

This planning ensures you will have tender brisket that is always ready in time to eat :)