Hmm…it does sound like you did everything right. Why do you think it was overcooked? Was it a little dry?
Brisket can be tricky to get to the right temp to render the collagen but not dry it out. It’s not nearly as forgiving as pulled pork.
A couple thoughts for next time-- 300 may have been a little too high an oven setting. The guy in the oven BBQ video I posted upthread went 225 for 15 hours. When I cook a brisket in my smoker I go about 275 with good results, but it’s difficult to get it any lower in my smoker. If you use an oven and have 15 hours to kill, may as well take advantage of the even keel heat. At about the 4:25 mark he does the ‘cut and squeeze’ and it looks plenty juicy.
I’ve also seen videos where, at the wrapping stage, they coat the brisket in beef tallow and wrap it in butcher paper instead of foil. I’ve even seen BBQ videos where they inject melted beef tallow into the brisket. That’s probably going a little too far-- top notch brisket joints get awesome results and it’s not like they’re injecting beef tallow into every brisket day after day.
That’s what I was hoping for, and the results were tasty but not like that.
Next time I’ll go for longer time and lower temps. I started this at 9:30 and finished (after resting) at 6:00. Next time I’ll start earlier and go as long as it takes.
The “crutch” is the wrap of the brisket with foil or paper after the meat is partly done (see at 2:29 in the video).
Crutching in smoked brisket is to help force the meat through the 175° stall, but also serves to keep the meat from drying out internally. The moisture retention reason would probably apply to an oven-roast brisket as well.
I made brisket again yesterday using the Cook’s Country method in my OP. Reading back through this thread, it seems I get around to making this about every two years.
This latest whole brisket I bought was enormous. I forgot to look at how many lbs. it was on the package, but it must have been between 15-20 lbs. it took longer than usual, but turned out fantastic as usual. That Cook’s Country method is really foolproof if you follow the instructions to the letter (other than allowing for more cook time like I had to).
The only things I did different than the CC video was: I used the John Lewis / Franklin BBQ rub pulykamell and muldoonthief mentioned, and I did cover the brisket with a half and half combo of pickle juice and mustard first. Then before wrapping the brisket (the ‘crutch’) I did happen to have some Wagyu beef tallow, so I slathered some of that on.
Sorry, forgot to take pics. I’ll take some and post them next time I BBQ a whole brisket in 2028
Outstanding! Glad it turned out so well. How did you fit such a big brisket on the Weber though? Even with an 11 lb I’ve had trouble getting it to fit.
Was it smoked tallow? I have some tallow I rendered from suet for some historic recipes, wonder if it would be worth using that when I do a brisket this summer. I just fired up the kettle grill for the first time this year to smoke some ribs, so now I’m trying to plan a brisket weekend.
Do you have a 22" diameter Weber grill or the smaller 18"? My kettle grill is a 22", which generally can fit a brisket pretty well, and I also have a Weber Smoky Mountain bullet-style smoker, which is 18", and a full-sized brisket would definitely be a tight fit in there.
The giant brisket I cooked on Saturday just fit in my 22" kettle grill. What made it so big was not so much the length as that it was a very thick brisket-- at the point end it was about as thick as one of the pork butts I also cooked (those went in the Smoky Mountain smoker).
No, not smoked. Honestly, I’m not even sure if adding the tallow made any real difference, since a brisket has so much fat that gets rendered out as it is.
Good luck with your brisket weekend! Give me enough advance notice so I can get it in my calendar
Hey, I made brisket over the holiday weekend too. I actually did a 24 hour sous vide, then transferred to the smoker for a relatively short smoke. Or that was the plan. I noticed that the smoker wasn’t getting very hot after putting the brisket in there (I was also using a Weber Smokey Mountain). So I left it in the smoker for about an hour just for flavor, then transferred it to the oven as to not delay my dinner. I suppose that wasn’t strictly necessary since it was already fully cooked in the sous vide; that step was apparently just to develop the “bark” like in traditional barbecue (which would have happened in the smoker if it was hotter).
I know some have complained that sous vide brisket comes out dry, but I was happy with the results. I think during the time in the oven some of the fat from the huge fat cap melted and helped keep the meat at least somewhat moist.
Nice. I’ve never tried sous vide cooking, though I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. You must have either just cooked a flat cut of brisket, or you have a huge sous vide container.
Looks like you had greens on the side. Collard greens? I made a batch of those too. And the wedge of something is corn bread, I’m guessing?
I had to cut the brisket into smaller pieces to fit in the sous vide bags. Since I didn’t actually need that much food I just stuck two of them in the freezer for another time, and cooked the third.
And yes, those are collard greens and cornbread (baked in a cast iron skillet, which is why the wedge shape).
I’ve followed those instructions multiple times, and have always been disappointed. Every time the bag disgorged a dry piece of meat and several cups of liquid I really wished were still in the meat. Really glad it worked for you.
