Brisket on

[Dobbs Son]

Problem: Meat reached target temp after it was over-done / dry. A staggering 20 hrs cook time.

I loaded an XLarge Egg with lump coal and Applewood chunks. At 7:00PM and immediately after lighting the top of the coal "dome", I put a 12 lb. brisket on to cold smoke and the set the grill temp at 205. The ceramic discs for indirect cooking were in place. The Controller was a DigiQ DX2 running a Pit Viper Fan. It took about 30 mins to get to the target grill temp. and held there throughout the cook, except when a chunk of applewood would light and the temp jumped to 215. It took about 30 mins for the grill to drop back to set temp. after the wood ignited. The grill sensor was clipped to the grill grate about 2" away from the Brisket just off center of the grate. I tightly foil wrapped the brisket at 11:00 PM (4hrs into the cook) at a meat temp of 150. The meat reached 195 at 3:00PM the afternoon after the start of the cook. After 12 hrs and a meat temp of 175, I started to get worried, so I moved the probe to a different spot in the point and had a 2 degree change. I inserted a Maverick insta-read thermometer and got a meat temp of 3 degrees less than the DigiQ. I tried another insta-read thermometer and got essentially the same reading as the DigiQ. At 20 hrs of cook time, the meat reached 195. I took it off and rewrapped it in new foil tightly and placed in an ice chest for 2.5 hrs. No surprise the meat was dry...both the flat and the point. It occurred to me that I had failed to transfer the juices in the original foil wrap to the new foil wrap before it went into the ice chest, but I don't think this would have made the difference. A 12 lb brisket should be close to perfect after 14 hrs at 205. Yet it was 15 degrees below the 195 target at that time.
I am doomed to have this happen again unless someone can tell me where I went wrong in this cook. The brisket was a Prime cut, by the way.

[k.a.m.]

My advice is monitor the middle portion of the flat not the point. Too much fat in the point and it is often times twice as thick as the flat so by the time your point reaches your target temp your flat is well past that and drying out.
Another thing is up your temps to at least 250° / 275° cooking a brisket at 205° in my opinion just dries out the meat. A 12 lb. brisket cooked at 250° / 275° should be done and resting in 7 to 8 hours if you foil at the four hour mark and a temp of around 165°.

[Czechaholic]

I would not smoke one with that low of heat.....that low and long is like making jerky....I usually shoot for temps between 245-265 for briskets


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[Txdragon]

I would not smoke one with that low of heat

That right there says a lot ^^^^ 205 is really, really low. 225 is about the lowest I will go on anything like brisket, ribs, pork butt, etc. I smoke beef jerky and sausage at 200 degrees.

[Txdragon]

My advice is monitor the middle portion of the flat not the point. Too much fat in the point and it is often times twice as thick as the flat so by the time your point reaches your target temp your flat is well past that and drying out.
Another thing is up your temps to at least 250° / 275° cooking a brisket at 205° in my opinion just dries out the meat. A 12 lb. brisket cooked at 250° / 275° should be done and resting in 7 to 8 hours if you foil at the four hour mark and a temp of around 165°.

^^^ That right there is info you could take to the bank!

Welcome to the forum! Don't lose hope and as always, if you need some advice, feel free to ask. Post often and don't forget pics!!

[gk02]

I have an egg as well and use it to smoke brisket pretty regularly.

Some tricks I have learned specific to cooking brisket on the egg. All the other advice listed seems pretty spot on.

1. The egg really likes to smoke at about 250-270 in my experience. Anything lower and it doesn't really smoke. It just becomes a warming oven. It will have no problem holding a lower temperature for about forever but you can't really keep enough smoke going through it to get the results that I want i.e. no bark or smoke ring.
2. Give it at least 1 hour to warm up. Longer is better. Do not use a big fire to get it to warm faster. Start a small amount of lump in a chimney and dump it in the middle and shut the lid. Keep the top damper open larger than the bottom damper.
3. Wait until it's burning clean before putting any food on. Mine billows white smoke for about 20-30 minutes before it begins to burn clean.
4. Keep the top damper open about 1/4-1/3 way to keep the draft flowing. I don't like my fan controller running more than once every few minutes for just a brief second. I usually get a pretty steady flow of smoke out the egg doing it this way just by the air that is drafting through the fan unit. I also live at about 7000 feet so you may have to modify that slightly.
5. I also usually put a pan under the meat that extends out far enough not to let any of the brisket see direct heat outside the dimensions of the ceramic heat deflector.

Good luck.

[Dobbs Son]

All replies to my brisket problem are appreciated. And all, it appears played a part in my epic fail. Will certainly up the temp next cook. Thanks all.