Franklin runs his pits at temperatures ranging from 255 degrees to over 300. Lewis starts cooking his brisket at 125 degrees, gradually increasing the heat to finish at 325 Mr. The pros use complicated formulas for heat management. You needn’t hover as the meat smokes, but you should check on it about every 45 minutes. “This creates a humid cooking environment, which helps the smoke adhere to the meat,” Mr. Many pitmasters place a bowl of hot water in the smoke chamber. This makes the brisket easier to handle and keeps the lean bottom from drying out. Form it by wrapping a piece of cardboard the size of the brisket in foil, then perforating it with an ice pick to let the smoke in. I like to cook packer briskets on a cardboard smoking platform - a technique inspired by Mr. Add the wood gradually, a couple of chunks or handfuls of chips every hour: You want to kiss the meat with smoke, not smother it. Buy it in chunks or chips if using chips, soak them in water for 30 minutes, then drain, to slow combustion. Texans favor oak (and sometimes mesquite), while Kansas Citians like to burn apple or hickory. When using a kettle grill, water smoker or kamado-style cooker, fuel it with natural lump charcoal, adding hardwood chunks or chips to generate wood smoke.
Pitmasters speak reverentially of “blue smoke,” a thin, wispy smoke filled with flavor-rich phenols. Wood smoke is the soul of barbecued brisket. The second phase of cooking finishes rendering the fat and converting the tough collagen into tender gelatin. This produces the smoke ring, a much-admired reddish band just below the surface - the result of a chemical reaction between the nitrogen dioxide in the smoke and the myoglobin in the meat. In the first, you set the bark and flavor the meat with wood smoke. Lewis suggests placing a metal pan with lit charcoal and wood chunks on the grate next to the meat.Ĭooking a brisket is a two-phase process. (It’s hard to run one at 250 degrees, and it’s even harder to generate enough wood smoke.) If you do use a gas grill, Mr. I’ve never had much luck barbecuing a brisket on a gas grill. Other popular options these days are a pellet grill or an electric smoker, both of which do a fine job of maintaining a steady stream of smoke and consistent temperature, but sometimes deliver a tad less flavor than a charcoal burner. This is to say that you can make great brisket in a common backyard charcoal burner. Lewis began his career with a smoker he rigged from a trash can. Franklin cooked his first brisket in an inexpensive New Braunfels, while Mr. Burt Bakman of Slab in Los Angeles started on a Big Green Egg. Durney cooked his first brisket on a Weber Smokey Mountain.
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My preference is equal parts coarse salt and cracked black peppercorns, with a spoonful of red-pepper flakes to notch up the heat. Lewis slathers his meat with a mixture of mustard and pickle juice before applying the seasonings, to help them adhere to the meat and add an extra layer of flavor. Billy Durney of Hometown Bar-B-Que favors a four-to-one mixture of 16-mesh (coarsely ground) black pepper and kosher salt, which he applies a few hours ahead to give them time to penetrate the meat.
Most brisket pros use a simple seasoning of salt and pepper (often referred to as a Dalmatian rub, on account of its speckled appearance). Trim off the excess fat, but leave at least a quarter-inch layer to keep the meat moist during cooking. For the ultimate brisket experience, order a Wagyu brisket online from Mister Brisket or Snake River Farms. Prime brisket, favored by the professionals, is more generously marbled than Choice, but Choice delivers ample flavor, too. (Sometimes you’ll find portions of packer briskets containing both point and flat they cook in eight to 10 hours.) For a more manageable cut, buy a four- to five-pound brisket flat, available at most supermarkets you can smoke it in six to eight hours.
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Special-order it from your butcher, and plan to spend a full day preparing it. Choose a full packer brisket if you’re feeling ambitious.