# Dry Brisket (Excel Brand)



## ryanraynor (Sep 14, 2015)

Hi, I have a question regarding dry brisket.  I cooked a brisket the other day the same way I have done numerous others.  All the others I have done have come out nearly perfect if not perfect but this one came out very dry.  My timing was right on, my temp was right on 275 and about the most consistant cook I have done to date. It was simply the best cook from an organizational, preparational and execution that I have done yet.  Except the produt was dry this time.

It felt like a good peice of meat to start, I trimmed it as usual, it was the same Excel Brand that I get from either Wally World or Gordon Food Service.

I season with pepper and salt (I go with 3 to 1) and I do that about 40 mins before I start the cook (not overnight).

I wrapped it in paper after about the first 7 hours. 

I pulled the brisket off at 204 interenal.  

I let it sit for an hour befor slicing.  But the moment I picked it up after resting I knew the bottom was far to firm/dry.  It was more than just kind of dry... it was dry.

Two things were different on this cook:

1) I live in south florida nd we get some mean downpours at the drop of a hat and it poured for 10 th 15 minutes about 4 times during this cook.  I have had plenty of cooks where it has done that once or twice in the past and it never made a noticble difference but it might have been at different times in the cook.  But the temp remained consistance during those periods.  (I've got some cockamamie theory that the rain hitting the metal of the cook chamber and the fire box caused some  convection pressure and high heat that dried the meat out or some utterly ridiculous thing that I cant find a shred of evidence to support in thermodynamic or on online.)  Point is it poured 4 times 2x as much as any other time.

2) I usualy mist/spritz every 30 mins after the first 2 to 3 houes of the cook.  I use apple juice and cider vinegar mix.  The difference this time being that I mixed a third of canned beef broth (maybe low sodium).

3) This brisket was a little smaller than all others at 9 pounds after trimming.  But I cooked to feel and temp. Fat rendered as usual to leave just a thin strip with a nice bark.

I think it was just a bad peice of meat but I still dont understad houy it came out hat dry and all my others have been spot on with he exact same method except for what I have menioned here.

Has anyone ever experienced this with A, Excell Brand Packer Briskets?  B, beef brothe spritz? C, rain effect?

Thank you.  Cheers, Ryan


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## mikesys (Sep 18, 2015)

Three days ago I did an Excel 10lb'er trimmed to 8lbs, I too used salt and pepper.  I cooked mine between 225 to 250 using a Lang 60 Deluxe reverse flow offset, I don't open the cooking chamber unless im going to wrap the meat or remove it when its finished (I have never spritzed any meat while smoking it) I believe the "if you're lookin you aint cookin" phrase.  I would guess the brisket was maybe too lean, not enough fat to render would = dry finished product.

Good luck on the next one.


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## gary s (Sep 29, 2015)

*Good morning and welcome to the forum, from a pretty nice day in East Texas, and the best site on the web. Lots of great people with tons of information on just about  everything.*

*Sorry I'm a little late*

*Gary*


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## floridasteve (Sep 29, 2015)

I did a 6 pound pack her last week that I also got from Gordon's food service. Good-looking piece of meat. It came to temperature much quicker than I expected, so when it started to stall at 160°, I decided to just ride it out, rather then foiling as I usually do.   I did bump the heat a little bit, from  230° to 260°. Then I hit a second stall at about 180°. It sat there for a long time so I finally did foil.   The end result was a very flavorful but fairly dry brisket. Drier than any of the others I've done. I have been blaming it on the fact that I didn't boil it at the first stall, or that small Briskets are just not as good as larger ones.


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