First Brisket - Too Long?

[rexy]

Well I tried my first Brisket yesterday.  I bought about an 8 pound brisket.  Using a recipe on Bradly's web site I covered the meat with yellow mustard and a rub the night before and refrigerated.  Then I took the meat out of the refer about an hour and a half before smoking time.  I put the meat in on the rack that is second from the top at 2:00 am at 200F box.  Smoked with mesquite for 5 hours.  Woke up at 10:00am and the meat was at 146F.  It seemed to stay in the 140s for a long time like a plateau.  at 2:00pm it was still only about 157F so I did some reading on the forum and decided that 220F box wouldn't ruin it so I cranked the box up to 220F.  It seemed to plateau again in the 165F range (I expected that from my reading on the forum).  At 8:00pm I gave up and pulled the meat at 178F.  I was hoping for 180-185F.  Let the meat rest for about 15-20mins and then sliced it.  Tasted good, and everyone seemed to enjoy.  It was tender, but I think it would have been better if I could have waited to get to 185.

I thought the rule of thumb was 1 to 1.5 hours per pound.  I had planned on the meat being done between 10:00 and 2:00.  What did I do wrong?  Should that much meat take so long?  ???

[Ka Honu]

...I thought the rule of thumb was 1 to 1.5 hours per pound. 

... and we all have different sized thumbs. 

Seriously, there are too many variables to count and the only rule you can depend on is "it's done when it's done."  Recommend you go for the IT you want - I usually use the OBS for only as long as I have smoke, then "boat" and transfer to the house oven till I get the IT I want and FTC a bit after that.  That way I know I'm getting what I want instead of trying to gauge and depend on time too closely (because that can change based on all those variables I mentioned - like outside temp, wind, thickness of the cut, box temp variations, and many more).

[Gizmo]

18 hours could have been long enough.  I typically only go by internal temperature as Ka Honu mentioned. Were you using an independent cabinet temperature probe or going by the built in thermometer? My first though is that the temperature the meat was experiencing may be lower than what you were expecting it was seeing.

[Habanero Smoker]

I found that the 1.5 hr/lb is not that accurate for the Bradley (also that is not for all meats; just cuts with tough connective tissue). As Gizmo and Ka Honu have mentioned there are too many variables; especially when you are only using 500 watts.

I agree with Gizmo, that your cabinet temperature may have been lower then the reading you were going by. But I also learned, with cuts that have a lot of connective tissue, the lower the temperature you cook at, the lower the temperature the collagen (connective tissue) "completely" converts to gelatin. You may not have to bring it to 185°F to get the desired results, the 175°F may have been sufficient. It's the length of time the meat is held in the range at which to phenomenon happens, that is also important.

There is a test you can use for brisket in conjunction with internal meat temperature. You can test the doness in brisket by inserting a dining fork into the meat. If the fork can be inserted with no resistance, and pulled out with no resistance, then it is properly cooked.

[Caneyscud]

Ditto habs.

The "rule of thumb" is for 225 to 250 cabinet temp.  The Bradley does indeed seem to take longer likely because in the early parts of the smoke the temps probably average less than 225-250.  I've hit the plateau as low as 145 in other cookers also - it just happens sometime - probably has something to do with fat content and fat quality. 

I suspect that the cabinet temperature at first probably averaged less than 200.  Do you have a remote thermometer to check the cabinet temperature at meat level?  Anyway as Habs said, the meat stayed in the magic range long enough for tenderness.  There is absolutely no reason why one couldn't set cabinet temp to 185 and cook it until IT reaches 185 (eventually), but that would take prohibitively long and probably dry it out.  225 to 250 for brisket is a great range and will let the meat do what it needs to do and not dry out doing it!

[rexy]

Thank you all for your replies.  I think the theory's on the lower cabinet temps is correct.  I do see quite a bit of fluctuation in the temp reading on the digital display.  I think next time I will just smoke it in the Bradley, and then move it inside to the oven.  I may have to pick up another thermometer just to see how accurate the digital display is.  Thanks again!

[Gizmo]

If you place another temp probe right next to the built in probe, I would be willing to bet, they will be very close to each other, less the time it takes the particular sensor in each device to read and display the temp as that time varies significantly.  The temperature the meat is exposed to can be significantly different from that temperature based on the load and placement of the meat.