Tips for first time brisket

[mwemaxxowner]

I am new to smoking and have never been much good on a grill really. So far I'm having great luck with my KC Combo. The more even cooking temps, lower temps, and built in wifi monitoring have helped me work around the grilling issues I've had in the past because of who I am as a person ().

My daughter has requested a brisket. When I try to research how I want to do it it almost leaves my head swimming. I have gathered that there are many ways to skin this cat, though.

I have worked out in my head howni think I want to tackle it, but I'd love any and all advice y'all might want to give me for a good and simple first brisket cook. I'm not dead set on whether to wrap or not, any specific temp yet, etc. I have time to devote to the cook so I'm not asking for a hot and fast method (although if anybody wants to share a successful hot and fast process I'll gladly take it and jot down for later).

 

[Cowboy1955]

I rub mine down the night before
Fire up smoker to 225 degrees
Set brisket an hour before placing on the grill
When internal temperature is 165 degrees I pull and wrap in peach butcher paper
When internal temperature is between 205-206 degrees I pull it and place in a ice chest until I’m ready to serve.
Hopefully this helps you

 

[mwemaxxowner]

It does, thanks!

From what I gather, the longer I can provide to rest the better?

 

[Cowboy1955]

It does, thanks!

From what I gather, the longer I can provide to rest the better?

Indeed
Post a picture of the end result please

 

[ANT0407]

I rub mine down the night before
Fire up smoker to 225 degrees
Set brisket an hour before placing on the grill
When internal temperature is 165 degrees I pull and wrap in peach butcher paper
When internal temperature is between 205-206 degrees I pull it and place in a ice chest until I’m ready to serve.
Hopefully this helps you

Great advice cowboy. That's pretty much how I do mine as well.

 

[Cowboy1955]

Great advice cowboy. That's pretty much how I do mine as well.

Great minds think alike Bubba!!

 

[Steve In Pa]

Great advice cowboy. That's pretty much how I do mine as well.

Ditto

 

[mwemaxxowner]

I rub mine down the night before
Fire up smoker to 225 degrees
Set brisket an hour before placing on the grill
When internal temperature is 165 degrees I pull and wrap in peach butcher paper
When internal temperature is between 205-206 degrees I pull it and place in a ice chest until I’m ready to serve.
Hopefully this helps you

I'm realizing that I don't totally understand "set" brisket. Could you clarify that please? Thanks!

You just mean pull from the fridge and set it out at room temp for an hour?

 

[Cowboy1955]

I'm realizing that I don't totally understand "set" brisket. Could you clarify that please? Thanks!

You just mean pull from the fridge and set it out at room temp for an hour?

My apologies
Set it in a ice chest

 

[mwemaxxowner]

I opened the package and seasoned her up.

It's only about 2.5 lbs. I would like to do a whole brisket but this is all the grocery store had. I figure it'll be a fine piece of meat for my first brisket though.


I don't guess I need to worry too much about extended cook times. I was gonna put it on at 4 am but now I think that might be too early. We hope to have it for dinner tomorrow night. We usually eat at 6 ish.

 

[Jimsmokes]

I opened the package and seasoned her up. View attachment 4465

It's only about 2.5 lbs. I would like to do a whole brisket but this is all the grocery store had. I figure it'll be a fine piece of meat for my first brisket though.


I don't guess I need to worry too much about extended cook times. I was gonna put it on at 4 am but now I think that might be too early. We hope to have it for dinner tomorrow night. We usually eat at 6 ish.

You have msg

 

[mwemaxxowner]

I got up at 3 am and fired up the smoker. I pulled the meat and set it up in the cooler.

Around 7 am it hit 163 or so so I wrapped it in butcher paper and put it back in. It felt pretty tough while sticking my handheld thermometer in it. I hope that's relatively normal at that stage, and finishing the cook with a wrap will tenderize it.

I have to say, I'm disappointed in the built in meat probes. I've read how terrible they are but I was trying to be optimistic about it. I can deal with them not being totally accurate if that was the case, but I have a hard time getting them to read meat temp at all.

When I started the brisket they both jumped up to 200+ quickly. It's like they read grill temp out of the bit sticking out of the meat. My first few cooks I thought that was my fault. I thought maybe I had too much of the probe sticking out of the meat, or I had struck a bone, or maybe it was sticking into a cavity inside my chicken. It's pretty easy to get a probe fully inserted into a brisket without hitting a bone, sticking out the other side, or going into a cavity though.

I probed and re probed both of them multiple times until one gave me a temperature that made sense (other was still at 200+). I went with that and just monitored the one probe with a good temp.

It CAN'T be normal to have to put that much effort into getting a meat probe to read properly. I used to have a little standalone wireless meat thermometer with a monitor that needed to stay close by to work. I would just shove it in and go.

Is this experience typical, any tips for me, or just give up on that feature of my grill?

 

[mwemaxxowner]

Both probes are currently inserted into the same piece of meat the same way. P2 did the same thing until I tried again a few times. So I don't think it's an issue of p1 being faulty.

 

[Steve In Pa]

I got up at 3 am and fired up the smoker. I pulled the meat and set it up in the cooler.

Around 7 am it hit 163 or so so I wrapped it in butcher paper and put it back in. It felt pretty tough while sticking my handheld thermometer in it. I hope that's relatively normal at that stage, and finishing the cook with a wrap will tenderize it.

I have to say, I'm disappointed in the built in meat probes. I've read how terrible they are but I was trying to be optimistic about it. I can deal with them not being totally accurate if that was the case, but I have a hard time getting them to read meat temp at all.

When I started the brisket they both jumped up to 200+ quickly. It's like they read grill temp out of the bit sticking out of the meat. My first few cooks I thought that was my fault. I thought maybe I had too much of the probe sticking out of the meat, or I had struck a bone, or maybe it was sticking into a cavity inside my chicken. It's pretty easy to get a probe fully inserted into a brisket without hitting a bone, sticking out the other side, or going into a cavity though.

I probed and re probed both of them multiple times until one gave me a temperature that made sense (other was still at 200+). I went with that and just monitored the one probe with a good temp.

It CAN'T be normal to have to put that much effort into getting a meat probe to read properly. I used to have a little standalone wireless meat thermometer with a monitor that needed to stay close by to work. I would just shove it in and go.

Is this experience typical, any tips for me, or just give up on that feature of my grill?

Never had a brisket with a bone.

 

[Steve In Pa]

View attachment 4466

Both probes are currently inserted into the same piece of meat the same way. P2 did the same thing until I tried again a few times. So I don't think it's an issue of p1 being faulty.

For P2 what is the 200 indicating?