Brisket...need help

Ok boys, I have never smoked a brisket myself. I have been apart of smoking a few.

Here lately, I have been smoking ribs and chicken a lot and have that down. I can control my temps really good on my smoker.

So, how long and at what temp? What temp do I want to get it to? Leave unwrapped the entire time? Im lost. Seasonings? I have my rib seasoning down good.

Im going to the store later today to hit up the cheaper prices on briskets.

Cup kosher salt
1/2 cup course black pepper
1/8 cup garlic powder

Most of the way through cooking ill rub on a little brown sugar.

I like to cook 250-350 depending on size of brisket and how much time I have. Out of foil fat cap up for first 3-4 hours then wrap fat side down till its done.

Never measured internal temp. I judge done by firmness.

many better on here than me but heres what i do.

trim fat cap to about 1/4 inch
rub
put in the smoker fat cap up at 250
smoke for the first 4-5 hours
wrap good in foil
I let it get to about 170 then remove the wrap
I'll let it get to 190-195
remove it re wrap and set in a ice cooler for at least 2-3 hours usually double that until its time to eat.

My favorite recipe involves brown sugar, salt, pepper, garlic and pureed chipotle.

Make a rub of dark brown sugar and SPG. I use Canadian Steak Seasoning for SPG and add a little kosher salt. Rub the entire brisket down with the rub.

Puree the chipotle in a blender and scrape it out into a bowl. Get a basting brush at the ready.

Smoke the brisket fat side up at or below 200*.
- Mesquite 2-4 hours, no more with mesquite
- Hickory or Pecan 4-6 hours or longer

Bring the brisket in the house and paint it with the pureed chipotle, then pack all the rub into the puree that it will hold, both sides.

Wrap the brisket in several layers of wide, heavy duty foil and place in oven at 250* overnight. In the morning remove and let it rest and cool/finish. When it has cooled enough to be handled, slit the foil and drain the juice into a bowl. Let it cool some more, it's too wet to handle now. Keep draining off the juice every few minutes until you have it all. Save the juice, it's gold. When it solidifies enough to be handled, ease it out of the foil onto a large cutting board, clean up your mess, take a pic to post here. Sharpen your big knife, slice it, take another pic of the smoke ring for us and tear that puppy up.

I also clean up my brisket before seasoning. I remove all the silver skin and if the fat is real thick, I'll trim some off. As for the juice, you can use it as is for basting the slices, or mix it up with your BBQ sauce for something pretty special.

Oh, this recipe also involves beer, lotsa beer.

Any of those will work; but your last sentence concerns me. The cheapest piece of meat is usually select grade. It is tougher than a piece of meat graded choice. Sometimes at this time you can find choice priced at select. You pay for what you get. Look for a piece of meat with marble running like lines through. Oh, by the way, Cosco has Prime briskest-but they cost.

there are many different "right" ways as you can see above. Everyone has a slightly different twist and can still come out with some great Q ... I have a variety of different methods, just depends on the mood I'm in and how much time I have available. The simplest is trim to ~1/4 inch fat, rub with salt & black pepper (heavy), let rest over night in fridge, remove from fridge to come up to close to room temp. go start your fire... with my pit, I have a vertical smoker on the end that I get up to 175-185, toss on mainly live oak & pecan alternating, put brisket on fat up (have tried fat down and don't really see that much difference) and let the smoke roll. I like a very heavy smoke flavor and with the low temperature, I leave it in the smoker for 6 up to 14 hours, tightly double wrap in heavy aluminum foil and move to hotter area of pit (or can transfer to oven for ease and more controlled temp). Until you get the touch technique down, use a internal meat thermometer, and get the thickest part of the meat (be sure not to be in the fat layer between point & flat) internal temp to 195-200 and hold for 1 hour for every 10 lb. take out of pit (or oven) wrap in a towel, toss in a cooler for a few hours ... golden!

another that I use about 1/2 the time is the method I learned from my dad that was passed down several generations on my mom's German heritage (dated back to 1870s) side that uses a tangy mop sauce. Similar prep but using a mop sauce during the smoking and cook cycles. Comes out with a much lighter bark but typically much moister smoke layering (doesn't dry out the outside as much). I used to have measurements but now its pretty much all by taste. Beef stock is the base, Worcestershire sauce, apple cider vinegar, lime & orange juice (original was lemon), butter (or oil or melted beef tallow), finely chopped onion and spices (mainly salt, black pepper, paprika, onion & garlic powder) blended together and put on the pit to collect smokiness of its own, then use this to baste the brisket every 30-45 minutes thru the smoke cycles and then heavy baste before wrapping. Then I take the remainder of the mop sauce, add tomato sauce (or paste to thicken) and brown sugar or honey as a dipping sauce. I usually split into two containers before adding the brown sugar or honey, as I prefer less sweet but my wife likes it more sweet.

I cant tell you how many select grade briskets I have eaten cooked by me and countless others that were simply classic great bbq. All briskets are a poor cut of meat, that's why you cook them 10 hours!

When I buy brisket I never look at the grade, only the meat, and finally the price. I groan and take the one I picked out.

I would love to sell meat to you, oh, my gosh your on to something, we should fire all USDA meat graders and sell horse meat to everyone. There is a system-and it works. Watch pro Bbq shows, they order $100 each special briskets.

This ^^^

I'd put my brisket up against a pro grade $100 special order brisket. How much better can it be? Do you think all the good brisket across Texas is high dollar brisket? Just the opposite I yell you.

Are you really serious or just adding to your posts. There is no way a top restaurant would sell a select steak over a prime cut. On the other hand, if you're Bubba, continue on.

There are lots of steaks, brisket and other meat that Select cut is sold in resturants. Prime cuts call for prime prices and many places, I doubt their Prime Rib is actually graded prime, some yes but doubt all are.

Like the prime cuts but do not spring for them often on my budget. Matter of fact at home I eat mostly venison which I prefer to beef

Ain't that the truth. They have them for $1.65# right now at Randall's.

I keep mine simple with just kosher salt and lots of fresh cracked pepper the night before. Smoke at 250ish til 160-170 then wrap, I use butcher paper. Get to 195-200 then pull and wrap in towel and place in cooler for as long as you can before serving.

I got ours in the smoker now! Got a rub blend I get from Larry Bailey in East Texas. Good stuff. I got a case of brisket from the local little market which is pretty good. I think the one step that is really important is to wrap the brisket in a towel after the cooking and let it "rest" in a insulated cooler for an hour.... Helps keep it moist.

dont wrap in foil you dont want roast......put it fat side down farthest away from your heat source with your temp 180-200 for 10-12 hrs without flipping it....to check if its ready simply put your thumb at the thickest part of the brisket and with a little pressure if your thumbs pushes into your brisket its done. THEN wrap it in foil and leave it there until about 15 minutes before you are ready to slice. good luck!

Well, how did your's turn out?

I had a 10lb'er. Made my own rub. Let it go on smoker for 8.5hrs around 250. I pulled it, wrapped in foil and stuck in my Yeti for 2 hours. It turned out delish. Wish it were a tad bit more tender but all in all, it was great. I smoked it on hickory and mesquite. I felt like I should have left it on the pit another hour.

I probably went through 25 different recipes and kinda combined several to make my own.

Oh yeah and the best part....We had brisket and sausage last night, we are going to haev brisket tacos tonight and a vacuum sealed the rest for another night of sliced brisket.

Good stuff! What did you let the internal temp get to? You'll also learn how to feel when its ready. No pics?

Here is a pic after bout 5-6 hours. The internal temp was 193 when I took it off.

Not bad for your first go, I still screw one up every once in a while. If all else fails, chop it up and throw it together with some sauce, pickles, onions.

Salt and pepper only started at 7am and pulled off at 5pm. Turned out great.

After catering a big party ~10 years ago I got asked to start smoking briskets for a smokehouse south of San Antonio. After doing that every single weekend for a year I couldn't stand BBQ…at all.

Then, I made my own rub. Now, I usually find the Salt Lick rub in HEB. It's delicious and less time consuming -- not to mention cheaper. I still appreciate making my own rub and sauce, though. Just…lazy, I guess.

I do mix Fab B with Apple Juice to inject the night before…as well as applying the rub.

I usually smoke mine at 250-275. It's a little faster and I might lose some flavor than when cooking at 225 but they always turn out fabulous.

I pull the brisket off the pit at 198, wrap in foil, and put in a cooler for an hour before slicing and serving.

Man -- I'm hungry.

Cooked 2 for the 4th.... Lots of salt and pepper, no trimming and 4 hours of straight oak/hickory smoke. Put them each in a roasting pan and covered until internal temp of 195 reached. Chilled overnight, sliced, and reheated... Best I've ever cooked. Never got the pit over 250. To me, it not time but temp that determines if it's done!

Cook enough of them and you don't need a thermometer, poke it with your finger and you will know.

All Chefs will tell you that your finger is inaccurate. Use a thermopen. Everybody's fingers are different.

tx bbq rub is what I use.

I do fat cap down. I usually smoke it at 250 and 1hr plus 30min per pound. Just did a 16lber over the 4th.

When it hits 180 or so, I pull it and wrap in foil, then towel and it goes to a cooler for 2-3 hours or until it is time to cut.

Matt

and every pitmaster will tell a chef that each brisket is differant and hits its "done" time at different temps and by feel is the only way to go

LOL ... as funny as it might sound, I have cooked literally hundreds of briskets dating back close to 50 years without any type of thermometer ... my kids got me a internal meat thermometer a few years back and I have used it for a variety of different things both on my pit and in the oven BUT I still use my finger as my final test. The thermometer lets me know what the temperature is and I have noted that some briskets feel right at 185-190 and others 200-205 ... so the thermometer gets it close or is good information but the true test is the poke.

X2

While im only 29, I have close to 20 years of bbq under my belt and I also have never used a probe thermometer.

Every brisket you cook will be better than the last, until you achieve brisket nirvana, and then, right outta the blue, you'll make a nasty one for no dang good reason. It's what keeps us great brisket cooks humble.

I keep track of internal temp as a gauge to know when to start get serious about checking for done. I have noticed that the prime briskets I have been getting at Costco are not hitting done till closer to 205, it always stresses me out when I see that internal temp rise that high and its still not ready to pull

Yep, and some people still don't believe in A/C. "This here swamp cooler is much better than that durn central air mess."

take your foot of your mouth, open your ears and go learn something

We had a swamp box in El Paso, worked good until the humidity went up.

yep, I worked in Mojave CA for a couple of years, swamp cooler felt darn good in the hangar when the temp was hovering around 120 with 5% humidity.

AMEN to that!!! That was one reason my kids got me the thermometer, I had a new pit that I was trying to figure out how it cooked and was very inconsistent on brisket, did a bunch of reading on-line to see what I was doing differently from my old pit and it came down to temperature. I used the probe for the next 5 or 6 to find what my pit was doing on temperature control in the smoker. Last several have come out very good with my three areas to hit (smoke, tender & moist), I can always hit 2 but getting all three was a challenge with this pit.

yall are making me hungry

Mercy, don't even get into that different parts of the smoker box will read different temps!! One thing at a time for this crowd. (And don't trust that crappy temp. gauge on the cooker) After a little bit--we spring it on them that yes, we have been to the moon.

HM ... sarcasm duly noted ...

I clicked on this link cause I thought you needed help EATING the brisket. My bad. Smoke on.

Who'd thought red chevy is an expert on brisket as well as everything else

So kind of you. Def not an expert. I have cooked in my share of competitions and found it very humbling, won some but lost a lot more. I do know that you don't need a probe thermometer or a prime grade brisket to make excellent bbq, a nosler partition is superior to a corelock, and you don't need a 1-ton diesel to drag your dingy. Past that I don't really know whats up your but.