# New to smoking need some FS advice



## CastleYork (Jun 6, 2021)

Attempting my first brisket. I went all in with a packer prime 14 pounder from Costco using a Traeger 225 temp mid 70’s ambient. Using too grate. 

Started at 7 pm last night at 4 am I wrapped in butcher paper. Internal temp hit 160 and according to the instructions I was following that was time to wrap it up. 

returned brisket to top grate and went back to bed. I assume around 6:30 am my son (autistic) turned the smoker off. At 7:30 I woke up and checked the WiFire. Panic ensued.

restarted smoker. 7:50 am brisket is back on. Internal temp never dropped below 150 but still seems to be dropping slowly (guess it’s thermodynamics).

so is it gonna be safe to eat? Anything I need to do special?

thansk!


----------



## 912smoker (Jun 6, 2021)

All is well CY. Continue with your cook as planned  and post pic when you finish.
An welcome to SMF from SE Ga !


----------



## TNJAKE (Jun 6, 2021)

You are safe to proceed. Get you a temp probe setup that will alert you to high/low temps to avoid this in the future and give you some peace of mind.


----------



## smokerjim (Jun 6, 2021)

welcome to smf,agree with the others  your fine,  keep on cooking, you could of hit the stall which would explain temp drops, you could up temp to 250 or so to help push it through


----------



## Brokenhandle (Jun 6, 2021)

Ya what they said! And welcome from Iowa!

Ryan


----------



## CastleYork (Jun 6, 2021)

Well huge sigh of relief here. I will def post a pick. I had anticipated being done by 11 am. Not looking good at the moment, as I’m at 154 at 8:24 am. Will bumping up to 250 make much of a difference? Easy enough to do, but am I better just waiting the extra hour or two? And thanks for the quick responses!


----------



## PPG1 (Jun 6, 2021)

Welcome from Coastal South Carolina


----------



## CastleYork (Jun 6, 2021)

CastleYork said:


> Well huge sigh of relief here. I will def post a pick. I had anticipated being done by 11 am. Not looking good at the moment, as I’m at 154 at 8:24 am. Will bumping up to 250 make much of a difference? Easy enough to do, but am I better just waiting the extra hour or two? And thanks for the quick responses!



also, DFW area Texas. But maybe after this mishap I’ll lose my Texan card......


----------



## CastleYork (Jun 6, 2021)

Well good news I think. Internal temp is now rising slowly. Back to 157 now.


----------



## JLeonard (Jun 6, 2021)

Welcome from Mississippi. others got ya covered. 
Jim


----------



## CastleYork (Jun 6, 2021)

Big question. Grill has been on continuously since the 6:30 debacle. Internal temp is now showing 180 but that’s after more or less 19 hours of smoking. I did wrap it... just wait it out? Increase temp from 225?  Is this gonna dry out the brisket?


----------



## smokerjim (Jun 6, 2021)

would definitely increase temp to 250-275, you'll be fine


----------



## CastleYork (Jun 6, 2021)

Bumped to 260. Will see how it goes. I am guessing I didn’t trim the fat cap sufficiently leading to a longer stall..... first time lessons.


----------



## chef jimmyj (Jun 6, 2021)

Good Call, all of you! Thanks for helping...JJ


----------



## CastleYork (Jun 6, 2021)

If I never post again, it’s likely due to this....


----------



## CastleYork (Jun 6, 2021)

My initial thoughts are:

I need to learn to trim this. The cook took way too long and I ended up with a part or two I did not feel great about. Just a little too red. But the flat portion was tender and I thought the smoke ring was pretty good for an initial attempt. Room to grow, turns out I’m not a first time expert.


----------



## 912smoker (Jun 6, 2021)

Hey CY there are very few 1st time experts.
Remember to probe several areas in point and flat in search of the "peanut butter like" feel.
Always rest in a cooler or oven for 1 hr min to allow the meat to rest from the high IT .
Keep notes of your cooks for future reference.
Next time friend !


----------



## Brokenhandle (Jun 6, 2021)

Just remember,  if it's too red you can cook it a bit more. If it's overdone there is no fixing it.

Ryan


----------



## CastleYork (Jun 7, 2021)

Well, much of the brisket was eaten. No one is sick as of yet, and it’s been 16 hours so I feel like everything is gonna be ok. After watching a few more videos on trimming, yeah, I did a poor job. The end result were portions that were red and super fatty and other areas things were actually pretty good.  I see now people almost slice the top completely off to get that hard fat out. I basically scooped out until I got nervous, leaving way to much fat. That was the area that ended up being a hot (but not hot enough) mess. So the flat came out better than I served and the point ended up largely in the garbage. But I love to smoke again and I am convinced I can get this right. Any advice on trimming is greatly appreciated and sorely needed!


----------



## tallbm (Jun 7, 2021)

CastleYork said:


> Well, much of the brisket was eaten. No one is sick as of yet, and it’s been 16 hours so I feel like everything is gonna be ok. After watching a few more videos on trimming, yeah, I did a poor job. The end result were portions that were red and super fatty and other areas things were actually pretty good.  I see now people almost slice the top completely off to get that hard fat out. I basically scooped out until I got nervous, leaving way to much fat. That was the area that ended up being a hot (but not hot enough) mess. So the flat came out better than I served and the point ended up largely in the garbage. But I love to smoke again and I am convinced I can get this right. Any advice on trimming is greatly appreciated and sorely needed!



Hi there and welcome!

Brisket is maybe the toughest peace of meat to tackle due to all of the things you have to get right. So it being your first attempt don't get too down on yourself.

I always recommend for people to nail doing Pork Butt's before they try a brisket.
They are way cheaper ($0.99/lb about twice a month between Albersons, Tom Thumb, and Kroger stores) and you can cook them the exact way you plan to cook you brisket for practice.

Follow about 90% of Aaron Franklin's trimming approach, posted below. At 4:39 in the video he cut's out the fat deckle which I would bet was your problem area with the fat.
I personally don't worry about trimming down any other fat unless it is obviously over 1/2 an inch thick, it's not worth the time to try and get down to 1/2 or 1/4 inch and most briskets are already there except maybe in 1 or 2 spots at the end of the point.
I also don't worry about any silver skin or fat on the underside of the flat, that stuff renders out.
Everything else he talks about is spot on, ESPECIALLY trimming away that thin portion of the flat muscle.  Just throw that good thin trimmed away meat in smoker and manage it separately so it doesn't go to waste.

Key fact of briskets and pork butts. They are only done when they are tender, and they are only tender when you can stab all over with a kabob skewer and it goes in like butter. NEVER by time or temp alone! :)

Now with a Pork Butt you don't have to do anything but season it, no trimming at all, trust me.
HOWEVER, you do get practice in placing the temp probe. Using the Internal Temp (IT) of the meat to tell you when to do the tenderness checks to see if the pork butt is tender and thefore done.
You get to play around with wrapping to beat the stall or don't wrap at all. You get to understand roughly how long the cook will take at certain smoker temps. You get to see how you can manage such a long smoke/cook, etc. etc. etc.

So I highly suggest you practice on pork butts until you nail them but be sure to use all the brisket practices you can. Then when you do your next brisket you just have to trim properly and then fall into the same practices/habits/tricks you used on your pork butts. Much simpler and easier than tackling a brisket head on and hoping for victory! :)

I hope this info helps and here is the Aaron Franklin brisket trimming video that I think will help you with your next brisket trim job (again I only do about 90% of what he suggest as I mention above):


----------

