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In my opinion, there are two types of smoked briskets: Good ones and Bad ones. It's basically as simple as that. If you get a bad one, you will know it when your jaw gets worn out from chewing. You see, I think that the most important characteristic of a good brisket is it's tenderness, because when it is smoked right, it tends to be tender and taste good, too. The only exception is when it tastes like pastrami, such as you will find in a lot of restaurants. I have smoked a lot of briskets, and I have definitely screwed some of them up, and at first it was just because I didn't have a clue about what I was doing. There are a lot of websites that explain how to smoke a brisket, but I haven't found any that go into enough detail about the subject to be of any real help. This site should help anyone that is just learning about smoking briskets, because I try to go into detail and explain what I am doing and why I am doing it. First of all, I should tell you what kind of results I want to achieve when I smoke a brisket. I want a juicy, (not greasy), tender brisket with a sweet smokey taste, and I want it to be as simple, easy, and inexpensive as possible. I am going to show you how I smoke a brisket, which as you will see is very simple and straightforward. There are lots of people that dedicate their lives to smoking perfect briskets, and yes, that meat will make you want to slap your mama, but just ask them how they do it and they might slap you! Well, I don't have any brisket secrets, and I will show you how I do it from start to finish, with a lot of picture thumbnails and links to useful information that you can click on for reference purposes. Before you start, please review this USDA site for some information on handling meat and food safety. |
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The first step in the process of smoking a brisket is going to the store and picking one out. As I said at first, I want this to be as cheap and easy as possible, so I always pick out a cut that is already trimmed and ready to go into the marinade. I prefer one that is about 10 pounds. The one's I get are relatively cheap, about $1.50 a pound. You can get higher grade briskets that cost a lot more, but I like the challenge of turning a tough, cheap piece of meat into something that tastes like filet mignon, with a smoke ring!
If you get one that has a lot of fat on it, it needs to be dressed up before marinating it. Trim as much fat off the top as you can, and remember that the best place for the fat is inside the meat, not on top of it, so pick one out that looks like it has a lot of fat in it (marbling). For detailed instructions on how to trim a brisket, and tons of other useful brisket info, click here.
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The next thing to do is to marinate the brisket. This is a very important step, and you should set aside 48 to 72 hours for this process. You will need a few things to do this correctly:
All you do is place the brisket in the tub, slather about 2/3 of the bottle of BBQ sauce over it, then pour about 2/3 of the coke into the container, and squirt a few table spoons of the lemon and lime juice into it. You will need to let this soak in the refrigerator for at least 48 hours, but no more than 72. If you leave it in too long the meat will get too loose and start falling apart. The reason why I use the coke and the juice is because their high acid content helps soften the meat, but it doesn't really flavor the meat. Later on, we will be using the marinade to baste the meat while it is smoking, so I add the BBQ sauce to help with the flavor of the marinade, and to balance out the mustard taste that comes from the rub. I add the rest of the coke after 48 hours.
You should turn the meat over every 24 hours so it marinates evenly.
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When the brisket has soaked for the appropriate amount of time, it is time to take it out and apply the rub. The main reason for using the rub is to protect the meat from burning and to help seal in the juices while it is being smoked. The last step I take is to remove all the excess rub after it is done smoking, but some of the flavor of the rub will seep into the meat, which is why I use mild flavored spices in the rub, because as I said earlier, I want the brisket to taste like smoked meat when it is done, and not have a bunch of other flavors mingling in with it. The mustard will transfer its flavor to the meat more than anything else, so I use regular mustard instead of a strong Dijon type. To make the rub you will need these things:
In a medium sized bowl, mix about two cups of the sugar, about 3 or 4 table spoons of the paprika, and about a table spoon of ginger. The exact proportions don't matter much, just get it how you like it.
Next, take the brisket out of the tub and place it on the lid. Slather the mustard all over the top and sides of the brisket, this gives the rub something to stick to. Make sure and keep the marinade.
Now apply the rub to the top and sides of the brisket, making sure you get all of it covered.
At this point, you should put the brisket back into the refrigerator and give it time for the juices in the meat to soak into the rub. It will turn into sort of a paste. It is not necessary to apply any rub to the bottom (fatty) side. Now is a good time to go ahead and get the marinade ready to be used for basting. All you have to do is stir it up in the tub and pour 2 or 3 cups of it into a sauce pan and boil it for 10 to 15 minutes to kill all the raw meat germs. After it cools, put it back in the fridge. When it's time to baste the brisket, a spray bottle is handy, but if you don't have one just use a paper towel to dribble the marinade over the brisket. You shouldn't use a brush. |
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Now go ahead and fire up your smoker. I usually use either hickory or pecan wood for the smoke. Hickory has a much stronger flavor than pecan, but pecan is really a lot easier to work with if you have a small-ish wood box on your smoker like mine. I always like to split some wood down into smaller size pieces and soak them in a bucket of water. When you throw these on the fire, they really smoke up, and they are also good to cool down the fire if it gets too hot. I always start off with charcoal and then start adding wood once the coal is burning. I get my wood at Academy Sports. It costs $10 a bag, which seems expensive, but it's worth it if you are too lazy to go out to the woods and chop down a tree! If you can't find a suitable wood supplier in your area, there are mail order sites that will ship some to you. I recommend this one, because they offer free shipping on orders over $25.
Once the smoker is going, go ahead and place the brisket on the grill. Put it on the side of the smoker that is away from the fire.
I place it with the thick end of the brisket towards the fire, fat side down. If you cook it with the fat side up, the fat will soak back into the brisket, which makes the meat far too greasy for my liking. Once it is in position, there is no need to flip it or rotate it, it will cook just fine the way it is. A general rule of thumb is to smoke it for an hour and a half per pound. Since I am smoking a 10 pound brisket, that would mean it needs to cook for at least 15 hours, but you have to keep in mind other variables, such as how closely you regulate the temperature, how many times you open the lid to baste it and so forth. You should try your best to keep the temperature between 200 and 225 degrees. Keep the heat down, because the easiest way to screw up a brisket is to cook it too fast. Every time you open the lid, you will add 15-20 minutes to the time it needs to cook.
If you are new to using a smoker, then you may find that regulating the temperature in a smoker is the most difficult thing about smoking a brisket. All I can say is that it just takes practice, but the more you do it the easier this part will become. In a nutshell, you should smoke a 10 pound brisket about 16 to18 hours. Once the internal temperature of the brisket reaches 180 it is done.
You will need to keep the brisket moist by basting it. Wait until it has been in the smoker for about 3 hours before you baste it for the first time or you could wash off the rub. After this you should apply more at intervals of 2 and then 3 hours, and don't apply any more when you are within 2 hours of taking the brisket out. If you baste it too often, the marinade tends to block out the smoke, so make sure that the external layer of the brisket appears dry before you add more to it. I should also mention at this point that if your smoker is out in the open and it starts raining on it, the brisket will not turn out right. You will not be able to keep the temperature regulated properly, no matter how much wood you use, so you should have a fly tarp handy to keep the rain off it. |
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Now that the brisket is is ready to be taken out, it is still not ready to eat. The last step is to cool it down properly and give the juices time to reconstitute throughout the brisket. I prepare for this last step by laying out a few sheets of saran wrap and placing the brisket on top of them.
Then I spray it down with distilled water, and finish wrapping it up with the saran wrap.
Then I wrap it in tin foil and place it in a cooler. It is still very hot at this point and will continue cooking in its own juices. You should leave it alone for 2 hours.
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After two hours, take it out, and using a paper towel, rub off as much of the excess rub as you can, then cut it up and eat! I hope this helps!
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