Advice on Brisket

42BBQ

42BBQ

is Blowin Smoke!
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Gentleman,

I know here in this forum are the foremost minds on all things BBQ. I have one smoke under my belt (pork shoulder), one underway (pork shoulder) and the next one needs to be a brisket. I am smoking on a UDS (and loving it). If there are any brisket masters out there I would appreciate some advice before I go headfirst into it. Thanks in advance.
 
I ruined a brisket in a uds once due to a temperature spike. I was smoking it fat cap up. The direct heat caused a dry stringy crust on the underside. It was awful, like it was overcooked, but it wasn't. Now it's fat cap down and a temperature monitor. I'm now afraid of trying a hot and fast brisket on a uds because of the direct heat.
 
Inject, (look up Chris Lilly's) and let it sit in the marinade overnight. Rub it just before putting it on the smoker. Wrap it in foil when it hits 165 and add some beef stock. Pull it and let it rest an hour in a cooler before slicing. Remember to slice across the grain.
 
Best brisket for me was a full CAB Packer. Injected with Butchers and rubbed with Butchers rub. Cooked on my COS with Wicked Good Lump. No thermo in the meat. No foil. Fat cap up. Probed it for tenderness and when there was no resistance,wrapped it and coolered for a couple of hours. Fall down on the floor delicious! Have one now treated the same way only cooking it in the drum. Put it in at Midnight. Placed a layer of foil under it at 6am as while I was sleeping the temp creeped up to 270* Back down to 218* now. I will let you know how the drum did compared to my personal high water mark with the COS. Happy Fourth! And, may the MEAT be with you!
 
Thanks for all the advice gents, I can't wait to do a brisket. Chipper I see the Red Lion location, we are practically neighbors. Mountville is just east of Columbia on rt. 30.

Happy 4th of July everyone
 
I don't inject or foil - But I do believe fat cap down. I get my temp right, leave it alone for the first 4-6 hours (depnding on temp). Then I start checking at about an hour apart once it hits around 180.

As everyone will tell you, when the proble slides in, it's done. I use the blunt end of a bamboo skewer.
 
Chipper said:
Inject, (look up Chris Lilly's)
Click to expand...

Chris Lilly has a brisket injection recipe out there? I Googled and only came up with his pork injection recipe. I'm not sure if that one would be good on brisket. Have you tried it?

42BBQ, For the first brisket I would keep it simple. Pick your rub (salt and pepper work fine for the first one), rub it three or fours hours before cooking, cook it at somewhere between 225 and 275, depending on where your drum runs best, fat cap down, until your probe slides in like it is going into warm butter. Then you can either eat it right away, or wrap it in foil and give it a rest in a dry, preheated cooler. I like my briskets and butts to rest for a couple of hours if I can. It gives the juices and flavors a chance to recirculate.

If you want to try injecting, keep that simple, too. I use a couple of cups of beef stock and add in some granulated garlic, onion powder and what ever rub I am going to put on the outside. I heat all of this to just under boiling and then let it steep for a while. Then I strain out any bits and cool and inject as much as the brisket can hold.

If you're cooking at somewhere around 225 - 240, plan on 90 minutes per pound. If it's done sooner, hold it in a cooler as described above.

Good luck!
 
As usual, there are as many opinions on the right way to do something (brisket in this case) as there are people cooking.

I'm no pro, so take this for what you paid for it. I've only done brisket a handful of times, but have really enjoyed all of them... The one hard and fast rule I know of: slice across the grain. Other than that, I like to do a 2-day marinade in Dr. Pepper, Teriyaki, and Worchestershire and then rub with steak rub (Montreal Steak or similar). Fat up in my offset, foil at ~165, pull at 195-200 and rest for an hour or two wrapped in foil and a heavy blanket and stuffed in a cooler.
 
Ron_L will never steer you wrong.
Since this is your first I say just use a rub you like and forego the injection, if you feel you need/want something different then try that next time. If you try 12 different things the first time out and you don't like the end product you won't really know which of the 12 things threw you off.
Start your fire, rub your meat, and wait it out. Enjoy and good luck.
 
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