Central Texas Post Oak Smoked BBQ Brisket

Brisket that cuts like warm butter. Words fail to describe how juicy this is. Take a bite of this brisket and press it to the roof of your mouth. It dissolves in an explosion of beef flavor. The hunk on the bottom of the image is from the corner of the flat. Although very delicious, save this for Cowboy beans.

The briskets I use arrive fresh and not frozen. While frozen briskets are perfectly usable, fresh gives you the best chance for perfection.

Upon opening the package of any brisket, inspect the quality. Notice the grayish edge all around the meat. This comes from the butchering process. While it is perfectly usable meat, thinly slice this off. It can be frozen and used later.

The first cuts will be trimming all of the 3 lower sides of the brisket. Again, don’t throw these chunks of meat out. Freeze them for making a hamburger or jalapeno sausage. Save the fat too, if you wish. This can be rendered down to make beef tallow which can be used in all kinds of dishes.

Trim the thin end of the flat.

Once you’ve cleaned up the lower 3 sides of the brisket, start trimming the fat till you have a 1/4 inch layer all over the top cap. Slice thin and pull back the fat to see where your knife is going if you slice too deeply and into the meat, back out and make a shallower cut.

Gradually work your way up the brisket. Take small portions off at a time.

Here is a close-up look at the good fat. This feathery or pillowy fat is what you are looking for all over the brisket. It’s the good fat that will render and transform into a highly edible bark.

Once you’ve whittled down the fat layer, round off the corners of the flat part of the brisket. The meat in this area is very thin, so trimming it off will help keep the slab from having dried pieces.

In this image, the brisket is now flipped over, and it’s time to work on the fourth side at the thick end. Usually (it depends on the butcher), there is a muscle left attached here, which will need to be carefully trimmed back. I’ve held the knife at an angle to show you where to trim.

This is the same spot as the previous image, with the corner trimmed back to reveal the good fat in between the extraneous muscle and the brisket. Trim further at your own peril. It’s easy to cut too deeply into the brisket here. Leave this pillowy fat on to protect the thick part of the brisket.

On the underside of the brisket is a large area of fat that needs to be removed. I’ve made several slices in till I reach 1/4 inch level of pillowy fat again. Continue trimming out the underside of any silver skin or large chunks of fat.

This is a properly trimmed underside of brisket. All the fat left on the brisket on this side will render down.

Turning the brisket back over, you will see a thick layer of fat in between the two muscles found in the brisket. Carefully trim out some of this fat, but do not remove it all. Leaving some of this fat is important for the structural integrity of the beef. Continue trimming around the top of the brisket rounding it where you can. There will be areas where the fat is just too thin to trim out. Simply leave these areas alone.

Here is a properly trimmed brisket ready to be seasoned. Notice the quarter-sized piece I over-trimmed, exposing the meat below. You may make a mistake or two, but it’s ok. The brisket will still turn out great.

Typically a decent trim on an 18-20lb brisket will yield 2-3 lbs of fat and side meat. While it may seem like a lot, you are fine-tuning the butchering process. All of this can be saved for other uses. Make tallow with the fat, and the meat can be used in homemade hamburger or sausage.

Another fiddly point…the legends in central Texas BBQ swear by 16 gauge grind black pepper. Most of the coarse grind pepper you see on the market is 12-14 gauge. I’ve used both, and they both come out tasting great. I would suggest you start off with the 16 gauge grind black pepper since you will be purchasing it fresh. It will taste better than the 12-14 gauge sitting in your spice cabinet. (Spices lose flavor over time.)

Use kosher salt to mix with equal parts of black pepper. Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt is my preference because it doesn’t have anti-caking chemicals added. I prefer my salt to be just that, salt. Stir and mix the salt and pepper thoroughly.

To season the brisket, flip it over to the underside and slather with mustard, hot sauce, or au jus mix. The slather won’t change the flavor of the brisket but allow the seasoning to stick to the brisket really well.

Using the previously mixed salt and pepper mixture, generously sprinkle the brisket to completely cover all of the meat.

Flip the brisket over and repeat the process-first mustard, then salt and black pepper.

Alton Brown demonstrated this next step years ago. Take three sheets of newspaper and cover them with spray-on vegetable oil. Any oil will do. This makes the paper burn longer, more like a candle, when you start the charcoal. Using this method, I’ve never had to start the fire more than once.

As for charcoal, I prefer Fogo premium wood chunk charcoal. It burns very cleanly and efficiently. (Though any charcoal will do.) Fogo doesn’t have fillers like other charcoal brands. It provides a very clean source of heat for my chunks of Texas post oak. IT IS VERY important to establish your fire before you add the brisket to the smoker. Depending on your skill level and the conditions, this can take up to an hour. Be patient. It will be worth it.

It’s very early in the morning, with the sunrise coming up behind me in this image. My smoker is steady at 250 degrees. I have a full water jacket inside the smoker to provide moisture. Once I seal up the smoker at the beginning, I will leave it closed for the first three hours.

Using an after-market computer (BBQ Guru) connected to a small fan, puffs small amounts of oxygen into the smoker, as needed, to maintain a perfect temperature. Maintaining temperature is one of the key techniques to a perfect brisket. While you can purchase a computer with wi-fi, it is expensive. I got around that by purchasing a small, inexpensive secondary wi-fi thermometer which allows me to use my phone and track my smoker no matter where I am.

After the first 3 hrs of cooking, ramp up the heat to 260 F and cook for 2 hours. The water jacket in this smoker holds 3 gallons of water, and the smoker itself is heavily insulated. I know from experience that my water pan will stay full for 5-6 hours; however, there was a learning curve here. If you don’t know when to refill the water pan in your smoker, check it at this time and top it off if it’s below half. Also, note that I periodically add more post oak chunks. You want a clean fire with the smoke barely coming out, and it should have a blue-grey color to it. 

After 2 hours at 260, ramp the temperature up to 270 and smoke for another 2 hours. At this time, refill the water pan and start spritzing the brisket with a mixture of 1/2 apple cider vinegar and 1/2 water, every hour or as needed. Don’t skip this step. Set the alarm for every hour on your phone or kitchen timer. From here on out, monitor the brisket closely to make sure it stays moist throughout the last part of the smoking process.

Here is the brisket at 5-6 hours of total smoking time. I’ve started spritzing it every hour after the 5-6 hour period. The meat is starting to darken.

At the end of 11-12 hours of smoking time, this is how the brisket should look. It’s dark, but it is still very moist, flexible, and juicy. The internal temperature is between 180-190 F. The sun is now to the west of me as 12-12 hours have passed.  The brisket will need to be wrapped for its final stage. Ramp the temperature of the smoker up to 290 F and prepare to wrap the meat.

I’ve transferred the brisket to a large working table lined with unwaxed butcher paper. Keep the wrap tight, and don’t leave air gaps or holes in the paper. If the paper tears, start over. The brisket needs to be sealed. I leave 10-12 inches of the paper below the leading edge of the brisket and fold over to the top of the brisket. Next, fold over the two sides of the paper from the edge to overlap the brisket. While holding the brisket with one hand, neatly crease the two outer overlapping folds (see the next image). I have very large sheets of 48″ wide butcher paper at my house, but butcher paper is commonly sold only 12″ wide. Use two overlapping sheets of 12″ paper as a wrap cut (about 3 1/2 ft long).

Keep the brisket tight in the butcher paper and fold over until the entire length of the butcher paper is rolled around the brisket.

Place them neatly and tightly wrapped brisket back into the 290 F smoker, seam side down, for the last cook (1-2 hours). The internal temperature of the brisket should be 180-190 degrees. To test, poke through the paper and use only one entry point at the thickest part of the brisket, using different angles in the same place. Never poke all the way through the brisket. The reading should be from the center. The finished internal temperature you are looking for is 200 F.

Once the internal temperature is 205° F/96°C (1-2 hrs more), remove the brisket from the heat and allow it to sit at room temperature. Fight the urge now, more than ever, to cut into the brisket. Allow the meat to rest, so the juices reabsorb back into the meat. I don’t cut into my briskets until the internal temperature is down to 150°F/65°C or serving temperature (much to the dismay of my wife).

The first cut you make will separate the two muscles. The thicker side is known as the point or deckle (left side in this image). The right side is the flat or lean part of the brisket. Separating these two muscles is critical since the fibers run in different directions. In this image, the left side (the point) needs to be cut on the horizontal. The right side muscle or flat muscle needs to be cut on the vertical axis.

Close up of the left side (point cut or deckle) turned 90 degrees. Notice the lack of meat juice on the butcher block. This is because I’ve allowed the brisket to cool off properly. All of those fantastic juices are in the meat.

You will need a very sharp knife to cut a slice of brisket. Not because it is tough, but because it is so soft with juice.

You can see the beautifully rendered brisket with a well-developed dark bark and with the fat fully rendered.

The best test of a true Texas pitmaster is to pick up a slice of brisket without the meat falling apart under its own weight. Give it the slightest tug with the other hand, and this easily pulls apart.

The beef is so perfectly cooked and incredibly tender; it is the stuff of legend. This is the sort of thing that makes a room go silent. Ambrosia! It will literally melt in your mouth. You don’t even need teeth!