Brisket - Nothing Fancy

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Preacher Man

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Sep 28, 2018
716
777
Where The River Runs Through It
I have a really hard time trying to do anything fancy with a brisket. The meat is just so darn good with minimal intervention. Here's my basic brisket method:

This time I started with a 15lbs certified angus beef brisket. Usually I shoot for smaller briskets because all I have right now is a MES 30. So until I can get someone on here to give me their Lang for $free.99 I just make the best of my small surface area.

I don't trim much. Just the hard fat on the underside, and a bit of the fat on the top if it is way too thick (top right corner of picture).
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Now it's time for the SPOG (salt, pepper, onion, garlic) treatment. Some guys pre-mix the seasonings beforehand and I do when using it on other cuts of meat, but with brisket I do each spice individually. My main purpose in this is to control the saltiness. Ever since I spent 10 weeks in the bush of Zambia (back in '07) where we didn't have the luxury of added salt, I just don't have much liking for overly salted foods.

This what it looks like when I'm done salting.
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Just a light dusting of onion powder.
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Lots of garlic.
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I'm a proud Texan. Bring on the course black pepper.
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Then into the fridge for a short sauna treatment. I only left this one in there for a few hours tops (had some beef back ribs on the smoker).
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Because this brisket was bigger than my MES could swallow, I used the beer can trick. Just stick a beer can under the middle of the brisket to lift it up. It worked pretty good.
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I used a mix of 80% oak and 20% mesquite wood pellets in my Amazen Tube. The 12" gives me about 4-5 hours of good smoke.

After a couple of tubes worth of smoke at 235°, the brisket was at 167° IT so I pulled it to wrap in butcher paper. What I'm looking for here is good bark formation. If I'm not satisfied with the bark, then it goes back in without a wrap.
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It shrank enough that the can was no longer needed.
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At 206° IT the brisket was probe tender with a bamboo skewer. This where I normally stick it in a cooler and let it rest. But this time I took the wisdom of Bearcarver Bearcarver who says meat isn't very smart and just left it in the MES after dropping the smoker temp to 145°.

A little over an hour later, we feasted.
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Y'all gotta try this jalapeno coleslaw recipe! We leave out the sugar when we make it.

Juices in action
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Half of the flat was left and a little more than 3/4 of the point. I sealed up the flat and half of the point for a rainy day.
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The rest of the point got sliced up and put on rolls with horse radish mayo for fishing snacks the following day.
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Very nice. Got one rolling right now myself. may you and yours find peace and happiness.
 
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That Looks Great, PM !!
I love the Beer Can Trick!! I never even thunked about that one!!
In that Pic of the "Juices in Action", it doesn't look "Too Rare", but it looks as though the Heart is Still Beating!!! :emoji_bear:
Nice Job, and Great Thread!!
Like.

Bear
 
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