Brisket

August 26, 2023

“The meat that separates the men from the boys”

“If you can cook a good brisket the rest of the meats will be
easy”

Brisket is from the breast or chest of the cow.

The following is informational and may differ from what you

learned in the class.

Some Basics
Half the battle in cooking a good brisket is knowing which one
to buy. Not all briskets are the
same. You don’t have the wiggle
room for error like you do with butts
and ribs.

Do not buy a small flat like they sell

in the supermarket. The only thing
that is good for is a crock pot.

Go to Sam’s, Costco or for a really

good cut your local butcher. You
must buy a whole brisket also
known as a packer’s cut.

These are larger in size (10 lbs. and up) and comes from an
older cow that has built up intermuscular fat unlike a younger
cow which is lean.

The whole brisket consists of

two muscles, the flat (A) and
the Point (B).
The grading in beef is based on the fat content between the
muscle fibers as shown above called marbling. The more
marbling the higher the grade, more tender and juicier.

The grades are select (junk), choice (OK for most of us) and
Prime (good for the guy who knows what he’s doing and has
some extra coin in his pocket) but as of this date Costco has
primes on sale from $ 2.99 to $3.49. This is more than half you
would spend at the local butcher.
Buy briskets that are 10 lbs. or over.

Choice and above, no select (you MUST know the grade).

Certified Black Angus is a better cut of choice.

(note- Certified Black Angus beef is an industry standard not a
USDA grade)

Prime is great but expensive (unless you go to Costco). Choice is

fine for the backyard Pro.
If you want to “blow your guests’ minds” order a Waygu, the
American equivalent to Japanese Kobe beef. It is very
EXPENSIVE and can be purchased online at Snake River Farms.

If you are cooking a Sam’s choice brisket keep your cooking

temperature no higher than 250 degrees.

If you’re cooking Prime or Waygu you can cook at 275 to 300. In

most cases Prime and Waygus cook faster than Choice.
A choice brisket in the 12 lbs. range will cook in about 9-11
hours at 250. Remember that is 250 at the cooking grate not
the thermometer. This timeline is also based on injecting the
brisket which seems to accelerate the cook time.

What to look for

(DO NOT settle for what is displayed in the counter. If it isn’t
right, have the butcher bring out several. If he won’t, leave the
store, don’t waste your money. Sometimes we need to look at
6 briskets before we get the right one at the right weight.

First look for briskets that are the weight you want.

Note-in this case bigger is better. Don’t be concerned that you

may have too much. After cooking, just slice it into servings
that fit your family and vacuum seal and freeze. When you
want brisket, start a pot of boiling water and throw the frozen
package in the water. Presto, you have BBQ for Tuesday dinner.
It keeps well.
When you are evaluating the briskets pick up each brisket by
the ends with the fat cap up and bend it. It should be flexible
and NOT stiff. If it is stiff “NG”!!!

Find a few that meet the criteria and put them on the side.

Now, turn the brisket over (opposite the fat cap) and look at
the amount of marbling (fat running through the meat fibers).
The more marbling the better. Just like picking out a good
steak.

Take the one with the most flex and most marbling.

Prep
Trimming-
Remove the fat cap.

The fat cap does not help in the cooking process:

It extends the cook time.
Doesn’t allow the salt layer to penetrate the meat and do
its thing.
Prevents a smoke ring.
You waste your seasonings since most people don’t eat
fat.
 It does not “melt” into the meat and make it juicy, it just
gets in the way of the cooking process.

Remove the fat around the point and the flat where they
connect but only that what you can see if leaving the point and
flat connected.

“Some cooks like to separate the point from the flat because
they do cook at different rates. To separate, find the fat line
between the two. Slide your knife along the fat line and
continue cutting until the two are separated. If there is any
extra fat remove it”.

Inject-

We like to use competition grade injectables specific for brisket

(Butcher’s Prime Injection). The
injectable is comprised of vegetable
phosphates which are moisture
retainers. They retain the natural
“myowater” in the brisket.

The key to injecting is to inject evenly throughout the brisket.

Some will inject with the grain and some straight down into the
brisket where the fat cap was removed. Either way, we
recommend looking at the brisket as a piece of graph paper and
inject every 1” to 1 ¼” square area.

Brining vs. Injecting-

Brining and injecting are a process to retain moisture in the
meat and to add flavor.

A typical brine is basically 1 cup of salt to 1 gallon of water. The

problem with brining is the salt will only penetrate the meat
about a few centimeters. So, it really doesn’t get far enough
into the meat to do its job. We use brining for parts, like wings,
breasts, chops, etc.
Injecting is better for larger cuts of meat since it can get way
into the center. Letting the meat sit overnight will allow the
injection to migrate throughout the entire cut. We like to inject
butts, briskets, whole turkeys and chickens etc.

Now, if you decide to brine a brisket you are essentially making

corn beef and if you add smoke you end up with pastrami.
After injecting and before seasoning,
make a small cut at the thinnest part of
the flat cutting off a small piece
ACROSS THE GRAIN. Use this as your
guide when slicing the brisket after the
it is cooked. This way when the brisket
is cooked you know what direction to
cut your slices. It can be hard to see the grain when seasoned
and cooked. If you slice with the grain the slices will be tough.
Seasoning-
Beef loves salt, pepper, garlic and if you like, a seasoning with a
SLIGHT kick.

Follow our formula above for

layering leaving out the sweet. In
many cases we will use two layers
verses three. The first seasoning
should be high in salt. You know
this if the first ingredient is salt,
the dominant ingredient in the
seasoning. Layer on another
seasoning with some garlic and pepper. Now, if you want to
get a better “bark” you can add a LITE layer of sweet.

Wrap the brisket up and let it sit overnight in the fridge. This
allows the injectable to become evenly distributed throughout
the meat and allows the salt to penetrate and denature the
muscle tissue and push the sugars in the muscle to the surface.

Fire Management-
The following day start up your charcoal or gas grill and bring it
up to your desired cooking temperature (250 to 275). If your
smoker or grill does not want to cook at these temps just let it
settle in where it is comfortable provided you are not pushing
way over 300 degrees.

If you are on a charcoal grill and adding chunks of wood for

smoke, you need to wait around 10 to 15 minutes to get clean
smoke. When the wood is first put on you will get a billowing
white smoke. This is bad smoke. You need to wait until the
smoke stream cleans up to white blue.
“We like to use 60% to 75% pecan to 40% to 25% cherry as the
wood. You don’t need a smoker to make this work. On a gas
grill, we use hickory smoke generators and that will get you
close to the real deal.”

Once you have clean smoke go to the fridge and put the brisket
in the smoker or grill. Cold meat accepts (surface of the meat)
more smoke than room temp meat.
Cooking-
“The cooking process requires that you cook indirect. On a gas
grill you will have some burners off and some on. You put the
brisket opposite the heat. If the grill/smoker temperature is
“spiking up” put a tin of water on the off burners under the
cooking grate. Water is a great absorber of heat and will help
to lower temp. This also applies to charcoal/wood smokers”.

Open a beer or pour a bourbon and wait till the internal temp
of the meet reaches 160 degrees. Layout two layers of tin foil
and place the brisket on the foil. If you like, you can squirt
Parkay Liquid Margarine on top of the brisket. This just adds
some moisture. Wrap it up tightly in the foil and place back on
the smoker/grill.

The next benchmark is when the internal temperature reaches

around 200 degrees. The mistake the novice cook makes is he’ll
take the brisket off too early because he is worried about
temperature. Forget temperature at this stage. We are now
cooking by FEEL. Probe the brisket through the thickest part of
the flat and if the probe doesn’t feel like it’s going through
butter wait 15 minutes. Probe again and if you still feel
resistance wait another 15 minutes. No one can tell exactly
what temperature a brisket is done. It could be 203 to 214. At
some point the probe will go in with ease and your brisket is
ready.

Open one corner of the foil and allow the “carryover” heat to
escape for 5 minutes. Wrap the brisket in a 3rd layer of foil just
to keep the juices from leaking out.
Place the brisket in a cooler and take up the air space with
beach towels, newspaper etc. and let it rest for about 2 hours
or more.

When ready to serve, reserve the liquid in the foil wrap. If you
have a fat separator put the liquid in the separator to remove
the fat.

Slice the brisket following your sample cut (cross grain). Slices
should be about a ¼” thick. Either dredge slices through the
reserved liquid or pour small amount over top of the slices.

That’s it!!!

“Lard Have Mercy”!!

Thanks and Enjoy!!