ValleyRatAg said:
Do y'all put your temp probe in the point or flat?
Thickest part of the flat to monitor the cook and keep an eye on overall progress, but as you are getting closer to pulling it off the pit, make sure both the flat and point probe tender and are in the 195-205 range.
Quote:
No one mentioned the elephant in the room. 10lbs. brisket shouldnt take 13 hrs to cook. Even @ 225. No moisture heat will dry it out if you didnt wrap it at all. The smaller the brisket the earlier i wrap it. That plus I only use temp probes inserted throughout the whole cook. Keeps me up to date as to what the meat is trying to do. Also, opening and closing the pit doen't affect the cooking process. The pit may cool somewhat but the meat doesnt budge from what it's at during that open time. Spritzing is fine and encouraged. Most of the problem with brisket is on the edges and the flat with the bark drying out. Spritzing helps keep that from happening. Specially on the flat. Cook with water in the pit and it will help with that also.
To the poster that mentioned too much wood, and it tasting like an ashtray. I think the problem might be something else. Maybe he was using hackberry wood or something. I've never had a brisket taste bad with conventional woods like oak, pecan, cherry, hickory, or mesquite. Apart from those, I dont know what he did to make it taste bad. Lighter fluid maybe?
I dont think too long of a cook time was an issue at all. When cooking low around the 225 mark it routinely takes me more than an hour per pound for the total cook, brisket is ready when its ready, sometimes they cook faster and sometimes they cook slower. He said it failed the pull test and wasnt tender as he'd like, which to me, says it wasnt fully cooked and needed more time.
Tasting like an ashtray is probably a result of bitter smoke. I'm not sure the mechanisms behind how electric smokers work as I've never used one, but you can definitely get bitter tasting meat from an offset using proper wood like oak, pecan, etc. if you choke the fire off too much and the wood smolders for too much of the cook. Always want clear, light blue smoke, not billowing white clouds.
