My First Brisket!


I had been wanting to do brisket for a very long time, but I couldn’t find anywhere convenient to buy a whole packer brisket. But right before I was convinced I was going to have to go to a butcher, Costco decided to carry them.

Brisket at Costco!

Yeah, it was 20 lbs, which is ridiculous for what was essentially going to be just 3 adults, but it was USDA Prime for only $3/lb! I had no choice. I put it in my shopping cart and resolved to deal with the consequences later.

After I got home I realized I had a problem, it was too long to fit in my 18″ Weber Smokey Mountain. So I had to cut off some of the flat. (I ended up using that to make some beef ph?).

cutting off some of the flat

Then I had to trim the fat. There was a pretty good amount to take off.

trimming the fat off the brisket
trimming the fat off the brisket

I put on a Dalmatian rub and put it into the fridge to dry brine.

brisket dalmation rub

The next day I fired up the smoker and got to work on the Texas mop sauce.

ingredients for the Texas mop sauce
ingredients for the Texas mop sauce

Instead of vegetable oil, I rendered some of the brisket fat:

rendering brisket fat
rendering brisket fat

I should have cut it into smaller pieces to increase the rendered fat to fried fat ratio, but there’s a first time for everything. And here’s my completed mop sauce:

Texas mop sauce
Texas mop sauce

The taste reminded me a lot of my mom’s carne con papa sauce or a ragu. I think a bit over 20 hours later, the brisket was finally done smoking:

Smoked brisket
Smoked brisket

I used Kingsford coals with the minion method and some hickory as the wood. I always think it’s so funny the smoked food looks burnt until you cut into it and get that delicious food. But first I had to put it in the cooler for four hours.

waiting for the brisket to cool
waiting for the brisket to cool

and then finally was able to bring it inside:

ALMOST TIME!
ALMOST TIME!

then FIRST CUT!

Even the lean part was ridiculously moist. The whole thing was practically falling apart.

more brisket cutting shots!
more brisket cutting shots!

Here’s a look at the point where you can see muscle grains going in two different directions:

a cut from the point
a cut from the point

And here was my dinner that day:

Brisket dinner
Brisket dinner

A week later this is all that was left:

And after searching fo what else I could do with my brisket, I made brisket tacos!

Brisket tacos!
Brisket tacos!

So, what were my lessons learned from my first brisket? Basically, I was a little too focued on getting to 203 when I should have checked for probe tender at 195 and every few degrees after that. I ended up with an overcooked (although moist, not dry) brisket that just fell apart a little too much. Overall, it was good, but I also realized I’m just not that into brisket compared to other BBQ foods. I prefer ribs or chicken. I’ll make brisket again, but only if I’m cooking for a group so I don’t need to eat 10ish lbs of brisket over the course of a couple weeks.