Mediocre Brisket...what to do with it

Roaniecowpony

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Yesterday, my neighbor was headed to Restaurant Depot and asked if we wanted anything. I asked for a prime brisket if the had any. My wife asked for flour. She bakes for a lot of people.

I ended up with a really small 9 1/2 lb whole brisket that looks pretty lean. I'm wondering what to do with it. Any suggestions are welcome.
 
I'd inject it, use a water pan and cook low and slow, but, for sure, I am not an expert.
Good luck!
 
Yesterday, my neighbor was headed to Restaurant Depot and asked if we wanted anything. I asked for a prime brisket if the had any. My wife asked for flour. She bakes for a lot of people.

I ended up with a really small 9 1/2 lb whole brisket that looks pretty lean. I'm wondering what to do with it. Any suggestions are welcome.
I would go low and slow. Injecting is a good idea. Let it sit overnight. When it hits the stall wrap it in foil. Rest it after the cook. If it’s lean, you don’t want to lose the moisture. Good luck.
 
I have made burnt end from the flat. When it is a small group I have split the flat in two pieces at about 160 before wrapping.

I go ahead and cube one part and place the sauces I want on it. I then wrapped points and the other piece of flat separately and cook to temp. While I let the flat rest I open the cubes and place them on a rack coated with a new layer of sauce and smoke about 15 min to set the sauce
 
Lacking much imagination, I did a traditional trim and left most of the fat cap and trimmed the silverskin, rubbed with a combination of RT Comp rub and my other standby rub John Henry's Texas Brisket rub. Im leaving it fat cap down until it builds the internal temp where it will keep butter melted. I plan to inject once the internal temp reaches 80-90F
with melted butter, beef broth, Dale's Seasoning (soy based), hot sauce, red wine, and rub.

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I injected with part of the 1 pint beef stock, a splash of Dale's seasoning, worchestershire, hot sauce and rub and 2 sticks of butter, I had made once it got warm internally. Let it go 2 1/2 hours at LO/180F for smoke laying in the tray fat cap down. I just raised it up off the bottom of the tray with the smoke box grates and bumped it to 250F. Gonna go with the recommendation for a "water tray" using the big tray to also catch the fat drippings. Hoping to keep the bbq reasonably tidy. Once I get a bark to start building, I'll baste with the leftover injection.
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Started at 4:00 pm, 180F for 2 1/2 hrs, injected with butter/broth/rub after an hour, then 250F for 8 hrs, and at around 2:30 am, I trayed it, added a bit of water, and covered with foil and cranked the Bull to 300F and my google pud to wake me in 1 hr. I poked for tender at 200F reading on the RT probes. Not yet. Then 15 mins later at 205 ish. Still not tender. Then another 15 mins at 210. It was perfect. I removed it from the pit, left it on the counter covered in foil. Sliced at 6:30. Very nice, but moisture could be better. I think I'll whip up an au jus for dipping.
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Covered with foil?....just cover, or did you wrap it tight?
 
Looks good. Thanks for the information. For me I smoke my Briskets at 225 until internal temp hits 160. This I wrap with foil or butcher paper adding a cup of beef broth and meat is very moist.
 
Looks good. Thanks for the information. For me I smoke my Briskets at 225 until internal temp hits 160. This I wrap with foil or butcher paper adding a cup of beef broth and meat is very moist.

Thanks Rdover. This particular brisket was not a great one. Too lean. But the butter enhanced injection helped it. Still we like a little dipping au jus. I whipped up basically the same stuff as the injection, minus the butter and ladled it over the sliced brisket we had for lunch. Oh yeah!. That fixed it perfect.

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Started at 4:00 pm, 180F for 2 1/2 hrs, injected with butter/broth/rub after an hour, then 250F for 8 hrs, and at around 2:30 am, I trayed it, added a bit of water, and covered with foil and cranked the Bull to 300F and my google pud to wake me in 1 hr. I poked for tender at 200F reading on the RT probes. Not yet. Then 15 mins later at 205 ish. Still not tender. Then another 15 mins at 210. It was perfect. I removed it from the pit, left it on the counter covered in foil. Sliced at 6:30. Very nice, but moisture could be better. I think I'll whip up an au jus for dipping.
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Well played, looks perfect!
 
I've saved a couple of mediocre briskets by taking them off at stall and putting them in the Sous Vide at 155 until tender. Cheating, I know, but at least you get to save all the juice and it tends to come out pretty well.
 
I've saved a couple of mediocre briskets by taking them off at stall and putting them in the Sous Vide at 155 until tender. Cheating, I know, but at least you get to save all the juice and it tends to come out pretty well.

To me, the end product is what matters. Good eats is good eats, no matter how. Afterall, this is a pellet grill forum and we're all guilty of non-traditional methods here.
 

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