Brisket Basics

To me, Brisket is the ultimate BBQ food.  I didn't always feel this way though.  In fact, I never liked brisket until I had the opportunity to try brisket cooked correctly.  It was amazing!  Ever since that day, Brisket is the first thing I look for on BBQ restaurant menus, and my favorite meat to smoke.

But, Brisket can be daunting.  In fact, a friend of mine doesn't make brisket because he's worried he'll screw it up.  I understand this line of thinking.  When compared to a pork shoulder or chicken, brisket is quite expensive.  And, based on what you get at some BBQ places, brisket is easy to mess up.

Here is my brisket method.  I think this is pretty fool proof if you monitor temperature and foil at the right time.  This will deliver a brisket that is moist and delicious with just the right amount of smoke.

Start off by getting the meat.  Unless you are cooking for a horde of people, I recommend getting a brisket flat.  You want to find one that is in the 4-8 lb. range.  Here's the before picture of the one I cooked yesterday (it's 5 lbs).

The next step is to start trimming.  You want the fat cap to be there, but it should be fairly thin.  At most, about a quarter inch.  You also want to trim off any "hard fat" as this won't cook down like you want it too.  As you can see from the brisket I cooked, there's a big piece of hard fat on the bottom left.  So I removed that, along with a few other sections of fat. Then next pic shows the brisket after I finished trimming.

The next step is to rub the brisket with your favorite rub.  My favorite rub is Oklahoma Joe's.  I'm not sure if it's commercially available, but you can easily mix your own.

Back to the rub process.  I usually do this the day before, but you don't have to do that.  I think you can apply the rub just a couple of hours before cooking and it will be okay.  The first step is to rub down your brisket with a binder, such as mustard or some type of cooking oil.  For my most recent cook, I used olive oil.  I think it's important to have a binder so the rub has something to stick to.  I've used mustard before and it works well without leaving a mustardy taste.  But I really like the results yesterday using olive oil, so I'll probably go with that for a while.  Once you got the binder applied, liberally apply your rub to the brisket, covering all surfaces.  The picture to the left is the finished rubbed brisket.  I then wrapped it and put in in the fridge for the night.

Now it's time to smoke your brisket. If you've had it in the fridge, take it out about 30 minutes before you cook it to allow the temperature to rise a bit.  This will shorten the cooking process.

Next, preheat your smoker to 225 degrees.  I like to run everything at 225.  You can go lower if you want.  I've also done hotter and if you do this, just really watch your meat temperature to ensure you don't get it overdone.  Once your smoker reaches 225 (or whatever temperature you picked), place the brisket on the smoker, fat cap down.  You'll read other sources that suggest fat cap up.  I think either is probably fine, but I've had more success with fat cap down.  It seems to provide a little shielding from any direct heat.  Insert a meat probe and close the lid.

I baste my brisket every hour during the cooking process to keep it moist, and to add more moisture to the smoker.  I use either apple juice, or a 50-50 mix of apple cider vinegar and water.  I'm just looking for moisture here.  You want to let the brisket cook until the internal temperature of the brisket reaches about 160 degrees.  Yesterday I pulled my brisket at 162 degrees.  This took 4 hours and 45 minutes at 225.

When your brisket reaches 160ish degrees, it's time to wrap it in aluminum foil, or place it in an aluminum pan then cover with foil.  At this point, there is plenty of smoke in the brisket and we need to make sure it stays moist.  I always add some type of liquid to the foil to help with moistness.  Yesterday I used beef broth, but I've also used apple juice in the past.  Both seem to work really well.

Now, we wait.  Continue to cook the brisket until it reaches an internal temperature of 190 to 200 degrees.  At this point, it's not necessary to keep it in a smoker.  This part can be done in your oven.  It was only 35 degrees yesterday, so once I wrapped, I moved the smoker into my oven to finish so that I could save on pellets for the smoker.

Once the brisket reaches 190-200 degrees, pull it and let it rest for 45 minutes before slicing.  This is critical to let the juices redistribute throughout the meat.  I know it's hard to wait, but you have to!

When it's time to slice, cut the meat across the grain in thin slides (no thicker than  1/4 of an inch).  It should look something like the pictures to the right.  There will be a nice smoke ring and plenty of moisture left in the brisket.  If you want extra moisture, drizzle with the juices from the foil.  Serve as soon as you are done slicing with your favorite BBQ sauce.  I know you will love this!

Yesterday's brisket was hands down, the best I've ever made.  The temperature control that I have with the new pellet smoker makes all the difference.  The flavor was smokey, beefy, salty and spicy.

I really hope this clears up any concerns you have about brisket.  Please let me know how your next brisket cook turns out.