Advice on barbecued beef brisket

A new meat market in town has great looking whole beef briskets. I've never cooked one other than as corned beef/braised. Any recommendations for using as barbecue ? Somehow, the same sauce that I use for pork does not seem quite right. Dry rub first then low and slow ?

Use dry rub and smoke it if possible. If you don't have a smoker and do have a charcoal grill smoke it over indirect heat. Build a small fire at one end and put the meat at the other end, and cover the grill. Use soaked oak, hickory, or mesquite chips on the coals. Replace the coals and chips as needed, and turn the meat often. It should be done in three or four hours. Slice it and then add warm barbeque sauce if desired.

HI, Cynthia
Barbequing a brisket is not like barbequing any other type of meat. It frustrates even the most seasoned of grill maesters. The most recent copy of Cooks Illustrated has an article dedicated to this cut of meat and this cooking technique. I suggest you get a copy and read it before you begin cooking. I agree with Carl that your results will be better tasting if you start with a dry rub. But, in the end and particularly with brisket, cooking technique and timing is what will determine your success. Good luck!

I chorus with the other posts I must say that brisket is difficult to smoke. I can do it but only after many, many years of smoking. There are some stinkers in my past. The Cook's article is good, as good as any. If you follow it then you will (should) get a good brisket.

As for seasoning, and this is purely a personal opinion, I just use salt and cracked black pepper. Good wood (I like hickory), a good cut of meat, and careful smoking will produce a fine tasting brisket.

Good luck,

rwj

They can be superb slow-cooked until tender with a moist sauce with some sweetness. Optionally marinated first. White wine, garlic, and lots of onions (partly caramelized) is one way (written up in a food magazine few yrs back.)

The best such dish I've had was brisket cooked in a puree of chipotle peppers (and some onions I think), moderately hot, flavored with bourbon.

Served with macaroni and cheese. Faith and glory ...

Rub both sides liberally with a mixture of salt, pepper, chili powder and garlic powder. Indirect heat / smoke for hours (at least 8, preferably 12 depending on the size of the brisket) @ no more than 250 deg F.

I used to cook on mesquite exclusively, but have taken a liking to oak in the last few years.

Cook fat side down and don’t turn the meat. You can buy these giant cans of pickled jalapenos w/ bits of carrots and onions in them. They are in a kind of vinegar / oil base. During cooking, I baste the meat with that juice. Kind of regional thing, but it makes for nice, spicy smoked brisket.

Some brisket chefs will tell you “fat side up”…I’ve done it both ways, but I prefer the fat side down. The fat provides insulation against the heat and won’t burn. But the 2 methods have caused more than a few arguments among BBQ’ers.


Richard

Yes, dry rub and then low and slow indirect smoke cooking (i.e., true Southern-style barbecue). You need the untrimmed whole brisket, with the fat layers intact, and not the fully-trimmed one usually found in supermarkets. Without the fat layers, the brisket will turn into leather by the time the long cooking process is over. It takes at least 10-12 hours to properly barbecue brisket, but it's heavenly when it comes out right.

-Paul W.

A new meat market in town has great looking whole beef briskets. I've never cooked one other than as corned beef/braised. Any recommendations for using as barbecue ? Somehow, the same sauce that I use for pork does not seem quite right. Dry rub first then low and slow ?

Step one: Throw out the brisket!
Step Two: Get a pork shoulder and a couple of slabs of baby-back ribs
Step Three: Barbaque the pork and enjoy!

Cristina, you mention Low and Slow. I don't know what kind of a Kooker you have, but if you can set it up to cook at or around 225 degrees, and if you use charcoal instead of gas, then you can make an amazing brisket.

Make Chef Cary's dry rub, and his bbq sauce, and rub the beef with the dry rub and let set overnight. Next day get the grill heated and steady at 225 degrees, and keep it there while you cook the brisket indirect for at least 12 hours. When done, and the meat will pull apart with a fork inserted and twisted, take it off, and baste with the bbq sauce. wrap the meat in foil, then in a heavy bath towel until dinner. If you do only a smallish brisket flat, instead of the whole brisket, don't invite the neighbors or it won't be enough. Now all you need do is slice and eat with additional bbq sauce on the side.

Cristina, I might add that a brisket flat is a very lean piece of meat. I, tend to do a whole brisket consisting of both flat, and the point, the combined is often called a packers cut. There is a lot of fat on the packers, but cook the brisket until the flat reaches 188-190 and then separate the two and put the point back on for a couple more hours. If you do the flat only, try to get one that has not been trimmed down to where there is not a layer of fat on one side (you want that fat) and then cook the flat with the fat side down, on the fire side.