Settle In and Let’s Talk About BBQ
Every region has its own specialty, and all of it’s good. The Carolina’s have their whole hog. Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee have pork ribs. Alabama is famous for its BBQ chicken, and even California has its tri-tip.
In Texas, the focus is on brisket, beef ribs, and cabrito (al pastor). This recipe is, in my opinion, the best place to start for brisket (beef ribs and cabrito I will save for another day). For the seasoning rub, I use a ratio of 1/2 kosher salt and 1/2 16 mesh grind black pepper (yes, that’s a thing). That’s it! Technique and meat quality are paramount.
Keeping it Simple
The first step to great BBQ brisket is to master the trim, seasoning, and smoke before adding sauces or mops. I am a purist when eating brisket (though I make my own jalapeño BBQ sauce for parties) and prefer my slices unadulterated or with a small pinch of Maldon sea salt. Smoking a brisket means taking the time or the better part of the day.
I have tried to shorten the time, but the physics of beef brisket demands at least 12-14 hours to get these results. This is a labor of love and requires patience. The result will be the best brisket you have ever tasted outside of Central Texas. You’ll get to see your guests eat slowly, eyes closed, no conversation…heaven.
What You’ll Learn
Read through this whole recipe before you begin.
This post shows you how to properly trim the brisket, leaving enough fat to transform into an ethereal, delicious, crusty bark, which means the final product won’t need much trimming. A small hunk of fat is left inside for structural integrity, but the rest will render and melt away while protecting the meat through the smoking process.
You’ll learn how to season and slow smoke the brisket, starting at 250 F. Then, every few hours, ramp up the temperature by 10 degrees until you’ve reached the final temperature of 290 F. After the meat has reached an internal temperature of 205 F, it must rest long enough for the juices to reabsorb back into the brisket-this is key.
For your start time, count back 12-14 hours (depending on the size of the brisket) from when you want to serve. In this recipe, I’ll use a large 18-20lb packer-style cut brisket of prime grade black Angus beef sourced from Creekstone Farms in Arkansas City, Kansas. This beef is USDA Certified, hand-selected Prime Black Angus. And the cows are humanely treated and fed high quality, with state-of-the-art processing. There are plenty of good sources for beef all over the country. Of course, you don’t need to get what I do, but I know my friends who read this blog want to know.
Choosing the Wood
Think of wood as a seasoning. It reacts with meats in various ways. Use milder woods such as Texas Post Oak, Alder, Cherry, Peach, or Apple for brisket since the smoking time is so long. True Central Texas BBQ uses only Texas Post Oak.
There are no rules here. Mix the woods to come up with your own special smokey taste. On the BBQ circuit, cooks are playing around with the portions and mixes of woods to come up with unique flavors. The technique for the brisket outlined here is the same, but the end product varies.
Before Enhancing…
Master the basic setup for smoking brisket before adding additional rubs, injections, and other types of enhancers. Since I’ve been doing this for decades on a commercial level, I’ve found that starting at 250 degrees works best. Then, when I ramp up the heat in stages (10 degrees), the heat slowly penetrates to the center of the brisket without damaging the outside from too much initial heat.
A Word on Smokers
Stick Burners:
Smokers are expensive, and there are many types out there. Do your research. It is possible to get great results on a common Weber grill with a tight-fitting lid. Traditional Texas BBQ is done on an offset or New Braunfels BBQ rig (otherwise known as Stick Burners), which can get pretty big depending on your needs. Most are mounted on wheeled axle trailers so you can move them from place to place, though smaller ones built for home use are available. Using an offset BBQ is the purest form of Texas-style BBQ; however, stick burners are susceptible to the weather and their conditions. Because they are not insulated, cooking in the rain, wind, or cold winter takes extra skill.
Charcoal Smokers:
I’m using a charcoal smoker, which I start with premium hardwood charcoal for optimum flavor. Once I have a good bed of coals going, I will feed my smoker premium cured Texas post oak throughout my brisket cook. My particular smoker is heavily insulated to keep the heat in and provide for a very efficient cook, regardless of the outside conditions. Living in the cold, windy mountains of Utah, an insulated smoker makes cooking much easier. My rig is a Fatboy II, Backwoods Smoker. Other similar smokers in this group are Big Green Egg and Kamado Japanese smokers.
If you can, supplement your smoker with a BBQ Guru computer control w/adapter. Smoking is much less tedious with this device, and I can hold a perfect temperature throughout the entire cook. Wild temperature fluctuations can hurt the overall results with something that takes this long to cook. The good news is that they make a computer-controlled device for almost any commercial smoker sold on the market, so check them out.
Electric Pellet or Box Smokers:
While easy to set up, these smokers are not insulated well. They usually have a built-in thermostat that tells the wood pellet hopper to add more pellets to the firebox to maintain a constant temperature. This type of smoker can be great for a first-time BBQ’er, but the more features, the more expensive they are. Traegers and Smoke Shack are the apex of this type of smoker. On the downside, you are limited to the type of wood pellets available in your area, and you can’t use any other type of fuel.
Vertical Smokers
Vertical smokers include Barrel, Weber, and Masterbuilt and are usually sold at hardware stores. These can be fired by propane or electric and use shaved wood chips on an iron plate; since you can control the temperature with propane or electricity, these offer another good option for entry-level smoking. They are far more affordable than the smokers mentioned above, but only some have a water pan essential to keep the interior moist during smoking. Likewise, they typically aren’t insulated.
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 brisket is now flipped over in this image, and it’s time to work on the fourth side at the thick end. Usually (it depends on the butcher), a muscle is left attached here, which will need to be carefully trimmed back. Again, 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 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 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. I like to render the beef fat for tallow or sausage. Being frugal, I will sometimes use the tallow to baste the brisket with a mop instead of spritzing with vinegar.
Another fiddly point…the legends in central Texas BBQ swear by 16 mesh grind black pepper. Most of the coarse grind pepper you see on the market is 12-14 mesh. I’ve used both, and they both come out tasting great. I suggest you start with the 16 mesh grind black pepper since you will be purchasing it fresh. It will taste better than the 12-14 mesh 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. (Alternatively, you can experiment with Minor’s Au Jus Prep Sauce, which I have and it’s good as well.)
Using the previously mixed salt and pepper mixture, generously sprinkle the brisket to cover all of the meat completely.
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 an immaculate 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 initially, 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. 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 ensure 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. 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 huge 48″ wide butcher paper sheets at my house. 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. Instead, 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 my guests’ dismay).
The first cut you make will separate the two muscles. 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. Always cut the meat across the grain of the meat fibers.
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.
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!
Central Texas Style Slow Smoked BBQ Brisket
Equipment
- Smoker
- Instant Read Thermometer
- Sharp Knife
- Tongs/Spatula
- Butcher Paper
- Mixing Bowl for seasoning
Ingredients
Brisket
- 18-20 lbs brisket, full cap or packer cut packer-cut, trimmed of all but a thin, 1/4" layer of fat
- 1/3 cup kosher salt salt
- 1/3 cup ground black pepper, preferably 16 mesh grind or coarse grind
- 1 Spritzer Bottle ½ apple cider vinegar ½ water solution
- 2 tbsp. mustard, yellow (optional)
Instructions
Trim the Brisket
- Follow the step-by-step instructions under the images on this post. First, trim to a ¼ inch thick layer of pillowy fat all over the top of the brisket. See detailed instructions above. Trimming the brisket is best done the day before you do the smoking since this recipe is lengthy.
Season the Brisket
- Add equal amounts of salt and black pepper. Stir to mix thoroughly. A large empty spice shaker with large holes works even better to mix.
- Starting on the underside of the brisket, slather with mustard or hot sauce. Sprinkle with a generous amount of the salt and pepper mixture.
- Flip the brisket over to the fatty side and repeat the process with the mustard/hot sauce and salt and pepper. Cover with loose plastic wrap and allow to sit at room temperature while you build a fire.
Start the fire
- Light the smoker according to the directions. Using raw wood to smoke, begin making a bed of coals out of wood or wood charcoal. (I use FOGO premium charcoal, it burns clean and longer than briquets)
- Fill the smoker pan or jacket full of clean water. Then, close the smoker up and bring the temperature up to a steady 250°F/121°C.
- If there are multiple shelves in your smoker, place the brisket on the lowest rung. If not, make sure the grate is clean and ready.
Stage One
- Add the brisket to the smoker, placing the large end closest to the source of the smoke. Close the smoker up and maintain a steady 250°F/121°C for 3 hours. Add enough wood chunks to last several hours.
Stage Two
- Ramp up the smoker to 260°F/127°C and smoke for 3 hours. (Check to see that your water pan stays topped off!) Add more wood chunks if necessary.
Stage Three
- Now that the brisket has been in the smoker for 6 hours, start spritzing it all over the surface to keep it moist. (No need to turn it over.) Do this every hour for the next 3-5 hours. Next, ramp up the temperature to (270°F or 132°C) and smoke for 3 more hours. Add more wood chunks and water to the water pan if necessary.
Stage Four
- At this stage, start evaluating the bark. Every piece of meat is different. The outside should be very dark by now, but not dry. The brisket has been in the smoker for 9 hours. If it is moist from the spritzing and can take additional smoker time, let it go another hour to 10 hours of total smoking time. If the brisket is starting to get a little dry in spots, remove it from the smoker and wrap it in butcher paper (as detailed in the images above). When you are ready, turn the smoker up to 290°F/143°C before wrapping the brisket. (No need to add more wood chunks after wrapping.)
Stage Five
- Once the brisket is tightly wrapped, add back to the smoker with the seam side down. The smoker temp should be 290°F/143°C. Cook for another 1-2 hours or until the brisket reaches an internal temperature of 200°-205°F/94-96°C.
Stage Six
- Remove the brisket from the smoker and allow it to rest inside the butcher paper at room temperature until cooled. Don't cut into the brisket until the internal temperature has reached 150°F/65-66°C.
Stage Seven
- Cut the brisket as shown in the images above. Then, enjoy a taste of HEAVEN!