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5 Things To Know About A Jiggly Smoked Brisket

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Smoked brisket jiggle

If you want to get a perfectly smoked brisket that jiggles as you tap it, then you have come to the right place.

Getting a brisket to jiggle is first of all the result of resting it properly. 

If you don’t let your brisket rest, all of the juices and moisture will thoroughly evaporate the second you slice into it. 

This produces a very dry piece of barbecue that not only does not jiggle but is not worth eating whatsoever.

As you let your brisket rest adequately, you will notice that the moisture will begin to seep back into the meat, and all of the collagen that has rendered down will turn into gelatin.

That is what gives a Brisket jiggle.


How to get jiggly brisket

Getting a jiggly brisket is very simple.

All you have to do is let the brisket rest long enough to let the moisture and render down collagen to begin turning into gelatin inside of the meat. 

Once that happens, you’ll notice that as you begin to touch and feel around BBQ, it will almost bounce back at you like a piece of gelatin. 

Briskets are a delectable cut of meat, but have high connective tissues. 

These tissues are broken down after a long period of smoking. In order to get that gelatin and jiggly effect, you just need to let it rest for at least 3 to 4 hours, or until the internal temperature has a chance to come down to around 165°F. 

That is around the temperature range where the connective tissues and collagen start to become very tender and cooled down.


Brisket Jiggle Test

To test whether or not your brisket is jiggly, take it out of your storage container and place it onto the counter. 

As you place it down, you should notice that the meat starts to somewhat bounce back towards you or jiggle slightly.

That should be indicative of a well-done brisket that has been rested properly.

It could also be indicative of a well-marbled brisket as well. 

That is why it becomes so critical to select the correct brisket before you even consider cooking it. 

You want a brisket with a lot of fat and connected tissues between the muscle fibers.

That is what gets rendered down and turns the meat basically into a giant pile of gelatin.


Letting briskets rest properly 

Since we have established that letting brisket rests long enough is thoroughly important, you will want to pull the brisket off once it reaches an internal temperature of around 200°F.

At that stage of the process, take it off the smoker and then place it directly into an ice cooler or a warming oven for adequate resting. 

Depending on the length of time that you actually need to rest the brisket, I recommend around 3 to 4 hours, or until the internal temperature reaches about 165°F. 

Experiment a little, and try resting it for even longer period of time to see if you can really get that jiggle effect.


Final Thoughts

Getting a brisket to jiggle is what we’re all after.

To get one that does that, just make sure to rest it long enough and ensure that you pulled it off the smoker once all of the interconnecting tissues have actually rendered down. 

Those two things alone will basically turn the brisket into gelatin, which in turn makes it very jiggly in nature.