Basic Brisket Tutorial (pron heavy)

This should be a sticky, seriously. Or how about a Tutorial topic?
Well done professor, this has no doubt saved countless hundreds of briskets from being ruinated!

Great tutorial. Thank you VERY much for taking the time to make it.
Bob

just wanted to add my thanks/appreciation.

first brisket, a little intimidated, this thread was a huge help, ty.

Anyone here separate the point from the flat before the cook. The presentation of the meat is incredible when you render all the excess fat off. Plus you can get more rub onto the meat and a deeper smoke ring.

It takes a lot more time, but really makes a difference IMHO.

Doing my first brisket tomorrow. I was nervous even with all the help from here. Thanks to you i feel so much better the pics helped alot. Thanks again. I am truly a smoking addict now!!

Great post!! Its been a while since i have done a brisket so this was a very well informed read. I have my UDS going right now with hunks of cherry and the brisket will be going on in about T-minus 12 minutes. Going to cook at 275 deg and not sure about wrapping during the cook.

bigabyte said:

Each person has their own belief on which way the fat side should go, but I am convinced it works best as a heat shield. If your heat comes from below (like in a BGE), then I cook fat side down. If the heat comes from above (like in an offset because the heat goes to the top of the cooker and flows out to the stack) then the fat side goes up. Not everyone agrees with that though, and as long as they can turn out good brisket with their method, that's all that matters.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the brisket.:thumb:

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See, if you're cooking on a BGE you would already have a heat deflector in place (Plate Setter), right? This is my logic for cooking fat side up on the BGE, so the as the fat renders it "self-bastes." I guess, again, the point is "to each his own."

Also, not sure if that self-basting idea is hogwash or not.

Awesome job here. I've been a Home Q'er for about 4 years now and have pretty much mastered everything but Brisket. Lately it seemed like I was moving in reverse but got inspired by your post. It turns out I had gotten lazy, and wasn't doing a lot of the little things, but the biggest point I got from your tutorial was that it's not about internal temperature - it's about the feel of the probe test. I had become so programmed to pulling Pork Butts at 205 with great results, I kept looking for the magic temperature for Brisket. You're pounding in the point that it's not about temperature finally permeated my think skull so I gave it a try and got great results! Thanks a million!

Great tutorial! I'm now ready for the advanced brisket Tutorial (pron heavy)

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did a 10 lb packer on Labor Day. I have a nice offset. I put the point facing the fire box as far away as I could get it. I smoked it at an avg of 275 to 280 for pretty much the entire 10 hr cook. I never foiled and my fat cap was down. It had a beautiful bark when i finished. I pulled it for a couple of reasons. My flat looked like it was shrinking excessively. It wasnt all that big to begin with. It was tender but not as tender as I would have liked. It was at about 185 to 190 internal at the flat. I pulled and rested 1 hr. When I sliced the flat, the first 3/4 inch was pretty much waste. I thought it was dry until I started getting closer to the middle to back 1/3 of the flat. It was a choice grade brisket. I ended up with a nice smoke ring and the bark was amazing but the first 1/3 of the flat were dry IMO.

any thoughts?

bigabyte said:

The little bit of toughness just means it could have gone longer.

It is very common for the tip of the flat to overcook, being the thinnest part of the meat. The center if the flat is always where the best slices are. I generally just cut off that first 1/2 inch to an inch triangular bit off the point before slicing and cast it aside if its really dried out or even charred.

If you really want to salvage that little piece, you have options. One great thing about bbq is that your options seem limitless. As soon as you think there are only so many ways to do something, you find out about other ways.

You could cook the point and the flat separately so that the point cooks more evenly throughout. You could also leave it whole and try foiling or using a pan, but even then that little bit still tends to get overcooked.

Also, you could flip that fat cap. When I used to cook on my offset, I cooked fat cap up. Not everyone agrees about the fat cap though, and probably never will.

Also, when picking out your brisket, look for thick flats. The thinner ones tend to have even more waste at the thin end..which makes sense if you think about it.

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makes sense. I have only done 3 briskets. My first was foiled and it was tender and juicy but the bark was soggy. My second was a disaster because I ran out of time and pulled anyways. This past one was good but was a little dry.

I guess I will go back to fat cap top and do less trimming of fat around the flat. I did trim this one up pretty lean. Thanks for the tips.

I'm gonna beat a dead horse for a second... "Boy, am I glad I found this thread!" At least I'm not one of the poor guys who found it too late for that last brisket... ;-)

I'm about to try my first brisket, and now I feel much better about it.

Now here's what has fueled my desire to try a brisket: I had some brisket at Bones Roadhouse in Gualala, California while on a beach trip with the wife and kids. I'm sure by both luck and their skill, I had the most excellent few slices of brisket I've had in my entire life. The fat was rendered down to the point that it was delicious to eat... Until that moment, I thought such a thing was only possible with pork!!! The meat was tender and delicious. I found myself deciding that I needed to create something like this, and then be able to sit down and eat a friggin' pound of it if I wanted to. My plan now is to unseat turkey as the meat of choice at Thanksgiving. I did it with baby back ribs a few years back, and 2012 is gonna be the year of the brisket.

So, maybe this weekend I'll do my practice run using the methods here, then wow everyone at Thanksgiving.

And here's an actual question: I really did like that ~1/4" layer of bark-covered, rendered fat on the flat, which I'm sure I'd only get by separating the flat and the point. Anything I should look out for when doing this? Based on the original pics, I figure that I'd split the fat with the majority of the "deckle" (or so I think it was called) left on the flat, then cooked fat side down in my UDS. The point would also be cooked fat side down. Am I robbing the meat of any magical point/flat synergy by doing this? Gotta get me that bark-covered fat! :-D

Thanks, and what an epic thread. I'm on my way to Facebook after this to share the link!

-Rodney

bigabyte said:

There's nothing wrong with separating them. Cook the same way, until tender.

Brisket fat, when properly cooked, is indeed divine. Particularly the fat in the point.

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*shivers* Oh man... The stuff I had was so good that um... I think I had something in my eye... and I've never even had the point. Can't wait. :twisted:

For any of the "Lesser" BBQ folk like myself out there, THIS is the thread that helped me turn the corner in brisket smoking.

Thanks Big!

Absolutely awesome post! Bigebyte! Thanks!

Thread is great, directions are great, 9 hours is too long for a 5 pound flat..... It was still quite tasty, just a bit dry for my taste, but it went well in a pot of grillin beans.