Excellent resource...not sure why it took me so long to find it.
I'm sitting here now reading through a lot of this material while my first smoked brisket attempt is taking place. It's a 5 lb first cut and it's been in my
Masterbuilt electric for about 5 1/2 hours.
I'll post pics of the progress but generally, this is how I did it.
- 5 lb brisket
- Yellow mustard smear over meat and cover w/ rub (I'm using Oakridge BBQ's Special Pps Brisket rub)
- I cut off the corner notch against grain to remind me which direction to cut against the grain
- Smoker to 210-225º
- Using hickory and apple wood mix
- I added apple juice, some bourbon, and a couple cut up pears into the drip pan
- Smoked until 170º (plateau-ed around 160-163º and stayed there for a couple hours)
- I removed meat and wrapped in double pouch of foil
- Poured a bit of apple juice in pouch
- Put back into the smoker until almost 200º
- Wrapped foil pouch w/ towels and place into PRE-WARMED cooler for only 30 min (I had initially planned for 1-2 hours)
- Remove and pour au jus into bowl, mixed w/ a little homemade bbq sauce but wasn't sure it needed it
- Sliced against grain and served
Here are some pictures of my Sunday.
I sat inside and watched the Eagles game with an Ivation wireless thermometer next to me while all this was happening. As it turned out, I could have left the Eagles off and just focused on the meat.
Rub applied, before going into smoker:
About 30 min in:
Things kept looking good but the Eagles were just awful, creating anxiety for me over the seemingly never-ending plateau time. I was getting almost no movement for almost two hours. The game just got worse from there:
Finally, I removed the meat when IT reached 170º (a bit dark, i apologize) and foiled it for the remaining 25º
:
So the final push was taking a while and the wife began glaring at the clock and giving me the evil eye. I bumped heat up to 2
75º to get things moving faster.
When the meat read 195º, I took it out of the smoker, wrapped it in towels and let it sit for just 30 min.
Here's the final product. Very slight smoke ring...was hoping and expecting more.
And here's a close up:
The family devoured it and raved but I think it should have been a bit more tender. The lesson I learned is to start earlier so I have a better chance of keeping low & slow going and also to ensure I've got enough sitting time after removing from the smoker. I might also try a cut other than the flat to see if my results are different.
I give it a 7.8 but I'm not disappointed as a first brisket attempt. I look forward to going through the archives of content here for additional tips.
Will aim to improve next time.
Jonathan