Brisket for Lunch

[sliding_billy]

Cooked a 13 lb packer overnight.  Thing ran hot and cooked quick (sat at around 300 all night with the dampers on the WSM almost closed and came off the pit before 7AM with plenty of lit coal still chugging along at 300 degrees), but that was OK.  The hot and fast wasn't on purpose, but I would rather adjust than fight the pit when it is hot and breezy.  Started at around 7:30 last night, so it was about an 11 hour cook with no crutch.  Held it until 11:00 for lunch.  Got sliced flat (pretty small flat on it), sliced point and pulled/chopped point.  Cooked a little different than I normally do (besides the hot and fast).  No injection, no rub glue.  Just a generous amount of my normal brisket rub on the dry meat and into the smoker until it was "knife through butter" probe tender (around 208 internal).  Only side was a big bowl of fruit salad (watermelon, cantalope, black grapes and red rasberries) to cut through the meat and the grease. 

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[muebe]

Looks great! I would eat it right off the serving plate

[drholly]

I thought that was MY plate! Looks excellent.

[pz]

Looks delicious!

[Pappymn]

Been seeing IT temps for brisket all over the board lately. From 185 - 208.

Got Pappy nervous and confused in light of my last brisket flop......still too soon for me.

Yours looks tasty!

[sliding_billy]

The internal temp doesn't really matter.  Quality of meat, cooking temp, etc all impact the proper time to pull a brisket.  When a probe goes into the thickest part of the flat like butter, it is done.  Higher quality meats will typically be probe tender far earlier than cheep ones.  Very slow cooked will also come off at a lower temp.  There is also the issue of how long to rest the meat.  Faster cooked brisket will need to rest a little longer to relax the muscle after coming off of the smoker.

[hikerman]

That is interesting SB, good advice, thanks for sharing!
That brisket is nice, very nice. Great job!  I could go for a sammie of that, and some of your salad as that looks excellent as well.

[sparky]

looks pretty good from here.   

[Keymaster]

Nice Job Billy, Looks like a Excellent brisket and fruit salad .

[Sam3]

Looks great SB! Plate me up!

[smokeasaurus]

Plate me please

[drholly]

The internal temp doesn't really matter.  Quality of meat, cooking temp, etc all impact the proper time to pull a brisket.  When a probe goes into the thickest part of the flat like butter, it is done.  Higher quality meats will typically be probe tender far earlier than cheep ones.  Very slow cooked will also come off at a lower temp.  There is also the issue of how long to rest the meat.  Faster cooked brisket will need to rest a little longer to relax the muscle after coming off of the smoker.

That's an interesting observation. It seems almost everything I read talks about this temp or that temp for slicing or for pulling, and how to get to the right temp.

Your comments are logical and make sense. I guess this is all part of the fun to learn to cook different types and cuts of meat. Reminds me of flyfishing... 

[smokeasaurus]

I got a buddy that uses a toothpick to test his meats. When it goes in smooth and comes out clean it is ready. He has never owned a thermometer...............

[hikerman]

Your comments are logical and make sense. I guess this is all part of the fun to learn to cook different types and cuts of meat. Reminds me of flyfishing... 

"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get".  ~  Forest Gump

[drholly]

I got a buddy that uses a toothpick to test his meats. When it goes in smooth and comes out clean it is ready. He has never owned a thermometer...............

Are you sure he wasn't baking a cake?