I've always liked to inject, salt/pepper and wrap at 180 until it reaches 203. It has always turned out great. I've destroyed a few before I learned to do that.
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You may already know this, but for those who may be new to this forum or do not know... When salting for a dry brine, 1/2 teaspoon KOSHER salt per pound. If you use table salt, it will be MUCH more salty due to the denseness of the measure.
This link has a converter you can use if you don't have kosher salt.
Further, curing is completely different than brining. Curing should be done carefully, and substitutions are not recommended.
Lastly, the most accurate way to measure anything is by weight. I have never had anything over salted from any recipe posted on this site, and only tweaked those recipes after trying it as written first.
Don't give up on brisket. It's sometimes elusive getting that perfect plate, but once you do, you'll never stop cooking it, and your worries will diminish greatly.
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DogFaced PonySoldier .... Don't give up on brisket! You've gotten some good advice and I'll chime in with a few thoughts of my own. Hopefully they help.
Try cooking a whole packer. The first couple shots I took at brisket, I was scared of "wasting money" on a packer, so I bought some flat from my butcher. Both tries turned out poorly. It was not tender and over-seasoned. When I came back to trying brisket, I bought a packer at Costco on an impulse because it was $3.79/lb. That made the 14 lb packer cheaper than the 4 lb flat I had ruined. What the heck, worth a shot, right?
Do pick a specific technique and follow it precisely for your first packer. I followed Meathead's technique (I've since created my own approach, which is a mash-up of Meathead, Aaron Franklin and my own experience). Don't vary from that technique until you are sure you understand what you are doing.
My one place I go a bit different than the above is the salt ... I do dry brine, but I do about half what Meathead calls for. I have folk that are very sensitive to salt flavors that I feed.
A full packer is a 14-18 hour commitment.
Wrapping is personal preference once you have the hang of cooking brisket. I wrap, but you don't have to. You will still get a fantastic outcome if you don't wrap.
It's done when it's soft as buttah. Temps are a guideline. The meat will tell you when it is done. If it is 195, but probes like a knife into warm butter, it's done.
Once it is done, hold that brisket in a faux cambro for AT LEAST 1 hour.
Don't slice until 5 minutes before serving. If you slice and it sits for 15-20 minutes, it will be tougher/chewier than you want.
In November I did a brisket cook that I thought was pretty good, although there were definitely challenges during the cook. Here's my write up on it. Might be helpful.Comment
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I have lived all over Northern CA - moved a lot for work when I was younger. I could find brisket everywhere. When I moved to Chico, CA I couldn't find any. So I came up with a great idea one day. I would take a corned beef brisket and would prep it for BBQ. Rubbed it, smoked it. ARGHHH. It was a salt lick. Worst piece of meat ever put on a plate. I could get a brisket from the local butcher but at 9 million dollars a pound for Select meat, it was financially irresponsible. Finally, my local COSTCO has begun to carry them. Prime meat for between $2.50 and $3.50/lb. My old COS units, on which my techniques were dialed, are no longer around. I have uprights that work beautifully for ribs, tri-tip, pork butt etc, but I haven't perfected the temps/time on them for the brisket. I'm doing a fairly decent job again but not what I once could do. There are so many factors involved but once you get it right, you will be happy not just with the meal, but the accomplishment. Even some of the most experienced ask for advice and keep plugging away - look at PaulstheRibList 's post about using the Vault. He does this for a living and obviously has his techniques on his other units down. Still working on getting things right on one of them. Don't give up!Comment
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So many great replies so far. We cook a lot of brisket, here are a couple adds and will be repeating some of the great advice above -
1. Small brisket is way harder to cook, and a flat is a lot harder than point because it can be so lean. If you don't want to do a full packer, see if your local butcher can cut a full brisket in half, take the side with the point. My local butcher does this for me. If not, see if you can find just a point, or a small packer.
2. Marbling is really important, you're already doing prime which is great, pick the one with the most marbling - I've seen terribly lean prime brisket, so just because it's prime, doesn't mean it will be good.
3. You're right about Texas crutch - if you're doing a small piece of meat, you need to cook it faster and blast through the stall. Texas crutch is great for small briskets.
4. Inject using something with phosphates like Kosmo's or Butcher. The phosphates will help your meat retain moisture.
5. To get the meat to breakdown to be tender and juicy, time+temp are important. For a small piece of meat (like your 2.5 lbs), if it's cooking long enough and sitting even at 190 long enough, it will be tender. Going just on temp will sometimes get you a very dry piece of meat. 8+ hours in the smoker for a 2.5 lb flat will probably dry out. If you're internal meat temp is not getting to 200, check the tenderness earlier, it probably will be done.Comment
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I over salted a brisket (full packer) recently by adding salt into the beef broth injection liquid after having dry brined with the 1/2 tsp./lb recommendation. I've only cooked two briskets and both have been very juicy by wrapping in foil at about 170* and bringing it up to 203* FC for at least two hours. Hang it there, you'll get it right.Comment
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About the size of a full packer .... I've bought a 12 lb packer and when I was done trimming, I had 8.5 lbs of meat to go on the smoker. 14 hours later when it went in the cambro, I had just under 6 lbs of brisket. You can easily lose 50%, or more, of the weight between trimming and cooking. That 12 lb packer ended up being just about the right amount to feed 8 people and have enough leftovers for hash in the morning.
A full packer is the way to go to turn out great brisket, in my opinion.Comment
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DogFaced PonySoldier Brisket is the hardest BBQ meat to cook. In my view, the hard part is knowing knowing when it's done. The process of when to wrap and when to pull varies, in my experience, based on the type of smoker and the temp you are using. So...Practice, write down your results and get some feedback from here.
The absolutely great news is you still get to eat then share your practice results!Comment
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When I consider the price/lb of some of the most common meats I smoke, grill, cook, with the exception of chicken brisket is by far the cheapest since I can get Prime packers for less than $3/lb. My choice ribeyes cost $6-$8 lb and my flat iron steak is $7.99/lb.Originally posted by RonB View Post
Having said all this, I wish I could convince my wife that I need to cook brisket more often.
Makes me wonder why I am not doing brisket 2-3 times a week. Oh yeah, it's just me and the wife and we cant eat 12-14 lbs of meat a day.
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Northside Brian - Those of us on the right coast can't get packers anywhere close to that price. Costco doesn't carry full packers, and the choice flats they carry are close to $5 per lb. -
When they go on sail I can get them for less than $2 a pound. The cheapest I have gotten them is $1.67 for choice. I am partial to Boston Butt, but since I moved to Texas I rarely can get it as cheap as brisket.
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as far as BBBR and pepper is concerned: a lot goes a long way sometimes. also, do not use pepper that you fill your pepper shaker with. you need course ground pepper that you get from a pepper grinder. after i made those changes the BBBR was WAY better.
also 203 isn't the magic number with beef like it is with pork. you need to start checking for probe tender. i would start when it hits 195 and keep checking it until tender or you hit 210 (at which point i would freak out, give up on it, but that's just me)Comment
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I've had excellent success but I only cook full Packer briskets. I fire my Green Egg up to 275 and set up for indirect. I trim up the brisket, inject with triple strength beef broth mixed with Butcher's beef injection and rub it down with my favorite beef rub. I cook at 275 for about 4 hours or until it reaches about 160 internally. Then I foil with a little more beef broth and put it back on the egg and pull it at 203 degrees internal. the whole cook normally takes about 6 hours and it's never failed me. If there is one thing I wish was better it would be that bark softens a little while in the braising process but it's alway juicy and delicious and I find that a small price to pay to get the moisture and tenderness that I want...Good luck. There is nothing better than a well cooked brisket!Comment
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Sierraslick - you could try raising the wrap temp 5* each time until you either get the bark you want or the brisket starts to be less moist. Many here don't wrap until around 180*. -
Thanks, Ron. I hadn't thought of that. Appreciate the advice.
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You need to see this exact same issue a few months ago. Hang in there! https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...-up-on-brisketComment
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