Brisket: Incosistent cook time?

[Ed1978]

Is it just me or does brisket have very incosistent cooking time? Few weeks ago I made a perfect brisket and it took about 11 hours for a 6lbs flat (including 3.5 hours smoking time) to reach IT around 185F.  Last night I started doing a 7lbs flat, went to bed while the meat was in the house oven, and after total 9 hours cooking time the IT is at 203F ! I immediately took it out from the oven and FTC it. I just hope it would stay hot after 7 hours of FTC :(  and also hopefully it doesn't become shredded beed cause I want to slice it :(

So do you guys also find brisket to be very incosistent in their cooking time? I never thought that a 7lbs brisket flat would get done in a lot shorter time than a 6lbs, I thought it would take slightly longer time! Both meat are USDA Choice flat (no point). The 6lbs I bought at local grocery store while the 7lbs is from Costco.

[Wildcat]

All meats will vary.  Many things can come into play - meat density, fat content, thickness of fat cap, meat temp when you begin, cabinet temp, how cabinet temp is maintained, vent settings, etc.  I have taken brisket to 205 and it was still great for serving by the slice.

[Wildcat]

As an additional note, many ovens (like mine) are inaccurate.  With the PID on my BS, I can control cabinet temperature better than in my house oven.  House oven does fine for butts and brisket, but the accuracy of what the meat is being exposed to is less and the fluctuation between high and low temps is much greater than with my BS.

[westexasmoker]

Wildcat's got ya covered!  I find it almost impossible to overcook a brisket, just keep the temp nice and low (no more than 220).  Most of mine are smoked/cooked close to 16-20 hours!

C

[Ed1978]

Just finished eating the brisket. While my guests liked it, I didn't :(

I was still able to slice it but I had to slice it kinda thick and some of the meat fell apart and became shreaded. The texture of the meat is just not as good as the brisket that I made few weeks ago. On the previous brisket, I pulled it out the oven at IT 185F and I could have thin slice and it was so tender it almost just melted in my mouth :)

Oh well, at least the brisket today didn't turn out dry like my very first brisket attempt :)

[Ed1978]

I forgot to add that after 7 hours FTC, the meat is still warm :)