I am new to The Pit and looking for some tips to smoking a brisket flat on a Big Green Egg. This is my first brisket but have smoked other meats. A few questions. Dry Brine? Wrap or no wrap? If so what temp? Inject? Thoughts on using a jaccard tenderizer? Thank you in advance!
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First, you should read Meathead's article on Texas beef brisket. There is a lot of wonderful information on cooking briskets.
You should start by buying the highest grade flat you can find. This will make a big difference. Try to buy Prime. Even if you cant find a Prime flat, go for the Prime full packer brisket. Then you get a point (the best part, IMO) and a flat.
You should dry brine for at least a day before you cook the brisket. After a day of brining, you can choose to inject if you want too. Make sure you use low-sodium broth. Because you don't want to much salt in the brisket. I don't inject my briskets, I find that it doesn't make that much of a difference. Unless you have a professional injection brine. They contain phosphates, which can really up the beefy boldness of a brisket as well as retain moisture.
If you have a flat that is anything less than prime I would wrap at about 175F. I don't generally wrap but If I do, I want to make sure that I have enough bark built up on the outside. This is is up to you, however. If bark isn't that big of a deal to you or if you are in a hurry you can wrap at 165 F and that will save on moisture but it will cost you that nice black bark everyone is always after with brisket.
I am not familiar with the tenderizer but what ever it is......I don't use it.
Good luck! Let us know how it goes.
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My advice is to keep it simple. So I'd get the egg to 275, no brine no injection. When the stall hits (around 160) wrap it. Take notes, so you can refer to them in your next brisky cook.Comment
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If you got the time Dry brine for at least 8 hours.(longer would be better) No need for the jaccard tenderizer the low and slow cook will do that for you. (otherwise the meat my turn to mush) I'm impatience so I wrap (also you have to wrap it to put it in the cooler for at least a couple hours, 3 being better so 2 birds with one stone!) If you can get a choice or better piece of meat I've found there is no need to inject (selects can benefit from a injection and a longer sit in the cooler after the cook) Temp? 225 to 275 is a good range I use to use 225 but now use 250. Internal temp is not as important as probe tender just start checking at 195 (earlier if its a prime cut) Oh 2 schools of thought one is wrap when yo hit the stall (165 ish) to help power through. 2nd is to wait until you are happy with the bark creation then wrap (I hear 185 is a good temp) Good luck Its pretty hard to mess up a brisket (believe me I've tried!) but even "Bad" Brisket is still pretty stinking good!!Comment
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Welcome to The Pit! Great info & options above!
Skip the jaccard. My only extra suggestions are leave a good 1/4" or slightly more of fat cap on it, don't trim too much of it. The other side, try to remove the silver skin areas and have it be mostly clean meat.
On the BGE, my suggestion is cook it fat cap down. The fat cap helps act as a buffer to the heat source and convection travel.
Don't be afraid to put the brisket on as the cooker's coming up to temp. I find this makes it a pinch easier to hit & maintain your target temp, vs getting to target then opening the lid and adding cold meat. 6 of one, half dozen of the other though.
Use a digital thermometer for cooking temp, don't just go by the cooker's dial gauge.
Oh, and we'd love to get an intro from you over in the Introduce Yourself channel when you get a minute. https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/fo...troductions-aa
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There are many paths to great brisket, as I'm sure you're finding out. I've done a few now on my BGE.
I dont dry brine. I do inject. I don't wrap. I use Meathead's BBBR, I love the nuances that it has beyond just salt and pepper. Don't worry about overwhelming the flavor of the beef, it will be plenty beefy.
Don't forget the drippings pan under the meat. (I have.) I also wrap my deflector plate with foil to make cleanup of drippings that miss the pan easier. And I put little wings of foil around the edges where the heat comes up, to help prevent hot spots there.
I let my temp vary from 225 to 275 depending on when I want the meat to be done. If I start at midnight, I do 225. If I start at 5AM, I'll use 275. (Brisket is inconvenient that way, a guy should be able to start it at some sane hour like between 10 and 2. No doubt that is part of its mystery.) Really this should be the least of your concerns. 200 is too low and 300 is too high.
The first brisket I did, I cooked to temp, 205. It was good but a little dry. All the others I've done to probe tenderness. I wondered what "like butter" meant. Don't worry, you'll know. If it gets up to about 207 and it isn't tender yet, pull it anyway. You might just have an ornery brisket. Wrap it and rest it anyhow, it will probably still be okay. But some briskets are just mean like that. So far any of mine like that (after the first one) have still been alright, not crumbly.
My main objection to briskets is that time. When I start 'em at midnight they're ready to cambro around 11AM, when I start 'em at 6AM they're ready to cambro around 5PM but I had to wake up at 4:30 to do all the prep, and that's too early.
I hope this helps. My feeling is that if you dry brine, skip the injection, wrap, and use just salt and pepper, your chances of having a great brisket will be about the same as if you did the opposite. Keep your eye on the temperature of the meat.Comment
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You are getting great advice. While I know there are two schools on this, I have a preference For the BGE on 12 hour plus cooks. First I clean out the egg. Then I put a stack of large charcoal on the fire grate. Then I fill in with medium and add a layer of medium, followed by the same procedure with small charcoal to the top of the fire box. I start a small fire in the center and when it is burning really well I put a fist size chunck of charcoal on the fire. I have gone 22 hours on 40 pounds of Pork butt with this method. I don't think you will go,that long, but it holds 225 really well. I use Royal Oak charcoal.
To Mosca 's time dilemma, I always plan to serve at noon so I start at 8:00pm the night before cooking at a steady 225. Otherwise I do a turbo Brisket at 300.
As others have said stay away from Select if at all possible. I have never done Prime, but have always gotten good results with Choice.Comment
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I am a HUGE Big Green Egg guy ... you my friend are spot on. TimOriginally posted by Mosca View PostComment
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Welcome to the Pit MzBGE ... 👍
You've received great advice from everyone above. We all have our own ways of doing things but they are all pretty similar. It sounds to me like you're fairly new to Kamado cooking if this is your first brisket on your BGE. There is a vast amount of very valuable information about Kamado cooking in the Pit. I would highly recommend you spend some time reading the various posts by CeramicChef regarding Kamado cooking. Here's one about how to simplify using wood chunks to smoke your food. There are others and all of them have great information in them.
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Thanks to all of you for taking the time to share your tips. Well, here's what I did... Brisket flat was USDA Choice from Costco. I did dry brine overnight. I first used this method on a Prime Rib and was sold. Wow, the flavor! I rubbed with mustard and applied rub just before placing on BGE. I used a disposable aluminum pan filled with some water under the brisket (not sure if needed). Set temp at 250. I thought I would try for a bit more bark and double wrapped at 175 until final temp of 203. I wrapped and rested for 1.5 hours.
Brisket was a bit dry in spots but had good pull on middle. Crumbled a bit on edges (which made a 👍🻠addition to the beans). Others really liked it and leftovers didn't make it 1 day so I suppose it was a success. I think I'm a bit more critical.
After this, I won't be afraid to try a Prime grade point or whole packer next time.
I'm really getting a lot of GREAT information from this site. Very glad I joined. Well worth it for sure!
Thanks again!
Last edited by MzBGE; January 30, 2017, 11:28 PM.Comment
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That looks like a flat. Wait until you tast the point!Comment
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Nice job MzBGE. Got your first brisket done and it looks great. I think the meat temp can be a good guide and get you in the neighborhood but combined with the poke test I find works very well. Not always in the bottom line result of brisket quality (ahem) but "every piece of meat is different".
Packer is great, I love the point and since we all have the time, why not make burnt ends. Cook a brisket for 16 hours and then give the burnt ends another 6 or more hours of cook time and how they still don't come out dry little bits of meat still amazes me. And as you found out, nothing wrong when you do have leftovers.
Great job and welcome to the Pit!Comment
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You can generally skip the water pan in a ceramic. They maintain a pretty humid cooking environment. But do keep something as a drip pan.Comment
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That sounds like how my first one came out, too. Every one since then has been better and better.Comment
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