Brisket stalled at 160 for 5 hours, I caved and wrapped early. Should I have?

I was doing a overnight cook in my backyard here in Nashville, family coming over at 4, and my brisket hit the stall right at 160 around 7 in the morning. I panicked and wrapped it in foil way earlier than my usual butcher paper method, and it pushed through but came out a bit mushy inside. Is the whole 'don't ever wrap early' thing real, or do you all sometimes break your own rules just to hit a dinner time?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_elliot19d ago

Pulled one early once for a birthday crowd, tasted fine, just not my best but nobody complained.

scott.drew17d ago

Did you let it rest longer before serving it? I've done the same thing at a family cookout and found that giving it an extra 20 minutes covered a lot of the early pull. Another trick that saved me was slicing it against the grain real thin, that made it feel more tender even though it wasn't fully done. Also, I made sure the grill was hotter at the start so the bark got nice and set, that bought me some forgiveness. People were too busy eating and chatting to notice the difference anyway.