Brisket

I have recently changed the way I smoke briskets, mainly from reading BBQ forums on the net. So, I didn't invent the following process, but took methods from several people to produce a much better brisket than I previously was making.

My smoker is an offset wood smoker. With one like this, you put hardwood in the firebox on the right, the heat and smoke pass over the meat in the cooking chamber and then exit through the chimney. This indirect method of cooking is called barbequeing. Cooking directly over the heat source is called grilling. You can also achieve the same results with a Weber Smokey Mountain cooker (WSM) or the new Pro Q from England.

I select a whole brisket (called a packer) rather than a trimmed brisket. Although most of the fat will be trimmed off after cooking, you want the fat on the meat while it is cooking.

 

The very first thing I do is start the fire. I use charcoal in a chimney to get red hot coals, then I pour it in the woodbox and add the wood. For briskets, I use mainly mesquite, but also use a little pecan or oak.

I do trim some of the fat off the fat side of the brisket before cooking. If you dig a little bit into the lean meat like I did in this picture, don't worry. It won't hurt.

This is an 11.56# brisket. Pick one between 10 and 14 pounds. Look for a brisket with white fat (not yellow). That means the animal was fed off better.
   

After trimming the brisket, I put Worchestershire sauce in a bowl and add a rub until it makes a thin paste. Then I put that all over the brisket - back, front, and sides. Then, on top of that, I add a little more rub.

It is now ready for the pit.
   

After putting it on the smoker, fat side down, I put a meat thermometer probe into the thinner flat section of the brisket. You want to put it where there is lean meat, not fat.

I also put another probe to monitor the temperature of the smoker. I like to keep the temperature around 200 and take action if it falls to 190 or raises to 225.

I use a double probe thermometer made by Maverick. It is the model ET-73. It has a remote unit that receives the data so you can be in the house and monitor the progress of your cook. Supposedly, it will transmit to 100 ft., but it appears to lose contact if I am about 60 feet away.

I put this brisket on at 9:00 am. The meat temperature was 45°
   

While your brisket is smoking, you will have plenty of time to make the BBQ sauce, which will be a great dipping sauce plus an addition to the meat before it has finished cooking.

Here are the ingredients,(except for the chili powder) of the BBQ sauce.

 
   

I don't want to publish the recipe on the web, but if you really want it, let me know, and I will give it to you.

I will tell you that it is as good or better than any sauce at a BBQ house I have ever eaten at.
   

If you've noticed, I haven't mentioned mopping. It is the general consensus of many cooks now that mopping adds little or no value, and only prolongs the cook by opening the lid. I have not opened the lid since putting the meat on. When the internal temperature of the meat reaches about 155 - 160° (my brisket reached that at about 9:00 pm), take it off the pit and double wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil. Smoke will not penetrate the meat after 160°, so keeping it on the pit would just waste wood. However, you need to cook it until the internal temperature is about 195°.

Take 1 to 1 1/2 cups of BBQ sauce and pour it over the brisket. Then double wrap it in foil and put it in the oven at 215°.
   

 

My brisket got to 195° at 9:30am the following morning (24:30 hrs). I wrapped in a towel and put it in a cooler to rest for 2 hours.

The purpose for this brisket was to feed some friends of ours in Galveston, so we left it in the cooler until we got to the beach house.

Before I could get a picture of the entire brisket, it had been sliced, drawn, and quartered. It was so tender that our dull knife wouldn't slice it.

I got rave reviews for the brisket and the BBQ sauce. One comment was that he always used Goode Company BBQ as the standard for the best BBQ he had tasted, but mine was far better.