If you are so inclined, I would be interested to hear more on how you cook (and age) a briskit. My results are all over the place; problem areas: too dry or too tough or both. My best briskit I ever cooked was covered heavily in sugar, allowed to sit over night and then prepared with my rubb and cooked at 250 until it reached 195. The next one, prepared the same way, was a bit too tough. I suspect it was the quality of the meat; my assumption was that the long, slow cook time would compensate for quality, but apparently not. To quote Forrest Gump; "You never know what you're going to get".
Sure I will be very glad to share what I know like I mentioned getting the right piece of meat you think is good is half the challenge. Ive asked butchers etc how to pick meat and also learned in BBQ classes how various pro's do it so I do my best to do it like they do. Once you pick the right brisket I touched on that in my post and what I said is a pretty good rule of thumb if I see that the meat is about equal fat and meat in the grain I look closer at that one is where I start.
Then I look at it as far as how it will slice they need to be as close to equal in thickness from the edge of the point where the flat starts to the end of the cut where you start slicing it once its done. fwtw I look for knife cuts that are visible (not always can be seen in the cryovac but we look anyway) this wont be an issue for anything but a contest where the slices are each judged (you have 6 that are actually judged) and you only have so many slices to use anyway unless you cook 2 briskets. And some do some dont we always did and left over contest meat is great to feed the friends after the contest is over and take home.
The wet aging is done in a frig or walk in cooler etc that you dont use often dont attempt it in your beer fridge!
The temp needs to be a constant 36-38 and stay there for the whole time. Next figuring out the kill date so the date they are ready is somewhat predictable another issue thats not so important to a backyard cookout but is if you have set contest dates known. Mostly un-frozen fresh meats like briskets are only a few days old when you see them. Sometimes there is a date on the label sometimes not and sometimes the meat man will have an idea. Give it 3-5 days if you dont know and thats what you take off the 45-50 day total time limit.
edit: there will be a distinct odor not putrid but musty. all aged meat has a different smell to it I forgot to mention that and also we wash the meat off w/cold water and pat dry.
That's the start next flip the meat over so the label is on the back so you can see the bubbles that will tell you the aging progress and place it in the fridge and leave it alone. The bubbles will start to appear small at first. Dime size bubbles will be there in about 10-20 days, nickle size in 20-30, quarter size in 30-50 days. That is when they are at the peak any longer is not going to help the flavor its best not to go over 50. All this is going to depend on your fridge and how many times you change the temp by opening the door etc. Its bacteria that is doing the aging and
some meat will not age this way if there is too much bacteria so if you see the bubbles accelerating faster than normal best use that one up or it will spoil.
As far as cooking them most guys I know and me too cook them at 250-275 and double wrap them at 160-165 and pull them off at 203 and open the foil so they quit cooking. Most of us also use multi layers of rubs and in certain steps its the part we all do our own way kind of the secret stuff sotospeak :laughing:. Some cut the point off at the 160 mark (we do) and put it on the smoker to make burnt ends with while the flat is wrapped and finished.
edit: Also briskets cook fast we rarely if ever need more than 8-9 hours 10-11 is really pushing it to do a brisket properly. I know for a fact Johnny Trigg only cooks his flats about 5 hours.
We dont leave any meat with rub on or injected for more than 4 hours period. Our reason being the high salt content will start curing/cooking the meat and will turn most cuts beef or pork into mush. But thats us ymmv on that as always but we experimented with brine (its allowed) also with good results but after so long trying all kinds of ways to prep we now try to make as few steps as possible anymore and still get the end product that works.
Lots of guys also inject the meat with either Butcher BBQ beef injection or whatever concoction they dream up or any number of commercial phosphate compounds. Sounds bad but it does improve the end product also costs a lot. Thats why a backyard cookout unless a person really wanted high marks he probably wouldn't use them. fwtw and I personally dont inject briskets I end up with more on me or the wall or the counter or the ceiling than in the meat so I dont inject them.
I hope I answered you questions! fwtw most of this info is also available on The Smoke Ring those are the folks that live and breathe BBQ so lots of great tips are there! :thumbsup:
