That one Saturday in June where my brisket went from disaster to best I ever made

I had this brisket on the smoker last summer, thought I had the temp dialed in but about 4 hours in the firebox temp just tanked. I was running late to check it because my property manager job had me dealing with a tenant emergency at a unit in Santa Ana. Came back and the internal temp had dropped to like 140, which is basically a death sentence for a brisket usually. But instead of giving up I wrapped it in butcher paper and cranked the heat to 300 to push through the stall. Figured at that point I had nothing to lose. It came out with this dark bark and the fat rendered perfectly, honestly one of my top three briskets ever. Has anyone else salvaged a brisket after the temp dropped that much or was I just lucky?

2 comments

2 Comments

taraw1623d agoMost Upvoted

Wait, 140 isn't a death sentence at all lol. The danger zone is more about food safety than ruining the cook, and you pushed through it at 300 which is totally fine. You just got lucky with a really forgiving piece of meat haha.

aaron67723d ago

Right because who NEEDS a perfect sear anyway? "Medium rare" is just a suggestion, kind of like stop signs. Next time I'll just throw the roast in the microwave for 10 minutes and call it a "sous vide shortcut." Your "lucky" piece of meat probably had a built in survival instinct that kicked in at the last second. But hey, at least we're living on the edge of food safety, not boring like those people who actually follow recipes.