Brisket 101

westexasmoker · August 24, 2008, 11:18:00 AM

Brisket seems to be one of those mystery meats. I'm am by no means an expert with brisket, all of my neighbors claim they are! But I've found with the BS I can turn out a very consistent product!

First we need a brisket...Off to the store or butcher shop whichever you prefer for a 9-12 pound packer brisket, if you go much larger you'll have a hard time making it fit on your rack. If a packer is not available not to worry go with a market trimmed. Now I've seen in the stores here what they call 'Best of the brisket' which is just a piece of the flat less than 2 lbs and completely trimmed of fat and @ 4.29 a lb, just say no! Okay you've found some packers, now which one is gonna be the good one, they all look the same pretty much. You want a nice fat cap on the one side and some nice marbling on the other. Now one trick I was told years ago is to grab your packer on both ends and bend it in half as best as you can, this will give you an idea of how thick the fat ribbon, that seperates the flat from the point is. The easier the bend, the smaller the ribbon, and this is what we're looking for. While I don't know if this is true, as I said I was told this years ago by an older gentleman, and it has worked for me through the years. Plus you get the joy of standing in front of the meat counter flexing briskets as all of the other customers looking and wondering what the heck is he doing! ;D

Allright, we've flexed and found our perfect brisket and rush home ready to get this bad boy into the BS....Not so fast, brisket is not a meat to be rushed during the cook and before the cook.
First we need to age it in the fridge for a bit, if you bought a market trimmed pull it out of its package and vac-seal it, you packer is cry-o-vac'd and ready in the fridge for at least 2 weeks (3 is better) turning over every day, and what the heck give it another flex or two!

Two weeks have past, and you've turned and flexed daily, but you just can't take it anymore its time for brisket...Okay I understand, the day before your smoke pull the brisket out of its package for some fat trimming. If you bought a market trimmed your already good to go. On your packer trim off the heavy chunks of fat, but don't get to carried away on your cap as it serves as a self baster while we're cooking it. Once you've got the heavy parts of fat removed, you'll see the fat ribbon that seperates the flat from the point, run your knife along this ribbon as if you were going to seperate the two. If your flexing at the store was correct you should'nt have to thick of a ribbon and will not have to remove very much.

Okay time to cook right, Not quite yet you've just flex your brisket for two weeks and now taken a knife to it I think it deserves a rub down and a days rest! Pick your favorite rub and don't be shy with it, cover the entire brisket and don't forget to coat where the fat ribbon was. I like to use from the SS book the Wild willys number one-derful, great on everything!

3/4 cup paprika
1/4 cup coarse black pepper
1/4 cup coarse salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 tbls chilli powder
2 tbls garlic powder
2 tbls onion powder
2 tsp cayenne

Allright all rubbed up and into a 2 gallon zip lock, if you can't find a zip lock that big just vac seal it up, get as much air out as possible. Time for a cold beverage, the big day is tommorrow!

Tommorrow has arrived and its time to smoke, well not quite, brisket is not to be rushed! Pull your brisket out of its bag and place on your rack on the counter (keep an eye on your dogs, I speak from experince) and go crank your BS up to a temp of 220. I like to leave the brisket on the counter for about an hour, once it starts to get a sweat your good to go. And the cool thing is, its not even cooked and it smells good already.

Into the smoker, middle rack with 4 hours of smoke....now I use mesquite, I know thats shocking! But use whatever flavor suits you. The cabinet will take quite awhile to recover, especially if you have a full load. Once the smoker has come back up to 220, the ones I did here took 6 hours, pull from the smoker, you'll notice they have shrunk quite a bit this is a good thing, and into a foil pan with a splash of apple juice cover the foil pan tightly with heavy duty foil and into the house oven @ 220. Which is where I'm at right now, popped into oven at 10:00 pm last night!

On the bottom 10.58 lb packer on top 7.27 lb market trimmed vac sealed and on the left 10.02 lb packer for some pastrami (thats a whole different story!)

Out of the packages, packer on the left market on the right

And the other side

Trimming the packer

Fat ribbon removed, packer on the left market on the right

All rubbed up

And into our zip locks for a nights rest

On the counter resting while the BS comes up to temp

Out of the smoker after 6 hours

And into the foil pans with a splash of apple juice, cover tightly with foil and into the oven @ 220

More to come!!

C

KyNola · August 24, 2008, 12:48:46 PM

WTS,
Thank you for the tutorial. That is a wealth of information for a brisket newbie like me. Habs, I think this should go on the recipe site.

KyNola

Habanero Smoker · August 24, 2008, 02:14:59 PM

WTS;

You say there is more to come. When it is finished let me know.

pullinpork · August 24, 2008, 02:19:46 PM

Lookin Good, what internal temp are you shooting for?

Grayghst · August 24, 2008, 03:40:49 PM

Absolutely beautiful :P

NePaSmoKer · August 24, 2008, 03:51:50 PM

Very informative WTS. Looks great well done.

nepas

love the smoke · August 24, 2008, 04:27:18 PM

Way to go WTS now I gotta go and pick me up a brisket and start the aging process ;D ;D

LTS

bflosmoke · August 24, 2008, 05:22:49 PM

WOW
Thank you for the info. Is there a date on the packer brisket it could already have sat and aged for a while right?

westexasmoker · August 24, 2008, 07:24:45 PM

Okie Dokie, out of the oven and time for FTC, just a few more hours.....time your FTC for dinner time about 4-5 hours, if you need a bit more or less you'll be OK! l

Out of the pan and wrapped tight in FTC, this is a big key, thanks to the folks on here...Pulls all of the juice back into the meat!...Speaking of juice when you pull your pans full of brisket out of the oven, pour the juice into a stockpot, makes for one heck of a base for sauce!

And here we go, done deal!

C

Gizmo · August 24, 2008, 09:02:10 PM

Excellent post WTS,
PullinPork was asking about the IT you go to.

westexasmoker · August 24, 2008, 09:19:22 PM

Doing brisket I don't shoot for any IT more so just low and slow, but if I we're to guess probably 190-205.

C

Gizmo · August 24, 2008, 09:23:05 PM

Did you see (taste, texture, tenderness) any difference between the whole packer and the market? The market looked to be a lot leaner and therefore I would think it would be quite different.

westexasmoker · August 25, 2008, 07:31:38 AM

Your right Giz, the market trimmed was much leaner and came out a little bit drier than the packer, not horrible dry but just not quite as moist! Other than that they were pretty much the same!

C

Mr Walleye · August 25, 2008, 07:38:25 AM

Outstanding job WesTex! 8)

I'm droolin' all over my keyboard again! ::)

Mike

westexasmoker · August 25, 2008, 08:03:51 AM

I forgot to mention total smoke/cook time was 22 hours and then FTC for another 5.

The packers I buy here don't have a date stamped on the package, the store puts a sell by date on the price tag. The 10.02 lb in the first pics sell by date is 9/4 and will rest in the fridge for another 3 weeks so it'll be the weekend of 9/13 before its ready, well past the sell by date but by no means getting close to spoiling.

C

Brisket 101

NePaSmoKer