First Brisket

[Sweaty Paul]

Cooked my first ever brisket on any cooker and in any fashion today. Used black pepper and salt for rub. Cooked on Yoder Smoker YS-640 at 250 degrees. Was on an hour or so longer than I wanted as I was attending a graduation and I didn’t wrap until later than I should have (went searching for butcher paper to no avail) so wrapped late with foil.

The brisket itself was quite lean prior to the cook. The flavor was good, however, most of the flat was more dry than I would have liked. Point was good. Think I used too much pepper and will dial that back a bit and I’ll order butcher paper to have that too. Also, I’ll be sure to get a brisket that isn’t quite as lean. Overall still tasty and I’m not as nervous about cooking a brisket as I was previously.

[Jerod Broussard]

If the flat wasn't lean I wouldn't call it a brisket.

Dat is beautiful.

You run fat cap up or down and what level were you on?

When I load mine down I am putting the points at the bottom and running fat cap down since I get so much heat coming off the plate.

[Sweaty Paul]

There just wasn’t much intramuscular fat. I did the whole packer on the second shelf of the Yoder. I ran it with the point towards the smoke stack and fat side up (I didn’t really think about it). The temp was really. Temps were very steady within 5 degrees of set temp.

[fuzzydaddy]

Love the bark!

[HawkerXP]

Looks good. What grade was it? As you will learn time means nothing to a big hunk o meat. Some cook fast and some just want to mess up all your plans. Even though I think I know this I still find myself under pressure to finish. Start early. Yes even earlier then you think. Use the cooler or put it in the oven if it finishes early. This will only make it better! Good luck on future cooks!

[Sweaty Paul]

It was from local grocery. I’m not sure it was even choice. Think something with mor fat would have been money.

[RonB]

That's a good lookin[' brisket.

[ecowper]

The smoke ring and bark are awesome .... I bet that you had a very low grade brisket .... as you said, you got it at the local grocery store ...... don’t be scared of brisket, though. A quality piece of meat and a bit of prep, on a high end cooker like the Yoder ... you’ll kill it!

[ecowper]

That bark and smoke ring tells me you are on the right track .... remember the first time you cooked some ribs?

[Sweaty Paul]

@ecopower I think having done ribs and butts and a lot of each really helped me with timing and a sense of when to wrap. I also don’t freak out with the stall anymore. Looking forward to next time. Will get a better grade for sure.

[ecowper]

Thinking about this a lot, I think the key to the whole thing is to be consistent. The same temp, the same prep, and doing it the same way. And just being patient. Brisket is about being patient and consistent.

[Skip]

Nice looking Brisket. Good job!!

[Frank10231]

It looks great. How long was it on for?

[Sweaty Paul]

12.5 hrs

[PaulstheRibList]

Dude! Way to go! Brisket is so great. My encouragement is to keep cooking them. You will learn a ton by doing a dozen of them. You'll get the feel for when to pull it, and you'll start to see the differences between the grades of briskets you cook.

Like you'll hear from others, buy Choice or better and you will have a faster ramp up to Brisket Happiness! Keep the pictures and stories coming.

paul

[Steve R.]

If it was a little too heavy on the pepper, maybe substitute some garlic powder and onion powder for the pepper. It will help in forming the black bark. Some mayonaise applied to the meat as a binder before the rub will also help.

[ecowper]

If you pay attention to anyone ... well Steve R. Is a good person to pay attention to.

[ILikePigButts]

Now that my semester has finally ended, I'm amping myself up to try my first brisket ever as well. Will be staying up all night with my Weber Kettle and SnS though. Also feel pretty nervous, but that brisket looks great. Hopefully I can get a similar result.

[wustl-duck]

How’d it go? Or did you post results separately?

[ILikePigButts]

wustl-duck I had only just bought the brisket and found out that it was packaged on the 10th of this month, so I'm going to wait about 45 to 60 days or so to wet age it before I finally cook it. It is select grade so I wanted to do everything I could to make it tender. I've made a separate post about it and will update it when the time comes. Stay tuned!

[wustl-duck]

Looks great! Nice bark and ring!