How to make sinfully delicious brisket

[JLA]

This is a thread in conjuction with the brisket thread I made the other night, I wanna cook a brisket for all my friends on thisforum but since were sorta global, I figured id teach yall how I cook em so the ones with barrel smokers similar to mine can have a Texas redneck style brisket.

All you need is a smoker, I prefer my barrel smoker, but an electric or charcoal smoker would work fine.

A brisket 10-15 pounds untrimmed. Get a nice cut and make sure its flexible... This is important if you want it tender.

Your favorite rub... I use fiesta brand gourmet steak seasoning mixed 1 to 1 with fiesta brand brisket rub.

A jug of your favorite fruit juice, I prefer apple juice, but I have made them with grape juice and orange juice as well.

A bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce. I like Bullseye original or KC masterpiece original, Pour the sauce in a pan and heat it up and cut it 2 to 1 (2 parts sauce to 1 part juice) with your fruit juice.

Now lets prepare the brisket...

[JLA]

open the brisket and leave it in the sink for a couple hours to drain.

[JLA]

Once drained, remove it and lay it out on a piece of foil fat side up. This is the only side I do anything to, leave the lean side alone.

[pinecone70]

Pure torture....

[JLA]

now you want to take a very sharp knife and score the fat layer to the meat, do it just like a holiday ham. this helps the fat melt into the meat while smoking and leaves you with less to cut off when its all done.

[JLA]

Once you have it scored apply a very liberal amount of your rub to the brisket and rub it into all the scores. Dont be afraid to beat the crap out of it too if you feel like punching something

You doint have to do this, but i like to, I take a flavor injector and poke apple juice right into the brisket, It makes it kinda sweet, which works really well with the smoke

[JLA]

Now its ready to be crammed in a giant freezer bag to let marinade for about an hour or two, It doesnt hurt to do it overnight in the fridge either...

[JLA]

Nows a good time to make some fire while the meat marinades... I like fire

[JLA]

once the fires made and the barrel is hot, It usually takes about an hour to preheat a smoker this big, simply lay your brisket on the smoker as far from the fire as possible so it dont dry out. Dont worry itll cook because the heat has to get down to the brisket end to escape the smoke stack.

[JLA]

The trick to cookin like this is temperature maintenance. Make a big fire and keep it choked so the temp is around 225 and keep it there for 18 hours. This requires hourly fire pokins and log additions. This is what I like to call a cheater guage. I find the best brisket comes from an 18 hour stretch where the red meets the blue.

[JLA]

I like to smoke the meat bare for 4-5 hours and then wrap it up with foil, alot of foil, 3 or 4 layers. then back on the smoker for another 12 hours. At this point you can also, if yo like, kill the smoker and finish the brisket in the oven. This is something I do sometimes when i wanna sleep all night without having to get up and tend the fire through the night. But finishing on the smoker is best, the brisket always seems to taste just a little better

[JLA]

This thread isnt finished, I just put the brisket on 49 minutes ago, and ill have foiling pics around noonish

[TomsXL#3]

Think I just shorted out my keyboard, from drooling all over it

[todd51]

Josh, maybe you just do it different in TX but something very important seems to be missing. When I was in Louisiana and the brisket was being prepared there was always a properly filled beer cooler near by where we regularly sampled it's contents during the cooking. It seemed to help make much better brisket.

[bamajoey]

I haven't seen anywhere on here where you give your address. We can't be there when it's done if we don't know where to go.

[JLA]

The beers in the fridge todd, I never forget the brew

Just finished foiling. I took the brisket out with my 'brisket gloves' on. and wrapped it 3 times all the way around. I heavy layer of foil is important, it keeps the meat evenly heated and the fats and juices in so it is tender when you get ready to eat it.

A little about the briskt gloves... If anyone has ever handled a 10 pound hunk of beef thats 225 degrees with tongs, you know why I like to use my hands, and what better way to handle meat. I use a pair of welding gloves I bought new at tractor supply, I only use them for handling meat off the smoker and I store them in my 'smokin toolbox' in a gallon size freezer bag. These gloves smell good enough to eat themselves...

Back to the brisket, if youll notice the brisket is now wrapped heavily with foil and tucked all the way up to the stack hole in the barrel. its a good 5 feet from the heat source in this rig, which is good because I dont like burnt meat.

[JLA]

Now all we have is time. roughly 11 hours from now this brisket will be done. Ill pull it off at midnight tonight and wrap it in a towell and leave it on the counter all night to stand. In the morning when I get up ill be having brisket sammages for breakfast...

Lets address the sauce. As I stated above, I like to cut my favorite commercial brand sauces with applejuice. It makes a wonderful sauce everyone will enjoy. its sweet and tangy and even my kiddos love it. But thats not the end. I also make up what i like to call SHUT IT! sauce. My father-in-law and certain other family members like hot food and always rib me for not ever accomodating their tastes so one fine day i got a bright idea to buy some jalapenos, serranos, and some habaneros. i washed them real good and lay them on the smoker next to the briskjet to 'smoke til softened'. Usually takes about an hour to an hour and a half. Take em off, pull the stems off and puree them in the blender, makes a smoked peppersauce you cant even smell without crying. This puree I cut into a small bottle of my BBQ sauce mix and make SHUT IT! My father-in-law describes it as having to pay the price for delicious food. He loves it, but sweats and sniffles thru his whole sandwich. It gave my brother the hiccups after one bite and Im a wiener, i drank a half gallon of milk after just taste testing it. The taste is wonderful, the heat is miserable. But its just what the doc ordered for the insanely spicy food lovers...

[Crpdeth]

Looking good there, Josh... I've never sliced, poked etc my brisket until it's time to eat, but I'll have to try that one the next one.

Crpdeth

[BETH]

Smells good let me see what it looks like when finished

[jack404]

good gravy ! this is excellent camel would be excellent done this way , Emu too i think

more to try more to do , you folks make life so dang busy .. thanks eh

[Bobitis]

Originally Posted by Crpdeth

Looking good there, Josh... I've never sliced, poked etc my brisket until it's time to eat, but I'll have to try that one the next one.

Crpdeth

Never did that either.

Josh, do you trim the fat? What about the tips? Mop? Rub only don't seem right.

C'mon dude... What's the rest of the story?

[JLA]

Really, thats it. just drain, score, rub and fill with juice. then a nice 18 hour run in a 225 degree barrel full of smoke. Oh yeah, PECAN!!! I have smoked with everything suitable and Pecan is by far the best IMO..

No i dont trim the fat bob, the wife usually discards the big chunks when she pulls the meat, but for the most part it gets turned in with the brisket. Thats why I score it, so it cooks off more. scoring an untrimmed brisket will leave you with a done brisket similar in every way to a done, trimmed, unscored brisket. No other tips than that. just good ol smoke. low 'n' slow is my motto... I feel like the fruit juice seems to caramelize and help seal in the natural juices making the meat more tender. and adds a nice sweet/smoky glaze.

[JLA]

Originally Posted by Crpdeth

Looking good there, Josh... I've never sliced, poked etc my brisket until it's time to eat, but I'll have to try that one the next one.

Crpdeth

remember, just the fat.. Its ok if you get into the meat a little, but not much. It helps it hold more rub and channels the drippings so it stays on the brisket better.

[JLA]

Originally Posted by BETH

Smells good let me see what it looks like when finished

You got it. Ill take pics first thing in the AM, just before i shred it for sammages.

[JLA]

Originally Posted by jack404

good gravy ! this is excellent camel would be excellent done this way , Emu too i think

more to try more to do , you folks make life so dang busy .. thanks eh

hmmm, camel??? Id try it, never thought of eatn camel before. I did have kangaroo once, tasted like venison to me..