Smoking a Brisket

Brisket. A BBQ favorite. Brisket isn't hard to cook but there are certain steps that need to be taken in order to produce a quality product. First and foremost....good BBQ takes time. If you have people comming over to eat Sunday at noon, then you better smoke that brisket on Saturday. A good thing about brisket is that it re-heats well so what I do is cook it well in advance and put it in the fridge without cutting it. A few hours before meal time, warm it up in the oven or on your pit! Now onto the smoking. This teqnique is pretty bare bones. Nothing fancy here, just the basics. Once you get the hang of it you can tweek it out any way you like. A brisket has two parts, the nose and the flat and is fat on one side. Buy your brisket trimmed. This is just the flat part of the brisket. The nose is almost all fat anyway so you aren't loosing much. Make sure one side has some fat on it. When you get it home rub it down with some sort of BBQ rub. There are a million kinds out there so take your pick. Make sure you rub hard enough to get the seasoning into the meat well. Now it's time for marinade. You want to do this about 12 hours before putting it on the pit. Again, there are a million different marinades. If you don't have anything, 1 can of beer and 1 bottle of italian dressing will work. I use a large oven bag because they don't tear easily. Put your meat and marinade in the bag and let it hang out in the fridge awhile (overnight). About 2 hours before you light your pit, take your brisket out of the fridge. You never want to put an ice cold brisket on a hot pit because it will sweat and you will loose lots of much needed moisture. Get your pit up to about 225-250 degrees with charcoal and wood. (See section on building a fire in your pit). I always start my brisket out at about 250 and bring the temp down slowly to get that initial sear to hold in those juices. Now, place the brisket on the pit fat side up and close the lid. Remember, you're cooking with indirect heat so don't worry about burning the meat. About half way through the cooking process or when your meat gets around 100 degrees...begin basting with apple juice. Use a spray bottle and do this about every 30 minutes. When your brisket reaches 160 degrees, it's time for foil. Start wrapping the brisket up tight but before you seal it in, add about a half bottle of bbq sauce. Put the brisket back on the pit for another hour, then flip it over. Finally, when your meat reaches about 175 degrees, flip it back over (fat side up) and cook until it reaches about 190 degrees. It's done. Take it off of the pit and let it hang out for about 45 minutes to cool slowly. Finally, slice it across the grain and watch the mouths water. So there you have it. That should get you a brisket done. But remember, experiment! You can ask 5 cooks how they smoke a brisket and you will get 5 different answers. BBQ is all about trial and error so try new things until you find your own groove.