Smoking My First Brisket - Advice Needed

If you're planning to serve 12 people @6:30 I would start long before 6:30 AM. You might end up with 12 hungry and impatient folks waiting for your BBQ to get done.

Start earlier than you think you should just in case. You can always keep it warm in a cooler or cool & warm it up after. Way better than being late or trying to rush it to finish.

What do you mean by 165? Degrees Fahrenheit? I think you should be at least 250, maybe closer to 275 on a brisket.



I'd personally allow at least 15 hours. 12 lbs isn't a huge one, but still . . .

" - Optimal temp when removing - about 200 degrees"


Don't go by temp - go by feel.

slider2021 said:

I think you guys are 100% correct.

What about this?

- 275-300 degrees for 6 hours
- Remove from smoker
- Texas crunch
- Put back on smoker at 275-300 for an additional 4 hours
- Remove from smoker
- Optimal temp when removing - about 200 degrees
- Blanket wrap, let rest for a few hours and serve

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I would go 275 all the way through.

If you can do butcher paper instead of foil, I strongly recommend it so you don't end up steaming it and ending up with pot roast. Also wrap as you're coming out of the stall and your bark is set, not based on time.

Check at 200-203, but your probe feel is really going to tell you if it's done or not. That being said, it usually coincides with closer to 203 for me.

Yeah, not quite getting your method here. If you are really cooking at 165 degrees, you will never get it to fully cooked or past the stall which is somewhere around 165. I start probing for tenderness when the brisket reaches 200 degrees. Sometimes it takes more to get done. I’ve had some done at 207 degrees.

You may have enough time to start it at 6:30 and cook it at 265 degrees and still have time for a rest, but I’d start earlier.

Briskets are done when they are done, really hard to put a time on them.

I would say:

-275 until it gets through the stall. Maybe that's 6 hours, maybe not.
-Once it starts climbing out of the 170s into 180s (most likely) you can wrap...the Texas crutch (foil) or butcher paper (better)...make sure you wrap it tightly.
-Put it back in the smoker
-Start checking for probe tender around 200. When it feels like you're poking into peanut butter, you're there...that may be 4 hours, it may not be. My time estimates have been off by 2 hours both ways in the past.
-Rest it in a cooler for at least 2 hours minimum.
-Thank us later.

Start at least four hours before you think you need to. Sacrifice some sleep and take a nap while cooking. I find a four hour hold makes for my best brisket. What are you cooking on and do you have a grill temperature monitor that will alert you if the grill temp falls too much?

So to confuse matters even more...seeing how you have a Traeger. Check out Matt Pitman's videos. He is a Traeger guy and does pretty much everything at 275.

slider2021 said:

Got it

What does "stall" mean?

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Somewhere about 160 large hunks of meat start releasing moisture and evaporative cooling starts to happen. They can stop rising in temperature for several hours. Sometimes they actually go backward a bit. Wrapping can serve a number of purposes but one of them is to stop the evaporation and eliminate the tilme spent stalled.

You can also wait it out (if you have time) or largely avoid it if you are cooking at a higher temperature. But, if using a higher temp you might want to wrap anyway as the bark can get harder than you might prefer if you don’t.

On the overall approach, I think most pellet grills work best at lower temps. What I’ve started doing on my Rectec (which is similar to your Traeger) is starting late the night before 11 or 12. Run it overnight on the lowest setting which is about 180. I bump it to 225 in the morning when I wake up and wrap it in butcher paper when it hits about 165. It’s usually done early afternoon and goes into a cooler till dinner.

As others said, pull it when it’s probing tender rather than targeting a specific temperature. Each brisket can be different but in general, the higher temperature you cook at the faster it will cook (obviously) but also the hotter you will need to take it to probe tender. Wrapping, especially in foil, has the same impact. It cooks faster and therefore ends up needing to get to a higher finish temperature to get done.

Good luck and post some pics of the result!

Also recommend checking out some of the many great YT videos on smoking brisket- maybe start with Aaron Franklin and Mad Scientist BBQ, both very helpful.

But yeah, the pellet grill might change things a bit, not sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrEsCYziHX8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsCVMmmNRec

I think Jeremy Yoder explains things well and his method is simple and effective.

BTW it's the Texas Crutch, as in helping you out. Not Crunch