Beef Brisket 101-A Tutorial

[cookingjnj]

Thats a good lookin hunk of meat right there. Nicely done Pops.

 

[fullhouse32]

Great work Pops

 

[BadDogPSD]

@Greg Jones Thank you for taking the time to document your process and for sharing it with us!

 

[Greg Jones]

Adding this on to a 2+year old post, but if you want to watch a tutorial-style video from what I consider to be one of the best brisket cookers today, check out the latest from Matt Pitman. The best part my be how he trims a brisket that looks like a school bus into a brisket that looks like a Ferrari.

 

[Waterboy]

Adding this on to a 2+year old post, but if you want to watch a tutorial-style video from what I consider to be one of the best brisket cookers today, check out the latest from Matt Pitman. The best part my be how he trims a brisket that looks like a school bus into a brisket that looks like a Ferrari.

For those always worried about getting a big smoke ring they should watch this video. Matt cooks a great brisket (on an offset) and there isn’t a huge smoke ring. Just goes to show you the best worry about cooking a juicy, tender, flavorful brisket more than getting a prominent smoke ring. Great video.

 

[Gonefishin]

Great tip about spraying down the paper, thanks for posting.

 

[Greg Jones]

Great tip about spraying down the paper, thanks for posting.

Yup, spraying the paper is a game changer. Not sure who I saw do it first, but it’s 100% a must-do.

 

[Jim6820]

The best part my be how he trims a brisket that looks like a school bus into a brisket that looks like a Ferrari.

Let’s be careful with that Ferrari talk, @Greg Jones.

 

[Pacman]

What is this "spraying of paper" you speak of?

(No, I have not had time to watch any videos today...looking for the Cliff Notes)

 

[Greg Jones]

Let’s be careful with that Ferrari talk, @Greg Jones.

Imma still waiting for the Ferrari to show up in my drive!

 

[Greg Jones]

What is this "spraying of paper" you speak of?

(No, I have not had time to watch any videos today...looking for the Cliff Notes)

I’ve been doing it mostly to wet the paper enough that the wind doesn’t blow it into my neighbor’s yard! I’m sure there are better reasons for doing this, but this alone is enough for me!

 

[PRC]

What is this "spraying of paper" you speak of?

(No, I have not had time to watch any videos today...looking for the Cliff Notes)

Spraying the paper makes it more pliable and you are able to wrap the meat tighter.

 

[Pacman]

Interesting. Thanks for the replies. I usually lay out a couple of pieces of paper staggered to build a wrap. I've never worried too much about wrapping crazy tight or perfect as I figured I did not want to create a steam oven. My technique certainly is not textbook, but I haven't killed anyone with my cooking...yet.

This all has me intrigued as I am two weeks away from another 40 pound brisket cook for my guys working an event. I don't want to get too creative for that cook, but I'm always open to improvement.

 

[SmokeOCD]

What is this "spraying of paper" you speak of?

(No, I have not had time to watch any videos today...looking for the Cliff Notes)

You take a big heaping spoonful of cold tallow in your mouth to warm it up, then you do a spit-take all over the butcher paper. It's the most efficient way; all the cool bbq gurus are doing it this way.

 

[sdynak]

You take a big heaping spoonful of cold tallow in your mouth to warm it up, then you do a spit-take all over the butcher paper. It's the most efficient way; all the cool bbq gurus are doing it this way.

Good thing it is clarified.. my mind was in the gutter for sure

 

[SmokeOCD]

Good thing it is clarified.. my mind was in the gutter for sure

 

[Gonefishin]

Used the butcher paper spraying trick the other day, much better when wrapping. My thanks.

 

[RHEINLEIN]

I have a friend that is moving past just grilling into smoking briskets, and he is having a challenge with how his are turning out. He has eaten my brisket, but he doesn’t live close enough for us to get together and chat about technique.

He texted me last week and asked if I would send him some pointers. I told him I was cooking a brisket this week, and I would document my process, and this is what I sent him. I’ve attached that PDF of how I’m doing it now with hope that some may find it useful.

Now there are many ways to cook a brisket, so I’m not saying this is “The Way”, just the way I’m currently doing it along with one thing (the beef tallow on the butcher paper) that I’m experimenting with. Enjoy.

2021-04-28 10# Brisket Cook

For this cook I started with a Choice 13# brisket selected because it was less than $2 a pound at Kroger last week. Normally I prefer Prime briskets from Costco. I trim the sides and top pretty aggressively, and I leave 1/4 inch of fat on the bottom. I weighed the fat that was removed, and this brisket trimmed out at 10#. I’ll render out the fat and use it, which I will discuss later.

I try to always take a picture of the brisket at this point as the grain direction on the point and the flat is most noticeable before the brisket has a bark on it, and you always want to slice a brisket across the grain. Also as another tip, notice how I have trimmed the lower-left corner to align with the grain. The beef is tapered out to nothing here anyway, so it would have likely burned and been discarded later.

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I then apply a binder for my rub using a concentrated beef broth. Any binder will work, but I like the results I get on a brisket or a chuck roast when using the concentrate. I get mine from Amazon, Kitchen Accomplice Reduced Sodium Beef Broth Concentrate.

For the rub, I use a pretty simple formula-Kosher salt, fresh ground coarse black pepper, and onion powder. I’ve got a pantry full of rubs that I use on other cuts of meat, but this is my go-to for brisket and chuck.

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As a rule of thumb I plan on 1 hour cook time for every trimmed pound of brisket. Figure on 25% trimmed fat, to help you plan on when to start. I also add a 2 hour buffer, as I have additional time if needed, and a brisket is fine in a cooler for 2-3 hours if needed. It will still be well above 140* IT, so it is food safe. It’s also nice to have the time at the end to fix the rest of the meal without having to pay attention to the brisket. I do pork butts the same way, allowing a time buffer at the end of the cook. I cook more butts than briskets, and I have a small cooler and a towel dedicated to use for pork butts!

I set my pellet grill to 225*, hotter is fine also but I’ve never tried anything over 300*. I use a smoke tube with hickory pellets to add additional smoke flavor to the meat. I put a probe in the flat and another in the point, and I set the high temp alarm to 160* so I’ll get notified when the brisket is ready to wrap. I also place the brisket in the smoker with the thicker point closest to the smoker’s chimney. My thinking is that air flowing over the brisket and out of the smoker will flow more naturally, cooking the brisket evenly. On this brisket, the IT reached 160* at the 5.5 hour mark.

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For me, the time to wrap is when the bark is set to my liking, not to a specific temp. I’m not looking for an extreme bark, like I might want on a pork butt, but that’s a personal preference. I do want the bark to be fully ‘set’, which means if I drag my finger over the top it is dry and the rub remains in place.

Now wrapping is optional, some people never do wrap but it will take longer to cook through the stall and the bark will be thick. The brisket stopped taking on any smoke flavor after about 4 hours, so it’s a fallacy to think leaving it unwrapped will give more smoke flavor.

As to what to wrap in, I use pink butcher paper for briskets, foil for pork. Foil is fine for brisket also, but I found that if I need to put the brisket in the cooler, and that’s my plan, the brisket can steam in foil and make the bark soggy. The pink paper breathes, and I prefer the results it gives me. I’m also experimenting with ‘painting’ the inside of the paper with the beef tallow I have rendered. Supposedly this is one of the secret tricks that world famous Aaron Franklin uses on his briskets. I’m not yet convinced it’s worth the trouble.

Once the brisket is wrapped, you have a choice on how to finish cooking it. The brisket won’t know if it finished cooking in a smoker or in your kitchen oven. The kitchen oven is a cheaper source of fuel, but I don’t want to heat up the kitchen in the summer either. I finished this brisket in the kitchen oven, also set to 225*, because the weather forecast was for rain when the brisket would be finishing. Now a mistake I see a lot of people making is lowering the cooker temp at this point, because they are think if I’m already at 160* after only 5.5 hours, it will be done in a couple of hours and I don’t want to eat until 6+ hours from now. The reality is that last 40*-50* degrees will take just as long as the first 120* did.

On the subject of when is the brisket ‘done’. The brisket was done cooking for food safety at 140*. However, for maximum tenderness and flavor, the brisket needs to be cooked to ‘probe tender’. That’s the point where inserting a temperature probe into the brisket gives more resistance penetrating the paper or foil than what resistance is felt in the meat. It’s literally like sticking the probe into a stick of warm butter. Now the temp when this happens is normally 200*+, but if it is probe tender at 195*, there is no reason to cook it longer. When I pulled this brisket, the flat was at 206.7* and the point was 205.1*, and it was wrapped for 4.5 hours, total cook time was 10 hours. I then put the brisket into the cooler for 2 hours and here is what the final results looked like.

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I slice the brisket, as mentioned earlier, across the grain using a 12” slicer knife. These give excellent results without tearing the meat, which should be quite tender at this point. Here is the knife I use.

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And the results. Nice bark, nice smoke ring, great flavor, and it passes the bend test!

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Greg-Thanks for putting this together with such detail (and explanations of why / how).

I have yet to pull the trigger on a brisket but I am now ready to give one a try.
Do you see any difference in the Costco Prime and the supermarket protein ?

 

[Gonefishin]

FWIW… Our Costco’s stopped carrying Prime.

 

[Greg Jones]

Greg-Thanks for putting this together with such detail (and explanations of why / how).

I have yet to pull the trigger on a brisket but I am now ready to give one a try.
Do you see any difference in the Costco Prime and the supermarket protein ?

Frankly, I’ve smoked Wagyu, Prime, Choice, and Select briskets and they are all about the same to me. I don’t know if that says something about the grade of briskets or more about my opinion on brisket in general. A nice Choice at a good price will give you just as good a result as a Prime, and don’t pay big $$ for a Wagyu or settle for a Select would be my advice.