I've bar-be-cued 4 briskets. One was inedible, although my family managed to choke it down, and three were unbelievable. Here is what I've learned.
Start with the right meat. You need a brisket with a thick layer of fat all across the top. During cooking, this fat will melt and add flavor and juiciness to the meat. I've purchased 3 of mine from meat markets and one from Costco. The one from Costco did not have a thick layer of fat and became inedible. (Brisket is sometimes used to make corned beef and I think the one I got at Costco was trimmed with this in mind.) At the
butcher where I went this weekend they actually called the meat I bought Texas-Style Brisket. I've also seen it at a few super-markets.
Cover the meat with a dry rub. I use
Rudy's Rub. Its heavy on pepper and paprika, but other than that I'm not sure what is in it. When I run out I'll order more. I add the rub generously, rubbing it onto the meat until every inch is covered.
Cook slowly over smoke for 8-12 hours, and in the oven for 12 more. By slowly I mean 200-250 degrees. I have a medium sized Weber that I can keep at 250 degree with 4-8 briquettes burning in a pile on the side. I use a simple oven thermometer to keep track of the temperature. I add smoke by soaking mesquite chips in water and then sprinkling them over the briquettes. With this arrangement I add fresh mesquite every 15 minutes and I replenish the briquettes every hour.
Usually I start cooking the night before I want to eat. I keep vigil at the grill until I reach 10 or 12 hours or cooking, which is around 4 or 5 in the morning. Then I bring the meat inside, cover it with aluminum foil, and cook it on warm in the oven until dinner time. This method is exhausting as I have to be up all night tending the smoke. I know that the meat only needs 10-12 hours of smoke, and that the time in the oven adds to the tenderness, but I wasn't sure, until tonight, if the smoking time needed to be continuous.
This weekend I changed my approach by only smoking the meat from 6pm to midnight. I then brought the brisket inside to the oven from midnight to 2pm. At 2pm I took it back out to the grill and gave it 4 more hours of smoke. This brought excellent results and I got a good night's sleep. Apparently the meat can take a break from the smoke with no ill-effects.
Things I'd still like to try: I think I could get longer periods of smoke if I used bigger chunks of mesquite. I'm using
mesquite chips from Weber and they smoke out after about 10 minutes. If I had larger ones I might be able to go 30 minutes between each visit to the grill. Tonight's brisket still had quite a bit of fat left on the top even after 24 hours of cooking. I think I could have trimmed it to 1/4 or 3/8 inch and still been happy. I'll experiment with that next time.
