My first brisket story

[Tiffin]

So appologies in advance, i didnt take pictures of my brisket. I had finally found a place in my town to buy brisket, a local butcher. He sold me the point, (not the whole thing) that was all they had at the time and he also told me the point is what many smokers go for.  So i trimmed it up, rubbed down with ted's bone dust and put it in the fridge overnight. 4 am the brisket went into the bradley starting with 4 hours of hickory and cooking at 220 cabinet temp. 8 am i pulled the bowl out and put in an alluminum cake pan with boiled water, cooked it till 4, checked the temp, it was only at 165 in one area. left it in until about 7:30, between 4 and 7 i decided to do some research from old posts from all you veterans on these forums and found a topic describing how temperature isnt the way to go on a brisket but to fork test the thin part instead, so i did that and it appeared to be done, so i pulled it and ftc for an hour and a half, the women was getting hungry so i pulled it out and attempted to cut it up, cut one piece off the end which was very tasty. Anyway, i cut against the grain, starting with the smaller part of the brisket, when i tried slicing it it just shredded like pulled pork and was a little dry. Until i got to the thicker part, Now running down the middle of the thick part, or the point im guessing, was a layer of fat, probably half inch think in some areas, it was just too much. when i tried cutting the point it wasnt dry, but it was still tough, and had fat marbling through it that never even broke down which led to lots of stringy fat throughout.  So logically it needed more cook time, but if i had done that then the thinner part would have been unbearably dry and likely jerky at that point.

So long story short i ended up with a brisket that was overdone on one end and undercooked on the other end. And also had lots of hard chewy parts throughout the brisket, made for a very unpleasant sandwich. Also throughout the smoke i did rotate it a few times front to back to get an even cook.

So any ideas where i went wrong? is the point actually the good part of the brisket? Is there a bunch of other stuff im supposed to trim off before cooking?
Any insight is appreciated.

Thanks, Tiffin

[Saber 4]

I also recently read about adding the fork test to checking my brisket and use it in addition to checking the IT, I put my probe in the thickest section and don't worry about the fork test until I know I'm coming out of the stall period when the magic happens. I think (although the experts may disagree) that you needed to separate that thick section of fat from between the flat and the point and have two pieces of brisket without that thick fat layer slowing things down and with 2 probes you can monitor each piece and pull when each is ready, also a bit of beef broth in your FTC might have helped the dry end. These are my thoughts and I'm sure the brisket and trimming experts will come along shortly and straighten us both out on any mistakes I have in here. The good news is you could do shredded beef w/bbq sauce in a crock pot with the thin leftovers and wrap the under cooked parts in foil with a little broth and reheat/finish cooking in the oven.

[Tiffin]

I was thinking afterwards maybe i should have seperated the 2. Im working on getting a good dual probe thermometer. I had bought a cheap single probe for $20 from canadian tire that worked i think for 2 cooks then stopped reading temperatures after that so into the garbage that went, i should have known, some things you just cant cheap out on. So i my brisket cook ended up being done with no probe at all i just had my backup cheap dinky instant read thermometer that requires me opening the door to check the temp. Ive learned that lessen and nothings going into that smoker until i get a good thermometer.
Good idea about re cooking the thick part and just making pulled beef out of the rest.
After i had realized there was way too much fat there i ended up seperating the two parts and trimming off all the fat anyways, might as well have done that from the get go.

[Saber 4]

As I've been told every time I have a problem, there are no mistakes only happy tasty accidents, the probe on the cheap model probably just needed to be baked in the oven for a few minutes to get the moisture out and then sealed with some high temp rtv gasket sealer. I had this happen to me early on and I am still using 2 cheaper $20 thermometers to this day, although I will be putting a maverick remote on my Christmas list. Opening the door to much can cause the stall to take longer also, which could have added to your toughness.

[Habanero Smoker]

If I read your post correctly, you stated you were only cooking the point. The fork test you tried that stated to test the thin part of the brisket was a test for a whole brisket, in which you test the flat (the thin end). If you are only cooking the point, you should take the temperature and do the fork test the thickest part of the point. The thinner areas of meat will always cook faster, but with the point the grain runs in several directions, so you will need to keep turning it as you cut to make sure you are cutting against the grain, if not some slices will be tougher then others.

Even the cheapest probe will give you an accurate reading. Most digital probes are within +/- 2°F. The cheaper ones take longer to register a temperature, 10 seconds or longer; and they don't hold up as well.

Also you may want to consider making burnt ends from your point:
Burnt Ends

[Tiffin]

Well the problem is if i were to do the fork test on the thickest part, as i stated previously  the thinner part of my point was already dry and shredding and the thick part of the point still needed another about 15 degrees. so that would have made for a better point but the thinner area would have been jerky by then. So it seems that i would have to choose between having jerky for half and good for the thicker point or good for the thinner point and tough for the thick part.
If i had been doing a whole brisket and did the fork test of the thin part of the flat as you said, then would it not make it so the whole flat is cooked nicely but the point remains tough, or the flat is dry and the point is cooked nicely? Correct me if im wrong.

[Saber 4]

Well the problem is if i were to do the fork test on the thickest part, as i stated previously  the thinner part of my point was already dry and shredding and the thick part of the point still needed another about 15 degrees. so that would have made for a better point but the thinner area would have been jerky by then. So it seems that i would have to choose between having jerky for half and good for the thicker point or good for the thinner point and tough for the thick part.
If i had been doing a whole brisket and did the fork test of the thin part of the flat as you said, then would it not make it so the whole flat is cooked nicely but the point remains tough, or the flat is dry and the point is cooked nicely? Correct me if im wrong.

The philosophy behind the fork test on the flat is that when you FTC it for a couple of hours the point keeps cooking and finishes without the flat getting overdone because it's in the foil reabsorbing the juices. In your exact situation on this cook it was not splitting the two first so that you had 2 pieces of meat that could finish at different times and both be good that caused your biggest issue in my opinion.

[Tenpoint5]

It does sound like they just found the edge of the point and cut straight down. Thus leaving a part of the flat under the point.

[Habanero Smoker]

Well the problem is if i were to do the fork test on the thickest part, as i stated previously  the thinner part of my point was already dry and shredding and the thick part of the point still needed another about 15 degrees. so that would have made for a better point but the thinner area would have been jerky by then. So it seems that i would have to choose between having jerky for half and good for the thicker point or good for the thinner point and tough for the thick part.
If i had been doing a whole brisket and did the fork test of the thin part of the flat as you said, then would it not make it so the whole flat is cooked nicely but the point remains tough, or the flat is dry and the point is cooked nicely? Correct me if im wrong.

Tiffan;

Unless your butcher gave you a cut that was butchered as 10.5 describes, you should only have the point. Generally the points I have purchased, and that have been separated from the flat properly, and trimmed of fat; the thickness from the middle to end doesn't vary that much. If you have one that is unusually thin on one end then fold the thin piece under to make the whole cut more uniform. To do this you may have to score the meat at the point you want to fold it under. Of you can cut it off and put it underneath to make the thickness more even, or cut the thin part off and grind it for hamburger, or cube it for stews or chili.

Let me clarify; when I state the thin part of the whole brisket I don't mean the thinnest part. Go back to the original reference you got your information about the fork test from. It probably read to put the probe, and do the fork test in the thickest part of the flat (which is the thin part of the whole brisket), not to put in the thinnest part of the flat. If you don't test this area of a whole brisket for doness, you will end up over cooking the brisket.

[Tiffin]

Alrighty, firstly, thanks for all your guys input, i really value all your guys opinion and knowledge.
Tenpoint5 is right for the most part, they actually left maybe 3 inches of the flat sticking out past the point, so theres one of my mistakes, not rolling that extra  into itself or cutting it off or something as Habanero suggested.
My mistake about which part to fork test, thank you for clearing that up Habanero, guess my confusion came from the fact that my particular strange cut point didnt really apply to that rule.
So if i encounter this problem again i will deal with it appropriately whether its rolling it up or cutting it down or just creating 2 chunks of meat like saber suggested.
No idea when i will be attempting my next brisket, not the cheapest cut of meat and im only feeding me and my woman, but when i do i will be sure to share my next attempt.

Thanks guys   

[Habanero Smoker]

Brisket in my area has sky rocketed over the past three years. I don't even use brisket from my pastrami anymore. Neither Wal-Mart, Sam's, or BJ carries them, and the local markets; when they have them can run from $4.50/lb. to $6.00/lb.

[Tenpoint5]

Alrighty, firstly, thanks for all your guys input, i really value all your guys opinion and knowledge.
Tenpoint5 is right for the most part, they actually left maybe 3 inches of the flat sticking out past the point, so theres one of my mistakes, not rolling that extra  into itself or cutting it off or something as Habanero suggested.
My mistake about which part to fork test, thank you for clearing that up Habanero, guess my confusion came from the fact that my particular strange cut point didnt really apply to that rule.
So if i encounter this problem again i will deal with it appropriately whether its rolling it up or cutting it down or just creating 2 chunks of meat like saber suggested.
No idea when i will be attempting my next brisket, not the cheapest cut of meat and im only feeding me and my woman, but when i do i will be sure to share my next attempt.

Thanks guys

I know this is going to sound strange due to cost, but hear me out. If you get that same type of cut next time. Separate the 2 chunks of meat, by running your knife through that fat ribbon. After this one you have a pretty good idea where it is at. Smoke the point to the temps as discussed above. Now the remaining flat cut that into chunks and parfreeze it. Run that through your grinder and make some really tasty burger out of it. With you grinding it you get to control the amount of fat in the burger. You and the wife get a meal and a few sammiches out of the point and a couple meals out of the burger from the flat. So you get 4-5 meals out of that chunk of meat it doesn't bring the price per pound down much but it does bring the price per meal down.

Added:

If you don't have a grinder. I'ma thinking this would be a really good argument when confronting the wife. "But Honey, buying a grinder would save us money! We could (Inject above description) that would save us a lot of money in the long run! We need a grinder, we really do dear." Then we can work on her for a stuffer to make sausage, and save even more money!! ;D

[Saber 4]

Alrighty, firstly, thanks for all your guys input, i really value all your guys opinion and knowledge.
Tenpoint5 is right for the most part, they actually left maybe 3 inches of the flat sticking out past the point, so theres one of my mistakes, not rolling that extra  into itself or cutting it off or something as Habanero suggested.
My mistake about which part to fork test, thank you for clearing that up Habanero, guess my confusion came from the fact that my particular strange cut point didnt really apply to that rule.
So if i encounter this problem again i will deal with it appropriately whether its rolling it up or cutting it down or just creating 2 chunks of meat like saber suggested.
No idea when i will be attempting my next brisket, not the cheapest cut of meat and im only feeding me and my woman, but when i do i will be sure to share my next attempt.

I buy family packs of chuck roasts on sale at Sam's and grind my own ground chuck, same philosophy as 10.5, you get to control the fat content and it usually is less than buying their ground beef on sale.

Thanks guys

I know this is going to sound strange due to cost, but hear me out. If you get that same type of cut next time. Separate the 2 chunks of meat, by running your knife through that fat ribbon. After this one you have a pretty good idea where it is at. Smoke the point to the temps as discussed above. Now the remaining flat cut that into chunks and parfreeze it. Run that through your grinder and make some really tasty burger out of it. With you grinding it you get to control the amount of fat in the burger. You and the wife get a meal and a few sammiches out of the point and a couple meals out of the burger from the flat. So you get 4-5 meals out of that chunk of meat it doesn't bring the price per pound down much but it does bring the price per meal down.

Added:

If you don't have a grinder. I'ma thinking this would be a really good argument when confronting the wife. "But Honey, buying a grinder would save us money! We could (Inject above description) that would save us a lot of money in the long run! We need a grinder, we really do dear." Then we can work on her for a stuffer to make sausage, and save even more money!! ;D

[Tiffin]

Lol that does sound like a good idea. Unfortunately i do not have a grinder, it is on the list of many many things i try convincing the wife we need, grinder, meat slicer, auber pid, good oven thermometer. Gotta start working on the list :P
But ill definitely try that in the future when i do get a grinder, I like the idea of grinding my own burger.

[Saber 4]

Once you taste how good fresh ground is and how easy it cooks you will be hooked.