Hello from the UK!

[KingBob]

Hello, newbie here!

Done a lot of research, going to try a brisket tomorrow!

There's a lot of conflicting information out there so I'm going to try and find the right place to ask a few questions!

Thanks for reading.
KB.

 

[SmokinAl]

Welcome to SMF KB!
Glad to have you join the group!
Al

 

[wade]

Hi Bob and welcome to the forum. Where in the UK are you from? I am from Kent.
What have you already cooked before trying the brisket?
What smoker are you using?

There is no single right way to cooking a brisket (though there are wrong ways) and they will differ from person to person. Just take a look at the various books from the past BBQ champions and you will see that their methods vary widely.

The important thing with brisket is to give it plenty of time at a low temperature and to not let it dry out. Not all of this time has to be actively in the heated smoker though.
Firstly you have to decide whether you are going to try smoking a whole brisket as one lump of whether you are going to split it and cook the point and the flat separately. Personally I split mine as it makes it more manageable. It also allows you to remove that fiberous fat layer that lies between to two pieces.
You then need to decide how to trim the meat - how much fat (if any) you want to keep on the meat. Many like to keep a thin layer of the fat coating as it does help to keep the meat moist as it smokes, but this can also be achieved by regular basting or foiling. I usually trim off almost all of the fat.
Next you can decide whether you want to inject flavour. I used to inject when I first started cooking brisket but now I don't.
The rub you apply to the outside will also be personal choice. Some like a hot sweeter rub others prefer to taste more of the natural meat flavour. I mostly use a simple salt, pepper and garlic rub these days.
Bring the smoker up to temperature (~110 C) and place in the heat. Ensure that your smoking wood of choice is producing smoke for the first 3 hours or so because this is the time that most of the smoked flavour is developed. After that you can choose to continue to smoke uncovered or you can wrap in foil to retain more moisture. If you continue to cook uncovered then spray with a little apple juice or use a mopping sauce every 30 minutes or so to help help keep it moist. After the first 3 hours the remainder of the cooking time is there to break down the collagen within the tough meat fibres into sugars in order to enhance the flavour and to tenderise the meat. Some will leave the meat in the smoker for the whole of the cooking time (up to 10-12 hours) however I find that after about 6-7 hours I wrap the meat in additional layers of foil and let it rest between towels in an insulated cool box for 2-3 hours. This has the advantage of letting the meat continue to cook very slowly without the addition of heat and it will remain very moist.

Please let us know how you get on with your brisket. If you can take some photos that would be great - we love photos here :)

 

[gmc2003]

Welcome aboard. Good luck on the brisket.

Chris

 

[gary s]

Good morning and welcome to the forum from a beautiful warm day here in East Texas, and the best site on the web. Lots of great people with tons of information on just about everything.

Gary