BBQ Brisket

 

BBQ Brisket is the toughest cut of meat to cook. Some say its better to cook the left handed brisket because it is not the side the cow got up on every time and make it tougher.

Texas is the brisket capital of the world. Kansas started cooking it later. Nothing in BBQ taste any better than a Brisket  A brisket flavor profile is beef, beef and more beef.  Injected with beef flavor, rub down with beef flavor, and cooked in beef flavor. There is a short distance between championship Beef Brisket and pot roast.  Championship Brisket is suppose to pull apart with a small amount of resistance and when you pull on it. It should make a spider web looking pattern on the brisket. That is when you know when its done.

Cooking Brisket

  1. Choose a good brisket, Snake River Farms Wagyu Kobe Beef Black X #1 for competition. Angus Beef #2 then Walmart Brands, Sam’s Club, Publix are a far second.
  2. Brisket have to be aged in the refrigerator. At a certain temperature, for a certain number of days. If your willing to spend enough money you can get Snake River Farms to age your brisket exactly like you want it.
  3. Once you choose a brisket you have to trim it. I have a least 20 videos on trimming a brisket. Some want to take the whole fat cap off. Some what to leave half of it on there. Some want to leave it all on there. Fat Cap up or Down.
  4. I’ve seen most cooks take half the fat cap off and cut the fat off the end of the Brisket. The Burnt ends come off the large end of the brisket.
  5. There are two parts of a Brisket. The top and The Flat. The Top is where the burnt ends come from. Cook the Brisket before you separate the top and flat. Fat is the most flavoring part of meat. Marbling it the key to flavor. After you trim the brisket like some of the videos above, inject the brisket.
  6. What to inject with? Butcher BBQ Injection, Kosmo Q are the best in the business. Some Others Moore’s Marinade, Dale’s Marinade  Start off right just hit the link and order what you want.
  7. Inject at an angle every inch apart in a matrix and make sure you don’t got through the bottom. Some people want to inject from the side only its all about not letting it leak.  Hold your hand on each hole as you go along the Brisket will actually heal a little. Some people add bacon fat to the injection I’m not sure how good that would be.
  8. Once you got it injected its time to rub it down. It needs to be a beef base rub not a red rub.
  9. Once you rub it down put it in a 3 gallon or a 5 gallon Zip Lock Bag. They sell them at Lowe’s.  Put it in the ice cooker, refrigerator over night. Put them in there at least a few hours.
  10. When you get it out let it come back to room temperature and coat it with another coat of rub. Then put it on the smoker at 300 degrees. Leave it there for 4 hours. Some people will put it in a pan and cook it with no tin foil over the pan.  Then take it out. Don’t look at it as it will cause your temp to vary and change your cooking time.
  11. Watch out that you do not punch any wholes in the brisket crust. Ever piece of BBQ will crust and right under the surface is all the juice. If you puncture or break that you’ll see the juice just run out of it.
  12. When you take it out set it on two large pieces of tin foil. Sprinkle another coat of rub on the brisket top and bottom. In this case use tin foil as your pan. Tin foil will keep the marinade touching the whole brisket and a pan will simply let the bottom set in the marinade. Roll the 4 corners of the tin foil up as to make it into a bowl. Pour in Guava Nectar, the liquid you had in the pan. Put the rest of your Butcher BBQ injection into the tin foil.  Try to fill the foil till the liquid is over the brisket.
  13. The Stall- While cooking your Brisket and the temperature is rising the liquid in the meat will go from an even distribution to the outside edge of the Brisket. The transition of this liquid will cause the Brisket Temp to appear to stall. Don’t raise the Temperature of your pit just ignore it and let it cook.
  14. Everyone I’ve ever seen always cooks the fat cap up. Now take two pieces of tin foil to reinforce each other and put it on the tin foil like a lid. roll it into each side of the lower tin foil to make a bowl and leave the two corner with a little vent. Put it back in the cooker at 275 degrees. Leave it cook for 2 hours.
  15. The comes the tricky part. Take it back out and separate the top from the flat. There is a crossing piece of fat between the flat and the top. Cut down that fat to separate the two. Video A Then take the top and cut it into burnt ends.
  16. Put the burnt ends you cut up into a pan and add some of the juice from the cook. Then put some of your favorite BBQ Sauce on the burn ends and put them back into the smoker with no foil just in a pan.
  17. Then take it out and put tin foil over it and put it in the Cambro and let it rest for 15-30 minutes. Its about juice being on the outside edge moving back into the center of the meat.
  18. Then take the fat off the flat and cut into serving pieces of brisket. Put them in a competition box or put them on a pan then re-hydrate them with the juice out of the foil. That juice will bring it back to temperature and keep moist.
  19. Now get the burnt ends out and put them in the competition box or put them on the serving pan. You could chop up what ever pieces you have left to serve them also.
  20. The ideal finish temperature of a brisket is between 190-210 degrees.
  21. Lot of talk about how much BBQ Sauce to put on Brisket some say none if its got enough injection and rub. Thats up to you.
  22. If you really want to learn about Pro BBQ Learn from the Pro’s Pit Bulls Up in Smoke Online BBQ School. Danny Coogle has his process down to a real detailed process. This is just general information.

Video A                                                   Cambro