Smokey, peppery, and dark as the night sky….brisket is the king of Texas barbecue. Here are some tips to bring that flavor to your own backyard.
What is a Brisket?
First of all, brisket is beef. It comes from the lower chest of the cow or steer, just below the shoulder. It is actually made up of two separate muscles: The Flat and the Point. The “flat” is a leaner muscle, while the “point” is a much fattier muscle. The two muscle groups overlap each other, with their muscle fibers running in different directions. The two muscles are separated by a thick, hard layer of fat, called the “deckel”. The varying levels of fat between the two muscle groups make briskets particularly more challenging to cook, since each muscle cooks a bit differently as the fat is rendered out.
What kind of brisket should I buy?
For this style of brisket cookery, we are going to be using a “packer cut” brisket. This means that both the “flat” and the “point” are left intact as one whole brisket. You can often find briskets that have been broken down into separate cuts for making corned beef, pastrami, or other roasts. Traditional Texas style brisket uses the whole, untrimmed brisket. If you have a local butcher shop, ask them for a packer cut brisket. Some bigger grocery markets may also carry a few of these big boys as well.
What will I need for my Brisket cooking adventure?
- Some sort of smoker with indirect heat capability. For this cook we used the Austin XL pellet smoker from Pitboss Grills. This is a great option for the casual barbecue enjoyer. Check them out here.
- A good sized cutting board. This cut of meat is BIG….make sure you have room to slice it up. Check out this cutting board.
- A good, sharp trimming knife. You will be cutting a lot of fat off of the brisket to get a nice, consistent fat cap. A sharp knife will make quick work of this. I use the Benchmade Meatcrafter. You can find cheaper models to fit your budget like this one.
- A good spray bottle for spritzing the meat during the cook.
- Un-waxed butcher paper to wrap brisket. (Not completely necessary)
- A good instant-read thermometer for checking internal temperatures of the meat. I like this one.
- Some sort of water pan to place inside the smoker. Preferably some sort of metal.
- A cooler big enough to hold the finished brisket while it rests. This is the one that I currently use.
- A good knife for slicing the cooked brisket. This is what I would recommend.
Watch this video for a detailed explanation.
Texas Style Brisket on the Pellet Smoker
Ingredients
- 1/4 Cup Kosher Salt, Course
- 1/4 Cup Black Pepper, Course
- 4 Tbsp Yellow Mustard
- 1/2 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Each Whole, untrimmed beef brisket
Instructions
- Preheat your smoker to 275 degrees.
- Place a water pan as close as possible to the heat source of your smoker and fill with water.
- Trim your brisket of all excess fat, leaving a 1/4" coverage across the top "fat cap" of brisket. Remove excess fat from deckel area. Trim excess chunks of fat and silver skin from bottom side.
- Rub the brisket all over with the yellow mustard.
- Mix the kosher salt and black pepper and coat your brisket in an even, liberal coating. If more seasoning is needed, mix the kosher salt and black pepper in a 1:1 ratio, by volume.
- Place the brisket on the smoker in the best location on your smoker, avoiding laying it directly over the heat source, if possible.
- Roughly every 30 minutes, spray your brisket with the apple cider vinegar mixed with equal parts water.
- Let the brisket cook until the internal temperature reaches 155-165 degrees, or until the internal temperature slows or stops rising.
- Wrap the brisket tightly in un-waxed butcher paper.
- Continue cooking the brisket until an internal temperature of 195-200 degrees is achieved, or a probe or fork easily pieces the meat when poked.
- Once proper cooking doneness is achieved, remove from smoker and place in an empty cooler to rest and allow the internal temperature to slowly lower to a manageable temperature. Between 1-3 hours of rest time is recommended.
- After proper rest period is achieved, unwrap and drain off any excess drippings and save for future use.
- Slice the meat against the grain, changing directions as the point and flat muscles begin to overlap.
