Tender & Juicy Smoked Brisket
The golden rule for cooking tender juicy smoked brisket is “slow and low.” That's where the general consensus ends. Pitmasters will tell you best way to tenderize a large piece of beef is time over a low flame.
Before I start a full-on brisket fight, let me say Brisket is cooked many ways. Some even say you can marinade, tenderize, and cook over a high flame. Oh yeah, with the fat side up over Match Light. For competition cooking, fat side down is best for consistent results. Fat-side down encourages a more pronounced smoke ring. A smoke ring refers to the thin ribbon of pink-colored meat between the crust and the interior brown-colored meat.
Different grill makers tell you how brisket should be smoked on THEIR rigs. I take their suggestions with a certain amount of tongue-in-cheek. The big commercial smokers are built using thick steel and fireboxes, and use wood for smoking. At the end of the day, Brisket is delicious and when tender, unbeatable. There are some generally accepted smoked brisket principles and if you don't stray too far, the results are worth the work.
Pellet Grills
New to the cooking scene are pellet grills. These grills have made smoking brisket less of a challenge. These grills cook with indirect heat, which doesn't give you the heavy grill marks you get with a gas or charcoal grill. However, some models can also cook with direct heat for grilling and searing, like a standard grill does. Pellet grills produce less smoke and therefore, lower levels of PAHs, contributing to a healthier grilling option. Pellet grills, on the other hand, generally need an outlet to function, so they're not portable. Moving them a lot may cause damage to electrical parts, and they tend to be heavy. It's also worth noting that, because they use electricity, they're not meant for wet-weather use unless covered. You can load them up with meat and pellets and they do the work for you.
Tender Juicy Smoked Brisket GASP
When cooking a full packer (12-14 lbs.)
- Use our Cookin Wit' Gus D.D.T. Rub
- Smoking Time: 8-9 hours
- Temperature: 225
- Fat Cap Down
- Internal Temperature: 205 degrees
- Wrapped at 165-170 degrees in Butcher Paper
- Rest for 1 hour
Flipping the brisket does even out the exposure of the meat to heat. Airflow inside any smoker is uneven and letting the brisket sit there in one position the whole time will cause part of it to dry out simply because of this unevenness. Ideally, flip and rotate your brisket at least once during the cooking.
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"Life's Good When You're Cookin Wit' Gus"
