The brisket is in collagen breakdown right now.
It is trucking through it so far. It has moved through the 150s assiduously, which is unusual in my experience. I’m curious where it will stall out.
Brisket stalls out with respect to internal temperature when the collagen is breaking down in the meat. The temperature climbs again when the collagen breakdown is complete.
The brisket is nice. It’s USDA Choice, as usual. Well-formed flat of even thickness. Attractive point, not overly laden with fat. The fat pad on the bottom was trimmed to within 3/4″. I just left it intact.
I went to bed with the smoker at about 195F. Woke up at 830 with the smoker at 160F, which is not ideal. Cranked it back up to 190F until about 1230, at which point I realized I’d better apply some more heat.
We are at 250F now.
The danger of a long time at low temperature is drying of the meat. I have a more extensive drip-pan scene than usual, however, with a lot of water in there. I am hopeful that the meat will not be dry.
The rub is 2 parts salt to 1 part pepper. Andy Cohen uses that ratio, and he gets good results. I have added a bit of granulated garlic and some turbinado sugar as well.
I ran the rub through a blender to turn it to dust. I prefer rub the consistency of dust.