Brisket 225F or 250F

[glitchy]

Well, now I know who has me blocked 😜

[JGo37]

Nothing has been said about the faux cambro hold. I don't use a cooler with hot towels, I wrap in butcher paper and put the brisket in a table top roaster set on warm, with a small towel on top. I leave it there for a couple hours and get a juices explosion when first cut.. I paid $50 for this one, and it also runs on the invertor in my expedition - that's come in real handy heading out fishing or tailgating.

[jfmorris]

Bogy if I ever get a pellet rig, you can be sure its the OG. And I'll "trust the swing" as they used to say on the Grilla website.

[Bogy]

Only caveat I would add about pellet smokers is that if you have an OG, particularly an Original OG with an old rotary dial controller, you get smoke at all temps. Can't speak to the new fangled wifi, Alpha/beta/gamma version controller.

[SavageSmoke]

I wrap based on color rather than temp. GOod point about the pellet cooker. I use a gateway and it has a great smoke profile as your cooking right above a wood fire. The pellet cookers truly dont have a robust smoke flavor

[jfmorris]

I'll second that. 275 is where I shoot for these days as well.

[jfmorris]

As others have said, I've cooked a lot of BBQ in the range of 225 to 275, and not seen appreciable difference going hotter. Something I've not seen anyone mention though is that MauleGuy is using a pellet cooker. On many of those, my understanding is that smoke generation is usually best down around 225 or even lower. If you run the entire cook at 250 or 275, I am thinking the flavor profile may be a little less smokey than at 225.

I see lots of folks suggest running the first couple of hours on a pellet cooker at 225, or wherever your best smoke setting is, before cranking the temperature up.

The other comment is this - once you wrap the meat, you are no longer getting smoke, and it doesn't really matter if its in the oven or in the smoker at that point. There are several times I cranked the temp to 300F once I wrapped my brisket, to speed up the end of the cook. I don't wrap until the meat reaches about 170F though.

[SavageSmoke]

275 degrees is the optimal temp to cook in my opinion. I cant taste a bit of difference cooking lower and it shaves A LOT of time off the cook.

[gboss]

This is great information! I'll just nitpick a tiny bit because most ovens are definitely not PID controlled. They are all pretty much a "bang bang" controller. If they were PID, they'd be able to keep the Process Variable much closer to the Setpoint. The "bang bang" control is what gives the fairly large temperature range. Cheers and happy smoking!

[ecowper]

BarbecueBob if you need input while cooking that brisket, create a post in beef discussion. A bunch of folks will be happy to jump in and help.

Also .... allergic to beef? I can't imagine anything worse! I feel for your son.

[smokin fool]

To loosely quote my wife: "Dinner better be on time!"
I smoke em hot n fast for self preservation....

[BarbecueBob]

Thank you ecowper. I will be cooking my very first brisket this weekend despite having grilled for many years.

My son is allergic to beef and I have been sticking to pork butts so far for my long cooks. With all y’all’s write ups of briskets and juicy pictures I finally pulled the trigger on brisket. To keep the son happy, I am making him pork butt the day before and then brisket after. Can’t wait 🤤

[Dadof3Illinois]

My 2 cents and what has worked for me is starting low @225 for the first 2-3 hours then slowly raise my cooking temp up to 275-300 for the remainder of the cook. I do spritz 2-3 times during the low phase of the cook....i've experimented with this and for me I see a difference in the bark...not so much added flavor but a nice crispy exterior...I'm sure it's just me but why change it if it's working right??
So as you can see there's a million ways to skin this cat...keep experimenting and find what works for you and only make small changes each time until you find that "perfect" way you like brisket.
Good luck and happy grilling!!

[mrteddyprincess]

To loosely quote Myron Mixon, "I ain't got no nineteen hours to cook no damn piece of meat."

[Bogy]

225 or 250, I don't think it matters much. I think what temp the meat starts at makes a bigger difference. If I see someone start out saying, let the brisket or butt or whatever come to room temp, I stop reading. I start my meat at about 30 F. That effects my time more then the temp of the cooker. The meat stays in the zone where it's picking up smoke a lot longer. Cold, moist meat likes smoke. Meat at 160 stops taking on smoke. So, do you want to start your meat at 70, and have it take on smoke from 70 to 160, or 90 degrees, or from 30 to 160, or 130 degrees worth of cooking time. You can open the cooker and spritz, and that will cool the meat down and make it take longer, but I like my way better.