How to Smoke a Brisket! | Chuds BBQ

welcome back to chud's bbq everybody my name is bradley robinson and today i'm going to give you my top five tips for the perfect brisket cook coming up if you saw last week's video i talked all about my five tips for how to trim a brisket like a true texas pit master professional we discussed the quality of meat you're looking for and how to really set yourself up for success when it comes to cooking a brisket by removing all the meat that's going to burn up and any fat that's not going to render and how to really give ourselves the best chance for brisket perfection so now it's time to get that thing seasoned up throw it on the pit talk all about little tips and tricks you can do along the way to ensure that your brisket cook goes according to plan so all that being said that's what we're doing today and it is going to be smoky this is our brisket this is the brisket we trimmed up in last week's video looking pretty good nice shape to a good amount of fat cap on there nice and aerodynamic not the best brisket i've ever seen it's kind of thick in the middle it might ball up a little bit and of course we got this horrible gash on the back very unfortunate but again if this is the brisket i could find then you're probably gonna find one just like it so because this is already trimmed up we don't really need to do anything to it except talk about our rub when it comes to brisket rubs you can pretty much do whatever you want but texas tradition dictates that salt and pepper is all you need and i'm a whole hearted believer in that especially if you're new to cooking brisket i highly recommend just starting out with salt and pepper to reduce the amount of variables you have going into it and once you have your cooked down in your bark where you like it then you can start playing around with more flavors like seasoned salts or paprika garlic powder that kind of stuff but you want to be careful because the more powdery ingredients you add the more cakey the rub's going to get and you may end up creating a barrier that's going to make it harder for the smoke and the salt to penetrate the meat because at the end of the day that's really what we're after is the salt to add great flavor and the pepper to be there to have a wonderful bark and also after a 12 15 24 hour cook the nuances of onion powder really aren't going to shine through as much as you may think so today we're going with just salt and pepper kosher salt is what you're after when cooking a brisket it's got a bigger granule size than table salt which is going to make it a lot easier from a visual perspective to not over salt your brisket and it's going to mix better with the pepper because it's roughly the same size as the pepper we're going to use pepper 16 mesh black pepper is the pepper of choice here in texas it's kind of a coarse table grind looking pepper again it's the same size as the salt makes for a really great rub and this is pre-ground so it's not nearly as strong as fresh cracked and these two things is really all you need this is diamond crystal kosher salt as opposed to morton's they're very similar morton seems like it's got a little bit bigger granule sizes and it's got some anti-caking agents in it where this is just pure salt i've used both in the past i prefer diamond crystal but again just pick a salt get used to it learn how to use it and you'll be a-okay when it comes to ratios of salt to pepper a lot of people like to do 50 50 equal parts salt to pepper which does work well but i have over salted briskets using a 50 50 rub because you have to be a little bit sparing with it and i've also found that you're not going to get nearly as solid of a bark as if you use what i like to do which is two parts 16 mesh black pepper one two to one part diamond crystal kosher salt the reason i like this is because we can go on as heavy as we want with this stuff and we're never gonna over salt the brisket also having this extra pepper on there is really going to help the bark formation you'll see just a few hours into this cook with all this pepper on there it's going to start looking nice and barky and it may seem like a lot of pepper going onto a brisket but again this is pre-ground pepper that's going to be cooked at around 300 degrees for at least 12 hours so all the spicy and fragrant notes are gonna dissipate and we're gonna be left with some wonderful flavor a lot of people like to use slabs on their brisket to help the rub stick but in my experience i've done it a lot of different ways and i find it to be unnecessary especially with something like mustard which is kind of the go-to slather around these parts it can tend to cook onto the brisket and again create that barrier we were talking about earlier where it's gonna be more difficult for that salt and smoke to penetrate the meat often times in the past too if i put too thick of a mustard layer on here it can kind of cook up and the bark will start flaking off towards the end of the cook which is not what we're after but if you turned your brisket several days in advance and it was starting to dry out a little bit then a slather can always help honestly i think a light mist of some water is probably your best bet it's going to make it tacky enough for the rub to stick and will eventually evaporate away leaving just salt and pepper on your brisket oil is another great option i like that because it's going to help to bark out a little bit kind of get you that crispy bark as it becomes one with the fat and kind of fries on top if you're cooking really hot but nine times out of ten i'm pulling one of these out of the cryovac giving it a trim and it's still nice and tacky i can tell just by looking at this one it's still nice and tacky and i don't think we're going to have any problems with the rub falling off so again two parts cc mesh black pepper one part diamond crystal kosher salt and we are just going to go on and hit this thing with a nice heavy coating starting on the back side which is the meat side that's in an effort to preserve our presentation side because when we flip this thing over if the table is kind of moist from the underside of this meat this rub may get smeared a little bit which is fine on the underside because that's not really where the bark is that we're going to be aiming for but as i mentioned because this is so pepper heavy we can really get away with putting on as much as this thing will take and we have no fear of this thing over salting rub sticks perfectly same deal on the top side folks nice heavy coating all the way around and please don't forget the sides see a lot of people forgetting their sides don't want to do that especially right here that's where those burn ends are going to be you want to make sure you have plenty of rub on there again you can get away with putting a lot more rub on this thing with that two to one highly recommend it kind of a fool proof brisket rub pat it in don't want to rub it again that'll mess up the presentation a little bit and we'll get those sides all right y'all that is my very long-winded tip number one stick with salt and pepper looking good to me let's fire up the pit shout out barbecue dragon thanks for sending me this fan very convenient probably would help if i uh flipped in the right direction tip number two is all about getting your fire started i always recommend people starting out with a little bed of charcoal and that's because throughout this cook that coal bed is gonna be our main source of heat while our wood is gonna be our main source of smoke while also replenishing the coal bed but starting out with a pile of lit charcoal is really gonna help those logs ignite immediately i'm sure you can hear them crackling away back there and you're gonna get a lot less dirty smoke right off the bat and get this thing up to consistent temps a lot quicker so i got about a half chimney's worth of charcoal in there or so and i threw in three really dense logs and the reason i like to start out with dense logs is because the first four hours or so of this cook is when this brisket is really gonna absorb the most smoke flavor before that bark gets a little too crusty so i like to rock it around 250 degrees really nice and smoky for the first few hours just to make sure we get enough smoke flavor on this brisket and because cookers like mine are very convective and have a lot of airflow running through you can cook a brisket on here and be left wanting more smoked flavor so to address that i recommend starting out with some denser logs in the early stages of your cook and you don't need to be too afraid of dirty smoke at least for the first few hours but if you did it for the whole time you definitely end up with an acrid brisket so on the pit we go right in the middle here we're going on fat cap up point towards the fire and we're just gonna shut her down let this thing come up to temp again we're aiming for around 250 degrees and nice and smoky so like i talked about in my fire management video for how to cook on an offset when i'm putting wood on this thing i'm really aiming for good heat and good convection and not too much smoldering the way you get smoldering is if you were to take a log a big flat log like this and just put it straight on top of the coals you're not going to have great air flow and that's how you're going to get a lot of dirty smoke so what i like to do is put one log on one side of the firebox and then another one or two at an angle like this that way it's kind of smoldering on this side giving us a lot of good smoke but right here there's an air gap between the coal and the log which is going to promote a lot of flame and a lot of great convection kind of the best of both worlds of heat and smoke but that being said in these early stages if you really want to get some extra smoke on your brisket you can just flip them both put them right on top and that's going to give you a lot of smoke but you might have a hard time maintaining temperatures like that from here or now we're just going to keep an eye on the temps and on the logs themselves and once they look like they're pretty toast and about to break down that's when we're going to go in and throw in another log or two it's all about trying to predict how much heat we have left in a log before throwing another one so we don't have major temp swings this video is brought to you by hellofresh hellofresh delivers fresh quality produce from the farm to your door in less than a week and now has 30 dinner recipes to choose from every week which is the most choices of any meal kit they also offer different cuisines like the new mediterranean recipes which allow me to cook new and exciting foods that i likely wouldn't have otherwise the best part about hellofresh has got to be the convenience having all the ingredients in exact proportions shipped right to my door makes cooking weeknight meals so much faster 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just four hours looking good little bit of the pull-up on that side but not bad at all that'll flatten itself back out and yeah i've been rocking right around 250 this whole time haven't done much at all this is my first time lifting the lid and that brings us to tip number three which is keep it simple you know i've got no water in that water pan i haven't done any spritzing i don't plan on doing any spritzing no fancy rubs or slathers no blocking log all those things are just not entirely necessary for a perfect brisket cook especially if you're a beginner to brisket i highly recommend just keeping it as simple as possible again to eliminate any and all variables so you can really just dial in your fire management that smoke flavor you like work on your trim and see how your first cook goes if you've got edges that are really crispy and dried up then maybe you want to start spritzing along the way if it's cooking super unevenly you may want to add a water pan if that back end is getting really hit hard you may want to add a blocking log but it's just like trying your food before you add salt to it you know what i mean you want to see what you can actually cook with the bare minimum before you start adding other tips and tricks along the way if you want to get the best results in my opinion so that being said we're going to bump that temp up to about 275 between 275 and 300 for the next several hours until we get up to an internal temperature of 180 degrees all right this brisket has come up to an internal temp of about 180 degrees and that is exactly where we want it because that means it's time to wrap this thing up so basically what happens is when the brisket hits an internal temperature of about 160 165 and enters the stall you may have heard of it and that's when the brisket is pushing out the majority of its water content and much like us we sweat to cool us off the same thing is happening to that brisket the water is evaporating out of that brisket causing evaporative cooling which is why around 160 170 degrees the brisket seems to not want to rise up in temperature but once it's done pushing out all that moisture it's going to start rising really quickly and that's when we want to wrap it up because if we wrap it too soon we're going to collect all that moisture in our wrap and it's going to steam the brisket and start braising it and that's going to be no good and if we wait too long to wrap it it might just get too crispy and that lean end might get a little too toasted when it comes to brisket wrapping options there are several options starting with the old texas crutch the full foil wrap and this is by far the fastest way to finish off a brisket you're basically putting the brisket in a little foil oven inside of a smoky oven so it's going to cook really quick the foil is going to conduct a lot more heat it's also going to trap in all that steam and any residual juices coming out of that thing so it's going to be brazing from the bottom steaming from the top and it's a really quick way to finish off a brisket the only problem is all that steam can really mess up your bark and you might end up with a pot roasty flavor from all the liquid in the bottom but that can be solved by wrap number two butcher paper probably the most popular way to finish a brisket it works really well especially for beginners because it's gonna help soften up all those crusty edges it's gonna give you that really nice buttery soft bark that a lot of people are after it's gonna hold in some fat and steam and juices but because it's breathable and absorbent some of the steam can escape yet you're still gonna have that fat inside the wrap which is gonna help kind of configure this thing really great way to go about doing things the only problem is you can't really get a good feel for your brisket because it takes a while to know how tender or brisket feels through a bunch of butcher paper and then lastly you've got the foil boat method which is my favorite way to cook a brisket and that's where you only wrap the bottom side of the brisket leaving the top exposed and that's great because you get the best of all these options meaning all the crispy edges that would be softened by a full wrap of either foil or paper you're going to get with a foil boat it's going to cook a lot quicker just like a full foil wrap but because it's only wrapped on the bottom side all that steam can escape yet all the fat rendering out of that thing will be collected in the bottom and that's exactly what you want because the bottom is where the toughest meat is that's 100 lean on the underside of a brisket so having some fat kind of cone feeding and holding in there is going to give you some really tender bites but most importantly with a foil boat the fat cap is exposed for the entire time which is great in so many ways one you're gonna continue to render that fat cap down two you're gonna get some extra smoke on your brisket three you can actually see what you're doing you know you can pick that brisket up flip it around give it a feel look at it probe it you can add some finishing spritzes if that's your style it's gonna cook quicker tenderize that bottom side protect your edges and give you some nifty little handles to pick that thing up and walk around with it so that being said today we're going with the foil boat foil boating or brisket could not be easier get yourself two sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil plop down your beautifully hot brisket and then you want to just fold out in every direction nothing to it folks i see a lot of people struggling with this on the internet but you want to fold out that way you get a really nice contact with the brisket you don't have any sharp edges jabbing into the thing and you want to be sure to cover anything that's feeling too crispy you know that's feeling a little crispy so i might cover that up a little bit more this backside same deal but it's mostly this lean side we really want to make sure we get nice and wrapped up looking good to me and as i mentioned if you fold outwards you get these wonderful little handles to transport this thing but that being said back on the pit this goes until it comes up to temp around 200 203 degrees and then we'll pull it off but bam 14 hours later this brisket is coming off of the pit and i must say this thing is looking beautiful you got that jiggle factor already that bark unbeatable lovely color smells amazing feels nice and tender that fat is nice and rendered you can tell just by how squishy it is that we're not going to have any unrendered fat on this thing so to recap my five tips one the rub i highly recommend using just salt and pepper with a pepper heavy rub that's how we're able to get this beautiful bark it's really all you need and a great place to start step number two is all about your time and your temps hours one through four 250 nice and smoky from hour five until you wrap you can bump that temp up to about 275 300 really focusing on clean convective heat and wonderful air flow number three keep it simple you know forget the slathers the logs the spritzes the fancy ingredients just keep it simple step number four the wrap whether it's paper or foil or the boat it's always a good idea to help soften up those edges get that bark you're after help the scene cook a little bit quicker and make sure nothing gets overly smoked or overly dried out and now we're on to step number five which is the rest i've been preaching the virtues of the long heated rest on this channel for the last two years that's the number one way to get barbecue joint quality brisket in your home because that's what they do at all the restaurants you know they'll throw these things on at 8 in the morning then around 10 12 1 o'clock when they're finally done they'll put them in a heating cabinet very similar to a bread proofer and they'll sit in there anywhere from 140 to 160 degrees until they're ready to slice into at 11am the next day and that's great for so many reasons first and foremost timing once this goes into the warmer you've got a 5 to 20 hour window where this thing is going to be great to slice into piping hot ready for anyone to eat so if you ever have to schedule a barbecue party instead of trying to time this cook to be done at the exact specific time when your guests show up just have it heated in the oven waiting and then you have complete freedom number two a brisket is a super tough cut it's full of connective tissue that when cooked really low and slow the collagen in there converts into gelatin which is what makes brisket so tender and have that wonderful mouth feel so by putting it in the oven overnight you're giving that collagen extra time to convert into gelatin and get really nice and sticky and that wonderful mouthfeel that we're all looking for and three it's just a really foolproof way to get some amazing results if this thing was overcooked the overnight recipe is really going to help because all that gelatin is going to solidify a little bit keeping our slices together so it doesn't fall apart or shred too much while at the same time if it's undercooked all that extra heated rest time is going to help it carry over and continue to tenderize and there are many ways to go about the overnight heated rest you could pop this in a cooler you could put it in your home oven at 170 that's generally the lowest temperature you're gonna get again at restaurants they have heated cabinets that go all the way down to 120 or something i bought a toaster oven that goes all the way down to 120 and i have found that 155 degrees is the perfect temperature for a single brisket to hold overnight but before we pop this in the oven let's talk about how to know when your brisket is done general rule of thumb is around 200 degrees let's see what this thing is reading right about now yep right around 200 degrees but the real way to know when your brisket is done is by to feel the underside so if you lift it up and feel right in the middle of that lean right under there where it's incredibly hot it should feel nice and pliable kind of like a raw brisket that's what i tell people at the restaurant all the time it should have some give some flexibility not hard but also not shredding like pulled pork or something like that and once it feels like that you know this thing is in the right place and again that's usually around 200 and 205 degrees internal temp so depending on how it feels if it is feeling too tight you could pop it right into the oven at this stage that was gonna have a longer carryover cook and continue to tenderize or if it's feeling really tender underneath then you may want to rest this down on the table for a little bit before you pop it into the oven this one's feeling right in the middle so i'm gonna rest this down to about 160 degrees internal temp before i pop it into my oven now that it's fully rested down into my oven it goes just like this in the foil boat top exposed on a little pan on a wire rack to make sure the bottom doesn't get toasted too hard so in at 155 degrees this goes until tomorrow all right y'all and that is it that is my five tips for a perfect brisket cook we covered everything from the rub to the cook schedule techniques the wrap and the rest there's really not all that much to it but if you master all these steps you are bound to have a brisket that you are very proud of if you missed last week's video be sure to check it out that's where i go into great detail about how to trim a brisket to perfection and be sure to tune in next week when we actually slice into this thing and talk all about plating and all that good stuff but that being said if you enjoyed this video let me know by hitting that subscribe button if you got any value out of this content at all be sure to drop a like on this video leave a comment down below letting me know what you want to see me cook next if you give any of these tips or tricks to try for yourself be sure to tag me on instagram at chud's bbq i'd love to see what y'all are cooking big shout out to all the patreon members thank you for supporting team trend allowing me to keep making all these videos and until the next time i see you please go cook something outside peace

Channel: Chuds BBQ

Views: 249,021

Keywords: Brisket Tips, brisket, how to cook a brisket, how to smoke brisket, top 5 brisket tips, best brisket, perfect brisket, meat church brisket, mad scientist brisket, Franklin bbq, Franklin brisket, brisket recipe, beef brisket recipe, simple brisket, Brisket for beginners, Texas Brisket, Smoked Brisket, BBQ Brisket, Barbecue Brisket

Id: -mZAUGUn5Q0

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 21 2022