Cannot cook a brisket....

mcorson

New member
I need some help. Had a 3 lbs brisket, smoked for 5 1/2 hours per recipe in Trager cookbook. (Dr. Berdine's Brisket) tough as nails. couldn't even eat it. I tried it a couple months back and had the same thing. I don't know what I am doing wrong.

I put it directly on the grill and had the temperature control set to smoke.

Any ideas? we are trying to figure out this Trager grill and can't get it to smoke anything. very frustrating....
 

Big Poppa

Administrator
Yes you can.

First off the brisket is the unruly redhead.

Secondly you are cooking just the flat...let me guess...Costco.....How am I doing?

My best results are cooking the whole brisket aka the packer. It has the flat and a point.

If you cant use a whole packer with flats I like to cook them in a pan. I know the purists are wincing.

Season is how you would like

Cook on smoke setting for one hour raise the temp to 225-250 and cook until it hits anywhere from 160-170 depending on the color...It should be a nice deep brown maybe slighty reddish.

Cover the pan with foil and cook until internal temp is 195...check it if the probe slips into the point like butter its done...it its still sort of toughto get the probe in then recover and check back at 205...The brisket is done when its done and sometimes the temps are all over the road

With a traeger I would cook for
 

Deb

New member
Welcome mcorson

Like Big Poppa said - you can.....

I just looked at that recipe..... I think part of the problem is you were trying to adapt a recipe for a much larger brisket based on time, it's hard to judge a brisket based on time. Your best bet for cooking any meat is to get a meat thermometer and cook to an internal temp. You will get more consistent results.

Big Poppa has given you great advice on how to cook it.
 

TentHunter

Moderator
You've come to the right place. There are a lot of folks here who know how to cook a brisket!

IMHO the first thing to concentrate on is learning how to cook and get it tender. Once you've mastered that then you can work on how to flavor it the way you like (Rubs, to inject or not, trim more fat for more bark, etc.)

My method is a little quicker than a lot of folks like, and very similar to what Big Poppa described, but it gives me consistent results.

The best advice I think anyone ever told me... "Briskets are NOT equal. The brisket will 'give up the ghost' when its ready not when your thermometer is ready!"

So I trust the "feel" more than the temp. Just like BP says, when I can slide a candy thermometer in and it slides in like butter, its done!

This always works for me and now I have to go eat something! :)
 
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sparky

New member
been cooking brisket flats for the last 3 weekends. today was the best one. brisket rubbed and put in foil pan (fat cap up) with 1/3 fat tire and 1/3 cup water. the 1st 2 were rubbed and cooked until 185 and foiled then taken off at 203 (sounds like a good number). all three were dry. going to inject the next one for sure. the one that started in the pan was excellent flavor. wife loved it. heh, bear. how do you cook a brisket?
 

Bear

Moderator
Nobody around here likes BBQ beef, so I don't cook them. It's something that I really need to work on. Maybe if I could come up with a really killer recipe, I could get my family to like it....
 

scooter

Moderator
mcorson, brisket is one of the most challenging pieces of meat to cook. We can give you tips and direction but you really need to just cook them every weekend until you get it right. Cooking one isn't going to do it unless you're very lucky. Search for threads with "brisket" in the title and read, read, read then take what you have learned to your backyard.
I've cooked briskets from 3lbs to 17lbs and the bigger packer briskets seem to come out better, more consistent, than the smaller (less than 6lbs) ones do.
With briskets I've found the range of doneness to be from 191 through 203ish. The lower end of that range and you have more moisture but its not as tender. The upper end of that range you have the tenderness but will loose some of the moisture.
When it's done, as BP stated, a temp probe will go into the point muscle like butter. Also, the point will jiggle something like jello. When it does that, it's pretty well done. You'll just have to cook a few to determine how you, and your family, like them.
 

HoDeDo

New member
"Smoke" on your cooker is 175-185 degrees, In order to get the fat and collagen to really break down and give you a tender finish, you will be cooking at long time at that low temp to get your brisket tender. (notice I didnt say to get it cooked -- it will be "cooked" hours before it is tender) The suggestions above are good... start at the smoke setting, to get some good smoke flavor going, but then bump the heat to finish and get your cook tender.

Several things can effect your tenderness and juiciness The age of your brisket (how old was the cow?), the fat content - ie how much marbling does it have ( that equals moisture during the cooking process), and how much collagen does it have (strands between the fibers that will break down into gelatin, and also increase the moisture in the meat, as well as increase the tenderness.) The collagen is what makes your brisket tough, so you have to cook the brisket long enough to break those protien strands down..

Cooking longer risks drying out the meat however, esp. if it is low in the nice marbled fat that helps keep your meat moist.... so how to combat these things all working against you:

Marinate or inject your meat. -- Add moisture! and flavor! I suggest as a good starting point - Dr. BBQ's Big Cow Beef Injection (2 cups beef broth, 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/2 tsp cayenne powder)

Think about Grandma's Sunday brisket... it was cooked/braised in the oven or crock pot... Use some of that theory in your smoker. After several hours low and slow, wrap your brisket, so that it will hold it's juices and with what it does release, it will be able to braise in them. I believe BP suggested a foil pan, then covering the pan... however I dont like to use pans, I have seen people steam the flavor out of a brisket, turning it to pot roast foiling in a pan where it can steam. I would suggest tightly wrapping it in two sheets of foil.

Finally, cook time... That brisket will need time to cook in order to let the collagen and fat break down properly. Heat and moisture drive the denaturing of those proteins. I would cook, to color and feel, with an occassional temp check; vs, worrying about hitting a time mark. Cook it at smoke for a couple of hours, then bump the temp to 225. at the point you like the color of the brisket, wrap it. Then cook it wrapped, until you can poke it with our meat thermometer and it slides in with little to no resistance. like sliding a hot skewer into a block of soft butter.

I would bet you will cook it closer to 8 hrs. Good luck, I can't tell you how many pieces of shoe leather I have created over the years :)
 

Big Poppa

Administrator
I hated brisket until I got one close...then I got the meadow creek red devil and cooked one for brad on the Big Poppas Team and he stole it!

Andy I agree with the pan but it is a good way to make a breakthrough.... I have cooked ones in a cast iron pan that I nailed and if you let them go they are perfect pot roast!
 

Red

New member
First off the brisket is the unruly redhead.

Yep Kim if you haven't noticed already Big Poppa likes picking on us red heads...

I guess I can't blame him though. When cooking with Andy he showed us some great pictures of you and the girls. Once I knew that he lived with a family of reds I apologized for all the grief us reds can dish out. I guess it just gives us something to blame it on.

Brad takes the majority of my abuse, sorry buddy it is just the red coming out...
 

Eli Lawrence

New member
I also had trouble with brisket when I tried it on a pellet grill and went back to a recipe I got in Cooks Illustrated Cook book-- I smoked it on my Egg for 3 hours at 250 and foiled it very tight in a high sided cookie sheet at 300 degrees for 5 hours ( I place a rub the evening before I smoked it ) --- The Brisket was 14-16 lb and the thing comes out soft as butter -- with lots of sauce The cook book talks about the science of the collegen and what temp it need to cook at so it brakes down and gets jelly like. So I think some of this can tranfer over to the pellet grill
 

sparky

New member
ah, the brisket blues. put some eric clapton music with it and you got yourself a great song. The Brisket Blues. catchy.....
 
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