Beef First Brisket!

[ryannuttall]

Tonight I am starting my first ever brisket on the Traeger, actually first brisket ever.

I am following a recipe that calls for the Traeger Prime Rib Rub and Traeger Coffee Rub. Putting it on at 8pm tonight, then cooking at 180 F until internal temp gets to 160 F(8-12 hours) After the first 3 hours pass, I’ll then start spraying it with apple juice every 30-45 minutes.

After it reaches the first internal temp, pull it off then wrap it in heavy duty foil and crank up the smoker to 225 F until internal temp gets to 204 F(3-4 hours).

Bring it inside, wrapping it with a towel, and letting it sit in my RTIC for 2 hours until we eat. Got some Hawaiian rolls to go with it to make brisket sandwiches.



Any tips or tricks for my first brisket(2nd ever cook on my Traeger) would be awesome!
P.S. I know I may have cut off too much of the fat but I’m not that big of a fan of fatty brisket so I cut more off.

 

[Hogan]

I’ll defer to others regarding smoking it at 180 for 10 hrs. My experience over the dozen or so briskets `I’ve cooked is that 225 throughout is the ideal. I encourage you to insert a thermometer in the meat - two if you’ve got them - one where the flat meets the point, the other in the point - and cook to temperature, not time.
The fat on a brisket - half inch where you can - helps to prevent the meat from drying out during the long cook; and as they say Fat is Flavor. Regular spritzing as you’ve planned should help keep it moist. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

 

[ryannuttall]

I’ll defer to others regarding smoking it at 180 for 10 hrs. My experience over the dozen or so briskets `I’ve cooked is that 225 throughout is the ideal. I encourage you to insert a thermometer in the meat - two if you’ve got them - one where the flat meets the point, the other in the point - and cook to temperature, not time.
The fat on a brisket - half inch where you can - helps to prevent the meat from drying out during the long cook; and as they say Fat is Flavor. Regular spritzing as you’ve planned should help keep it moist. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

So I just woke up(dad took the 5am to 8:30am shifts of spritz). Last time I looked at the meat temp it was 133 F. It has dropped to 129 F.

It did get down to freezing outside last night but the temp of the grill has been dropping to 130 and up to 240 all night. I’m kind of lost but think it has to do with the freezing temperatures last night.

 

[Hogan]

Do you have an insulating blanket to lay over top? Again, I defer to others about the wide temp fluctuations.
On another note, do you keep a log of your cooks? I'm a bit of a Luddite; keep mine on paper. Copy attached. Logging every cook helps you to understand how everything interconnects - outside air temp, wind, temp set and achieved, progress of the protein being cooked, spritz, water bowl, winter blanket, etc etc.

 

[ryannuttall]

Do you have an insulating blanket to lay over top? Again, I defer to others about the wide temp fluctuations.
On another note, do you keep a log of your cooks? I'm a bit of a Luddite; keep mine on paper. Copy attached. Logging every cook helps you to understand how everything interconnects - outside air temp, wind, temp set and achieved, progress of the protein being cooked, spritz, water bowl, winter blanket, etc etc.

I do not have an insulating blanket since I live in Charleston where it’s been in the 80’s all week and then dropped to freezing this weekend. But I do not keep a log since this is my second ever cook but I like the idea!

 

[ryannuttall]

So update, still cooking and just wrapped the brisket in foil. Did some reading and realized that the grate temp is WAYYYYY off from what the Traeger is reading. I threw another probe in and it’s reading 233 on the grate while I have the Traeger at 275. Since upping the temp on the Traeger, we seem to be making some headroom on the meat temp. I will never be trusting the Traeger temp gauge again.

Meat is at 188 in the thick spot and waiting to get to 204. Once it hits, wrapping in a towel and throwing in the cooler for 2 hours. Hopefully it’s done in time for dinner as I originally planned for it to be done for lunch. It took over 17 hours for the meat to get to its stall temp.

 

[RayClem]

If you look at other forum posts you will learn that differences between what the controller reads and the temperature out in the middle of the grill can be significantly different. It can also vary depending upon whether you are cooking low and slow or fast and hot. Observe how your grill functions and adjust the controller setpoint accordingly.

 

[midwest]

The reason to start a brisket at night and at low temps like 180 is so you can go to bed and not have to mess with it. If you are going to stay up all night, sprits it, and babysit it, you would be better off to just wait until the morning and start it at like 225-250.

 

[Shedd]

So update, still cooking and just wrapped the brisket in foil. Did some reading and realized that the grate temp is WAYYYYY off from what the Traeger is reading. I threw another probe in and it’s reading 233 on the grate while I have the Traeger at 275. Since upping the temp on the Traeger, we seem to be making some headroom on the meat temp. I will never be trusting the Traeger temp gauge again.

Meat is at 188 in the thick spot and waiting to get to 204. Once it hits, wrapping in a towel and throwing in the cooler for 2 hours. Hopefully it’s done in time for dinner as I originally planned for it to be done for lunch. It took over 17 hours for the meat to get to its stall temp.

I think all Traeger’s and probably other pellet smokers are just as you mentioned, I usually just add 10 degrees to low and slow cooks and go with it while monitoring my Meater Prob. Hopefully it turned out good, we like to heat either way and we love pictures! Lol.

BTW, I’m up here in Spartanburg, it was 19 degrees this morning when I pulled up to install windows on a new house I’m building. Breezy too. That’s February temperatures usually.
Charleston is a great old city, lot of great BBQ joints. My son’s father in law has a fishing charter business down there. Welcome to the Forum, you’ll find some really great folks on here with a wealth of knowledge.