Brisket Recipes / Tips

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=102415
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57882

Here you go, great reads for briskets.

I peeked at those two links, and could go on and on about how many things were wrong with their processes. Soaking wood chips and adding more wet chips to your cook every 30 minutes is a recipe for disaster. Tossing hot food into your fridge is another no no.

At least you found this place. check out the links posted above and hang around here for a bit, you'll start to see the light.

First brisket I did (about 9 months ago) was made of equal parts salt, pepper, and mustard powder. I covered the brisket with olive oil and applied the rub. Got the grill temp until it was stable around 250 or so, put some wood chunks on, waited until thin blue smoke came out, put the brisket on, foiled when it hit the stall, pulled when it probed like "buttah". Turned out great. I don't foil any more, and I cook at higher temps now, but for a first go, doing just what I mentioned was a pretty awesome first attempt. If I had to do it all over again, I probably would have removed from the foil at the very end to crisp up the bark.

kosher salt and cracked or coarse pepper rubbed on meat 30 minutes before putting in cooker. Simplicity at its finest.

All the extra stuff is just that.. extra steps. Get the basics down first, then after you feel comfortable with that, you can get fancy. Bigatyte's brisket tutorial is a good place to start for trimming, prepping packers. And you will want a packer unless you can't find them. The point is the best part of a brisket.

okie smoker said:

I've read through some of the threads and getting the idea. Just curious...has anyone brined a brisket? If so, did it add to the flavor or add moisture.

I'm getting the impression that with a brisket, you think of it like a good steak...minimal flavor enhancement and proper cooking technique is what yields the best results. Am I right?

Click to expand...

Yeah, they do it all the time its called Corned beef
You want a Brisket Method that garentees results here ya Go!

1) trim all hard fat and thin the fat cap to 1/4 "
2) mix 50/50 Kosher salt & course Black pepper or 40/60
3) apply above rub to brisket
4) bring the pit to 300 deg
5 cook 4 hrs at 300 deg remove from pit wrap in a single layer of Butcher paper and return the Wrapped Brisket to the pit continue to cook at 300 until you can insert a skewer and it feels like soft butter.
6) Remove the Wrapped brisket to a Sheet pan and set it on the kitchen counter insert a probe thermo when the meat temp drops into the 150's tear open the paper pour off all the juices and save them(after de-fatting) to dip your slices into. Separate the point & flat and carve across the grain. Never carve more than you need to retain as much moisture as possible.
:clap::clap::clap:bow::bow::bow:

I'm a big fan of Bigabyte's brisket thread
http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57882

I have this printed out and refer to it every time. I keep thinking I should try something different, but it's just so good I hate to mess with it

Brining the brisket will offer no advantages. You are better off following the first two links from the Brethren or Bludawg's method. Here is why...

A brine offers the ability to induce two effects, one is enhanced moisture by intially pulling water from the meat and them using the effect of salt and dehydration, once the meat balances salt and liquid, it reabsorbs the liquid, with some salt. This will make it more moist. It also denatures some of the protein, but, unlike chicken or pork, the protein in beef does not become more tender. It does change, and in that, it actually maintains it's density. Undercook a corned beef and you will see it is not more tender. The real trick, and what most folks get totally wrong, is that you have to cook brisket long enough, that it is tender on the grill, and long past any temperature range you normally would conceive.

Further, even a small cut like like a tri-tip takes a few days to fully react to a brine, a brisket, you are looking at 2 to 3 weeks for the brine to fully act on the packer. It is a long process.

There are few truths, but, the one that is true, is that it takes time to get a true smoked brisket done. Even if you cook it hot, around 325F or so, you still need to rest it, and that still takes 3 to 4 hours. In truth, the faster you bring a brisket to probe tender, the longer it needs to rest to settle down.

Brining, unless you want corned beef, is the wrong process.

Don't try to make it more difficult than it really is. Fire, seasoning, meat, skill (fire control), time. That's about all you need.

Welcome to the forum, Boshizzle and Pitmaster T are TOP-NOTCH brisket guys, the info these guys provide is the "best of the Best"

Good news! You've come to the right place! I knew very little about smoking but wanted to learn. I joined here last spring and learned a bunch quick. Didn't have a smoker and used info here to build a drum smoker (was previously thinking of getting an electric smoker). I followed the ideas here and my first brisket was good and my second brisket very good. Last one was awesome <smile> and folks around me think I know what I'm doing, ha. The reality is I just came here, listened, and paid attention to details while I cook.

I highly recommend a simple brisket cook and wrap in butcher paper when it hits the stall (roughly 160F-165F). There are 2 or 3 well known brisket threads packed with great info.

Looks like a pre- trimmed packer.

I am not a pro, but I try not to let a thread that contains the word "brisket" in it pass me by. And I agree with Bludawg that it's a trimmed PACKER. Meaning most of the fat has been removed. So it's not only the flat but both the flat and point.

What do you guys think about that fat that is just southwest of the label in the 2nd pic? I think that this packer is trimmed to where it needs to be if not pretty dam close to it. I read once you get experience you want there to be from 1/8 to 1/4 inch of fat. But for a novice you want 1/4 to 1/2 inch of fat. Guess the more fat the more of a buffer for inexperience.

Also another thing I read was that you want the flat to be something like an 1.5" or more. If it's less don't worry too much about it since you already bought the cow

Looking fwd to reading how it comes out.

I started cooking better briskets and enjoyed cooking them more when I simplified my process. No brining, no complex rub recipe, no sauce, no nonsense. For me it was a return to the purity of barbecue. A few things I have learned from this forum that have helped me cook very good brisket:

1. A brisket is done when it probes tender, not at a specific temperature. I have had briskets of identical weight and shape cooked next to each other finish at 205 and 215. Both were tender and juicy. The second was still noticeably tougher at 205. I still prove with a thermometer because I like to track the temps, but could confidently use a chopstick or skewer.

2. Sometimes less is more. After spending lots of cash on any bottle of brisket or beef rubs that I could find, I decided that I simply like the taste and color of a brisket seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. YMMV. No big deal.

3. The posts listed under the Road Map section are more informative than any Food Network recipe. FN recipes are written and tested in professional kitchens on professional equipment. Road Map posts on how to cook turkey in a UDS or baby backs on WSM are made by cooks like you for cooks like you.

4. If you choose to wrap, trying wrapping with butcher paper. I did a test side-by-side against foil and for me the butcher paper achieved the same level of steaming but maintained a better bark. Just remember to double wrap! The juices will soak through the paper and it can easily tear when removing from the smoker.

5. While we're talking techniques, try cooking hotter than you probably have been. I started out cooking at 220-230 and struggled to maintain temps and maintain focus for 6-14 hours depending on meat. I gradually bumped it up to 275 and found my ribs really improved. My brisket got really good when I started cooking at 325 and I didn't have to start dinner at 4am.

Good luck!