Smoking Brisket - Advice?

[Pound4Pound]

Attempting a brisket this weekend for the first time. I've done pork butts, ribs, and chicken, finally going to dive into the world of brisket. Below is my plan based on what I've read, any tips or advice based on this, or is this a good starting point? Appreciate any input.

Start with one whole brisket – 7-10 lbs. Use Choice grade instead of Select (Standard) so that the meat gets tender without being flaky and dry.

Trim the fat cap to ¼” thick. Then, score the fat in 3/8” squares, like a waffle. This allows the rub, heat, and smoke to penetrate into the meat. Rub with your choice of commercial dry rub or make your own with salt, pepper, season salt, onion powder. Massage the rub thoroughly into the meat. Refrigerate for 6-8 hours or overnight. Return the brisket to room temperature before you begin to cook it.

Cook the brisket on your grill at 185°, fat side up, for 5 hours. Spritz with an apple juice/Worcestershire/ Beer mix every hour or so. After five hours, turn it over and cook for 2 more hours. After that, turn it back over to fat side up and cook until the brisket’s internal temperature (check with a meat thermometer!) reaches 165°, usually about another 4 hours. Next, remove the brisket from the grill. Now, mix about ½ cup of apple juice plus 3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Wrap the brisket completely in aluminum foil and drizzle the apple juice mix inside the foil onto the meat.

Turn the grill up to 225°. Cook until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 198-201° (2-6 hours). Lay newspaper or paper towels in a cooler and lay the meat, still wrapped up in the aluminum foil, on the paper. Close the cooler and let the meat rest for about an hour and a half.

Drain the juices and cut the meat in 1/8” slices across the grain. You will be able to cut this with a plastic fork.

[Fishforeyes]

Pound4Pound,

That all sounds pretty close to the way I do brisket. One thing that I swear by doing is after I use my preferred rub, I take a small bottle of regular yellow prepared mustard and add this to all sides of meat rubbing it all in well. What I will do is on the counter or table lay out a nice field of over-lapped saran wrap large enough to be able to close around entire brisket, lay brisket on the saran and apply mustard, and close saran tightly around it. Place in a plastic food store type bag and place in fridge overnight. Note: the mustard does get to be a pink color when mixed with the rub. There seems to be some real tenderizing affect from the vinegar and mustard in prepared mustard. Don't skip bringing the meat back to room temp. Never want to cook meat on grill or smoker when it is cold. Good luck... now I am hungry!

[mnmike59]

[rng518]

U TUBE Aaron Franklin on Brisket Texas style and you will be a Happy Cooker.

Attempting a brisket this weekend for the first time. I've done pork butts, ribs, and chicken, finally going to dive into the world of brisket. Below is my plan based on what I've read, any tips or advice based on this, or is this a good starting point? Appreciate any input.

Start with one whole brisket – 7-10 lbs. Use Choice grade instead of Select (Standard) so that the meat gets tender without being flaky and dry.

Trim the fat cap to ¼” thick. Then, score the fat in 3/8” squares, like a waffle. This allows the rub, heat, and smoke to penetrate into the meat. Rub with your choice of commercial dry rub or make your own with salt, pepper, season salt, onion powder. Massage the rub thoroughly into the meat. Refrigerate for 6-8 hours or overnight. Return the brisket to room temperature before you begin to cook it.

Cook the brisket on your grill at 185°, fat side up, for 5 hours. Spritz with an apple juice/Worcestershire/ Beer mix every hour or so. After five hours, turn it over and cook for 2 more hours. After that, turn it back over to fat side up and cook until the brisket’s internal temperature (check with a meat thermometer!) reaches 165°, usually about another 4 hours. Next, remove the brisket from the grill. Now, mix about ½ cup of apple juice plus 3 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Wrap the brisket completely in aluminum foil and drizzle the apple juice mix inside the foil onto the meat.

Turn the grill up to 225°. Cook until the internal temperature of the meat reaches 198-201° (2-6 hours). Lay newspaper or paper towels in a cooler and lay the meat, still wrapped up in the aluminum foil, on the paper. Close the cooler and let the meat rest for about an hour and a half.

Drain the juices and cut the meat in 1/8” slices across the grain. You will be able to cut this with a plastic fork.

[fr8dog]

A good piece of cow is the most important part. I don't go overboard on them. Mustard for glue to hold plain old cracked (or coarse from the store) black pepper. That's it. On the smoker at 235. PLAN on 1.5 hours a pound and you'll be safe. Might not take that long, but you can't really rush it. I look for @ 195 but do the poke check. Run a wooden skewer through a couple spots and there should be no resistance. I like to get them done early and do the foil, towel, cooler thing for an hour. Kind of like letting a steak rest. Have fun with it.

[FishbyFish]

how long did it take to cook at 185?

[Clif Kincaid]

Thats a lot of steps for a brisket.
Oil or mustard,favorite rub,smoker at 250,fat up or down it don't matter,temp probe in the thick part of flat. Start checking at 195 for butter feel with a skewer-toothpick-temp probe. When its butta feeling (flat only) pull and wrap in foil and towels and cooler if youwabt or the oven. About a hour is good if you're hungry. Only slice of what you plan to eat at serving time. Doesn't dry out as fast. Cut across the grain. Serve the flat and the chef gets the point cuts