with great success, yes!

225-250, 8 hours or so...some fat up, some fat down, so you get some leaner ones and some flavored ones, you can't miss...They also slicer it before it is cooked 100%, and pan it then, and put the pans back on the fire to simmer it in the juices. Makes it REALLY REALLY tender and tasty.

My grandpa runs a BBQ catering business off and on for the last 20 years or so, and has probably cooked about 500 TONS or more of briskets on a cinder block pit in his backyard. Yes, at least that much. It's damn good stuff too.

Make sure you do a good job on the wrapping part and create a good solid seal that keeps all the moisture from escaping. I typically use from 6-8 feet of foil per brisket in 2 pieces. The first goes around the brisket lengthwise and usually covers the entire brisket, and the side with the seam/gap in the foil goes face down on the second piece of foil to seal it up good. And as someone mentioned, the coarse ground black pepper makes all the difference.

Smoking a brisket is fairly easy once you get the hang of it. I usually just smoke the flat.

1. Favorite dry rub, I use my own ingredients I've tweeked from others.

2. Take straight from fridge and put it on the grill, helps to get a better smoke ring.

3. I use all types of woods, mix and match and find what you like.

4. Low and slow. I go 225-235 until it reaches approximately 190 degrees. The fork test is the true test of whether or not its done. When a fork slides in like butter, its done.

5. I don't ever foil, just personal preference.

6. Sometimes I do fat side up, sometimes down. In my experience it doesn't make much of a difference. It just depends on what sort of smoker I'm using.

7. When brisket is done, I wrap in foil and a beach towel then let it sit in a cooler for 1 to 3 hours.

Perfection.

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You want a tender brisket? I'll give away the secret: marinade in coke (or other cola) overnight. I've heard its the caffeine that tenderizes the meat, but I don't know if that's true or just the chemicals in the soda that does, but either way, it works.

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I've never done this, will have to try. However, the reason you smoke a brisket low and slow is so that it comes out tender. Brisket is a tough meat that contains a lot of collagen. At about 160 degrees, that collagen starts to break down to gelatin. Your brisket could actually sit at this temperature for an hour or more. This is called the plateau and is very important key to making your brisket tender. In order for your brisket to plateau long enough, you cook on a low temperature.

[This message has been edited by LagAg (edited 12/14/2006 2:19p).]

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2. Take straight from fridge and put it on the grill, helps to get a better smoke ring.

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I disagree.

You need to sit out of the fridge for a good 20-30 minutes.

Place anything cold in your smoker, and you run the risk of developing creosote.

What this creosote you speak of?

Some kind of cancer causing something-or-other that developes on the inside of the smoker when too cool of meat is placed inside.

Or something like that!

Thanks for the heads up.

Creosote is a sticky resin that forms in plants, particularly tree sap, and especially pines, and to a lesser extent mesquite. Burned, it can form teeny tiny amounts of carcinogenic materials..but we're talking tiny tiny amounts. THat' and it tastes nasty if the wood has too much of it.

I eat carcinogenic materials for breakfast and crap thunda!

Wow, all of the foregoing brisket tips are great!

Here's my 2 cents worth of basics .......

• keep it simple
• packer cut; don't trim until after smoking
• a little salt & more pepper; no rub or marinade or foil wrap
• oak or hickory
• 225 degrees to 250 max.
• 12 hours smoke time
• sharp knife across the grain

Heaven!

Low(temp) and Slow. Fat side up and don't touch it until you take it off. I use coals from a 2nd fire to keep the temp in the 220-250 range. Try not to put the meat over direct heat. For smoke i use the heart of the wood, preferably mesquite. Some guys use the bark but in my mind it has too many impurities in it. The heart is pure, unadulterated slap yo' mama good flavor.

Pretty much like most others have said.

1. Dry rub of choice, Tex Joy is fine. Maybe add more black pepper.
2. Bring to room temp.
3. Offset vertical smoker.
4. Keep smoker temp 200-225
5. Untrimmed briskit, fat side up
6. Try not to use bark. Don't use MESQUITE. Only fruit woods like pecan, peach, or in a pinch oak.
7. Try to limit it to 1 piece of wood on the fire at a time or else you can smolder the fire and impart creosote. Make sure your smoke is pretty clear. If it's billowing out white, you have an issue. If you need to raise the temp, open the vent to let air in, don't add more wood.
8. Smoke for ~4 hrs, wrap in Heavy Duty Foil for rest of time (~1 hr per pound). The meat can't take any more smoke after ~4 hrs anyways, might as well try to steam it the rest of the way.
9. Remove and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
10. Use an electric knife to remove the fat cap and then slice against the grain.
11. Briskit should be tender and starting to flake, but not falling apart. If it does, you probably cooked it too long.

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Pretty much like most others have said.

1. Dry rub of choice, Tex Joy is fine. Maybe add more black pepper.
2. Bring to room temp.
3. Offset vertical smoker.
4. Keep smoker temp 200-225
5. Untrimmed briskit, fat side up
6. Try not to use bark. Don't use MESQUITE. Only fruit woods like pecan, peach, or in a pinch oak.
7. Try to limit it to 1 piece of wood on the fire at a time or else you can smolder the fire and impart creosote. Make sure your smoke is pretty clear. If it's billowing out white, you have an issue. If you need to raise the temp, open the vent to let air in, don't add more wood.
8. Smoke for ~4 hrs, wrap in Heavy Duty Foil for rest of time (~1 hr per pound). The meat can't take any more smoke after ~4 hrs anyways, might as well try to steam it the rest of the way.
9. Remove and let sit for at least 30 minutes.
10. Use an electric knife to remove the fat cap and then slice against the grain.
11. Briskit should be tender and starting to flake, but not falling apart. If it does, you probably cooked it too long.

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I agree with all of this except

No foil

and

Fat Side Down!

Swamp,

You and I are the only two believing in the Fat Side Down theory.

I'll give it a try, but don't like the logic.

Fat up:
Fat melts and drains into the meat (and probably rolls off the sides as well) where it becomes yummy goodness.

Fat down:
Fat melts and drops away from the meat. Fat closest to the meat I guess could disperse into the meat.

The whole steam theory makes no sense. I do think there could be something to the "protects from heat and allows for slower cooking, HOWEVER I'm not sure this is a good thing.

One thing I forgot to mention is that when I do a brisket I usually put it on right after I have started a very hot fire. So it SEARS the meat for a good 20 minutes as the fire dies down to ~200 F. This creates a seal around the briskit and keeps more of the moisture inside to tenderize.

At least that's the theory.

Interesting on the fat side down debate.....

http://www.austin360.com/food_drink/content/food_drink/dining_at_home/stories/2006/06/14kitchen.html

I don't agree with the steam theory, that simply doesn't work as you lose the steam through the damper, and in fact in the above link the chef states he doesn't like it, along with foil. Steaming requires a seal. However, like the article states, the guy from Salt Lick Bastes his brisket, so I can an understand the fat side down because you are adding moisture directly to the meat..

[This message has been edited by mts6175 (edited 12/21/2006 12:53p).]

Tend to agree with clearman and B-1 83.

When using smoke and indirect heat, longer the better at just over 200 degrees. First few hours open smoke then cover in foil.

I used to smoke a medium brisket for around 8 hours and it was never as tender as I liked, then started doing them overnight for around 12 hours (3 hours direct - then wrap in foil before hitting the sack). Much, much better.

I used to not use foil and it simply ruined the taste. Too smokey and you would lose the pink/red line on the exterior of the brisket.

I have always gone fat side up with saturated hickory chips. I personally like oak barbeque taste, but mesquite is also very good.

Salt Lick guy does a lot of things different.

Their Briskit isn't that good, so don't know if I'll listen to him on the fat side down thing (especially since he bastes!).

But they make dang good ribs. I accidently cooked my ribs w/ the membrane still on the first time and those were probably the best I've ever made, although the membrane is kind of a pain to eat around. I've never seared my ribs before either, think I'll try that. BTW, I baste my ribs with apple juice or cider. Just fill up a spray bottle and give them a good dousing every 45 minutes or so. Don't put sauce on them until the last 15 min to give a nice carmelization.

He makes a good point about not putting rubs on until they go on the fire. Salt based rubs suck out the water. Unless you are doing a brine, where the meat then reabsorbs MORE water, it's foolish to do rubs until they go on the grill.

The difference in the steam is the number of briskets being cooked. You will never get any steam if you are only cooking one brisket. I hadn't really thought about it. It has been years since I cooked anything less than 10 briskets.

In November we cooked 54 briskets for a fund raiser. 36 were in my cooker. When you opened the front of the cooker to check them believe me, there was plenty of steam in my smoke box.

I was a fat side up guy for a long time. Then some old cooks taught me a little different.

I would have them post on here their reasoning, but most of them died before Al Gore invented the internet. And those still alive have no idea how to turn a computer on.

BASTING??!! THERE'S NO BASTING IN COOKING BRISKET!!!!

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Don't use MESQUITE. Only fruit woods like pecan, peach, or in a pinch oak.

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You're crazy and must be a fruitcake to use fruity woods. Are you light in your loafers fella????

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Cook meat side up for about 16 hours

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Seriously. Do you know how drunk you would be if you tried to cook a brisket for 16 hrs???

Yes, because I have. Let's just say the bone pile (i.e. beer cans) was large......

I've smoked whole hogs a couple of times. Once we started at about 4am, pulled it about 9pm. Hard to make it through a sunrise and a sunset while drinking.

The next time we started it after dark and didn't pull it til late the next afternoon, over 20 hours. I had to take a drunk nap before noon on that one.

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Fat up:
Fat melts and drains into the meat

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I believe this to be a myth.

Academy makes a great injector sauce on the cooking isle. You can pick your flavor and they come with a plastic syringe. Load the brisket up along the natural lines of the meat and watch the sauce fill the gaps. I don't have a preference on flavor. Do this before applying the rub.

Injecting a briskit? Never thought of that. You usually inject when a meat doesn't have it's own fat source to help keep it juicy. I usually inject pork or chicken and use a fruit juice base cooked with different spices. William Sonoma has a really good high quality injector. Think it's under $15.

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what do you think happens to the fat cap on a briskit as it cooks?

The only thing this post proves is that there are as many ways to cook a brisket as there are people and they all work.

Kenner you couldn't be more right.

If you want to get into a real argument, we should start a thread about the methods to cook goat!

Check the Kingsford website.

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Seriously. Do you know how drunk you would be if you tried to cook a brisket for 16 hrs???

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That's why I start mine late in the afternoon before eating. The smoking process starts early, then they get wrapped. By carefully arranging the wood, I only have to check it one time during the night. I restoke the fire in the morning, and it's ready by noon.

As a matter of fact ...... my sister called yesterday, and I'm expected to provide a brisket for the family gathering in a couple of days. I put it on at 4 - fat side up, of course.

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fat side up, of course.

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Big mistake!

Turned out perfect, as always.