My RT700 arrived a couple months ago, and after a few smaller cooks (ribs/chicken/etc.) I decided to take on a brisket (full packer) for Mother's Day.
The brisket was choice grade, and ~12 lbs. after trimming. I threw it on at 10 p.m. at 225º, fat cap down, with the probe in the thickest part of the flat. I spritzed with water every hour for 6 hours. I planned on wrapping at 160-165º, which I thought it would reach within 5-8 hours (poor estimate?). That was not the case.. it seemed to stall around 145º (weird? Early stall?)
At the 11 hour mark, it was sitting at 155º, so I decided to turn the grill to 250º, hoping to help it into the 160-165 range. Two hours later, it finally got there. 13 hours til 160º ?! That's not normal, right? Maybe this can be expected for an oversized brisket or cooking at an extremely low temp, but I thought neither was the case here.
I wrapped it tightly in butcher paper and threw it back on at 275º, hoping to speed things up, as it was now 11 a.m. and we originally wanted to eat around 2 p.m. About 3 and 1/2 hours later, my MK4 read 204-208º and she was probe tender.
We originally planned for a 2 hour rest in cooler, but now that it was almost 3 p.m. and we hadn't had lunch, we opted for 1 hour.
I'm familiar with Franklin's 1 hr. 15 min./per 1 lb. theory at 250º so in the end, I guess the cook time wasn't that unordinary (16 hours, 12 lb. brisket). However, had I not adjusted my grill temps, who knows when that thing would've been done!
The photos are from this cook. The bark and smoke ring were both pretty incredible. It was delicious, and the smoke flavor was very present, but it was definitely quite a bit dry, particularly in the flat. It passed the famous bend test, but was a bit tough to pull apart. It also seemed difficult to get thinner slices (too tender?)
I assume it dried out seeing smoke for that long (11 hrs.), especially considering it lacked the marbling of a prime grade brisket. Which leads me to another thing.. this 15 lb. untrimmed choice brisket was $120 from a local butcher. Is that normal?! I could've sworn I've heard of $60 prime briskets at Costco. Is that a thing of the past?
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Flash forward to last night, I thew on another choice brisket at 9 p.m. It was 17 lbs. trimmed down to ~14. Opted to let her ride at 250º this time. I also decided I would wrap based more on bark/color and less on internal temp. I wrapped at 6 a.m. (9 hours in). IT was again holding around 145º (why?!). If I was going off bark alone, I would've liked to wrap sooner, but temp was far too low.
I understand every brisket is different, so every cook is different. But this is now twice my expectations have been way off. I thought stall range was 155-170º.
At 2 p.m. (16 hours!!), the brisket was at 175º, so I upped the temp to 275º (should have done it sooner, but fell asleep on the job).
Any explanation of what's going on here? Am I experiencing some kind of a early stall? Am I being unreasonable? Should I smoke at 275º the whole way? Please be brutally honest! My timing has been off and the family is losing patience LOL
The brisket was choice grade, and ~12 lbs. after trimming. I threw it on at 10 p.m. at 225º, fat cap down, with the probe in the thickest part of the flat. I spritzed with water every hour for 6 hours. I planned on wrapping at 160-165º, which I thought it would reach within 5-8 hours (poor estimate?). That was not the case.. it seemed to stall around 145º (weird? Early stall?)
At the 11 hour mark, it was sitting at 155º, so I decided to turn the grill to 250º, hoping to help it into the 160-165 range. Two hours later, it finally got there. 13 hours til 160º ?! That's not normal, right? Maybe this can be expected for an oversized brisket or cooking at an extremely low temp, but I thought neither was the case here.
I wrapped it tightly in butcher paper and threw it back on at 275º, hoping to speed things up, as it was now 11 a.m. and we originally wanted to eat around 2 p.m. About 3 and 1/2 hours later, my MK4 read 204-208º and she was probe tender.
We originally planned for a 2 hour rest in cooler, but now that it was almost 3 p.m. and we hadn't had lunch, we opted for 1 hour.
I'm familiar with Franklin's 1 hr. 15 min./per 1 lb. theory at 250º so in the end, I guess the cook time wasn't that unordinary (16 hours, 12 lb. brisket). However, had I not adjusted my grill temps, who knows when that thing would've been done!
The photos are from this cook. The bark and smoke ring were both pretty incredible. It was delicious, and the smoke flavor was very present, but it was definitely quite a bit dry, particularly in the flat. It passed the famous bend test, but was a bit tough to pull apart. It also seemed difficult to get thinner slices (too tender?)
I assume it dried out seeing smoke for that long (11 hrs.), especially considering it lacked the marbling of a prime grade brisket. Which leads me to another thing.. this 15 lb. untrimmed choice brisket was $120 from a local butcher. Is that normal?! I could've sworn I've heard of $60 prime briskets at Costco. Is that a thing of the past?
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Flash forward to last night, I thew on another choice brisket at 9 p.m. It was 17 lbs. trimmed down to ~14. Opted to let her ride at 250º this time. I also decided I would wrap based more on bark/color and less on internal temp. I wrapped at 6 a.m. (9 hours in). IT was again holding around 145º (why?!). If I was going off bark alone, I would've liked to wrap sooner, but temp was far too low.
I understand every brisket is different, so every cook is different. But this is now twice my expectations have been way off. I thought stall range was 155-170º.
At 2 p.m. (16 hours!!), the brisket was at 175º, so I upped the temp to 275º (should have done it sooner, but fell asleep on the job).
Any explanation of what's going on here? Am I experiencing some kind of a early stall? Am I being unreasonable? Should I smoke at 275º the whole way? Please be brutally honest! My timing has been off and the family is losing patience LOL