SRF Brisket ccooking confusion (2024)

Me and my buddy cooked out first SRF Black brisket yesterday. It was 12.36lbs untrimmed, and we trimmed very little prior to cooking. Simple rub of Salt, pepper, onion, and garlic. Brisket cruised for the first 6 hours up to 155-160, We wrapped in butcher paper, but after that it stalled for a long long time. It slowly worked its way up to 168, after 14 hour total cook time. When I probed with my thermapen it was not nearly as tender as i wanted. I cranked the heat to 260 for another 2 hours and finally pulled it at 178 internal temp, after 16 hours. The flavor was spot on, but the tenderness was not there, there was moisture in the meat but it lacked the melt in your mouth texture and consistency that I have tasted when eating other SRF briskets.

Has any one seen this type of stall before?
Should I cook my SRF's briskets at a higher temp?
Should I expect my cook time to be longer due to the higher amount of
inter muscular fast

I am cooking on a WSM 18.5, with royal oak lump, and pecan chunks. Temp was set to 235 and did not moved at all the entire cook, (thank you Digi Q).

I plan on getting another SRF but want to learn from this experience, thanks in advance.

I too run an 18.5 WSM. I do not even look at the dome temp thermometer while smoking.

To make a long story short. It's done when it's done and every piece of meat is different to probe tender.

On edit, get that Digi Q probe inside the one inch ring of fire around the edge.

Weberlamp said:

Thanks Toast, i agree, dome temp on the WSM is worthless, I had the air probe for the Digi Q directly under the brisket, I agree that each brisket is done when its done, but 16 just seems like a really long time, to still not be done.

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It always takes me approx 2-3 hours longer than the weight of the meat for me to hit probe tender and that's with trimming the hard fat knuckle out but leaving the fat cap when I was smoking @ 250*F. Now I run 275*F and only add about an hour on average.

You're brisket was under cooked. Higher fat content in the brisket actually leads to them being done in a shorter amount of time and at a lower finish IT.

As Krex said, sub 250 temps make for long stalls. You can wait it out, wrap in foil, or increase chamber temp to power through.

I agree. On my big pit I do briskets low at 225-250. The stall can last forever, and ever. Cooking low and slow I have had probe tender between 185-195 Buy a choice brisket and cook at 275 to 195-205 next time.

Your result may vary

I've actually had this happen to me once when cooking one of our Gold Briskets. I was cooking on a pellet cooker at 250. Almost every brisket I've ever cooked takes the exact same time.. I put them on fat side down at 250. - I pull at around 170 to wrap (approx 5 hours). Put it back on until it hits between 197 (but sometimes up to 210 if not tender) - this is about another 3-4 hours. I then wrap it in blankets/towels, pop it in a cooler and let it rest for 3 hours.

So about 12 hours from start to finish. The only time I've had to go longer is when it stalled out. I wrapped it, and cranked up the heat. I don't usually add anything when I wrap but added some stock as I was cranking up the heat.

Not sure this helps, but for the most part they cook pretty close to any choice or prime brisket I've cooked. You just have to watch them a little closer and play with the cook time.

Good Luck!

As a bit of small clarification. We do fairly well with choice briskets in roughly the same weight range. We know how to cook them and don't go by time, we go by feel and probe tenderness, we have that part down.

The question was more coming from the step up to SRF and this one being completely different than anything we had been used to before and we are trying to figure out if it was just this one SRF or if this is how SRF cook.

We greatly appreciate all the responses and we will be putting them to use on the next ones we cook!

srfannella said:

I've actually had this happen to me once when cooking one of our Gold Briskets. I was cooking on a pellet cooker at 250. Almost every brisket I've ever cooked takes the exact same time.. I put them on fat side down at 250. - I pull at around 170 to wrap (approx 5 hours). Put it back on until it hits between 197 (but sometimes up to 210 if not tender) - this is about another 3-4 hours. I then wrap it in blankets/towels, pop it in a cooler and let it rest for 3 hours.

So about 12 hours from start to finish. The only time I've had to go longer is when it stalled out. I wrapped it, and cranked up the heat. I don't usually add anything when I wrap but added some stock as I was cranking up the heat.

Not sure this helps, but for the most part they cook pretty close to any choice or prime brisket I've cooked. You just have to watch them a little closer and play with the cook time.

Good Luck!

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Annella,

Thank you for adding to the conversation! As I noted above, we were expecting similar to how we normally cook briskets and this one just threw us for a loop, it stalled for over 5 hours by the time we pulled it, which to us was absolutely crazy!

The tenderness wasn't as bad as Weberlamp described in my opinion. It passed the bend test, flopping over my finger just like I would want to see. The pull test was a bit more tug than I wanted to see, but not by much, and the juice was there! I will say it had an incredible flavor and so much different than choice cuts!

Looking forward to more practice with SRF products!

Some Pron!

newtwoq said:

Annella,

Thank you for adding to the conversation! As I noted above, we were expecting similar to how we normally cook briskets and this one just threw us for a loop, it stalled for over 5 hours by the time we pulled it, which to us was absolutely crazy!

The tenderness wasn't as bad as Weberlamp described in my opinion. It passed the bend test, flopping over my finger just like I would want to see. The pull test was a bit more tug than I wanted to see, but not by much, and the juice was there! I will say it had an incredible flavor and so much different than choice cuts!

Looking forward to more practice with SRF products!

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I hear ya, the first time mine stalled out I was like What the Eff? I had to call for backup and get help with what to do. It ended up turning out fantastic!

Good luck out there and if you ever need anything don't hesitate to let us know!