Would you all season a prime brisket differently than a choice? I'm just trying to figure what i'm doing wrong.
You don't season it differently. Pick your best rub and put it on heavy. Trim the hard white fat between the point and flat. That fat won't render and melt away. Leave a fat cap that is about a quarter inch thick on top. Once trimmed, slather with a binder. Mustard is cheap and works fine. Your slather will have no effect on the color or flavor of the brisket. It is utilitarian... it is just there to keep your rub in place. Make sure you also rub between the layers where you trimmed away the hard fat. Smoke this at lower temps 225 - 250 fat cap up (LOL - hopefully this doesn't bring us down a rabbit hole). Smoke it until your internal temperature is 150 - 160ish. At that point you have a decision....
Some believe the smoke can no longer penetrate the meat after 150. So, you have a decision to wrap for the remainder of your cook or not wrap. Here are the pros and cons in my opinion:
Wrapping Pros:
- You preserve the color the way it is. You have to decide if this is a pro or con. If you don't wrap, it will get blacker.
- You will significantly reduce the time of your cook.
- Moisture will be retained in the wrapping, so no need for misting. If you don't wrap, you need to mist every so often (45 - 60 minutes) to keep the moisture up.
Wrapping Cons:
- You will most definitely sacrifice bark. A Texas brisket has a heavier bark and often has a rub designed to create a heavier bark. Not everyone wants this type of brisket. In the North, I have found that briskets that win KCBS competitions are much more like pot roast to a Texan. (I'm a Texan, so am biased here)
Wrap in paper or foil, it won't make that much difference if you wrap. You are talking slight nuances at that point.
Cook until it reaches an internal temp of 195 - 200. Then double wrap the whole brisket in foil. Put the wrapped brisket in a cooler to rest for a couple of hours. It will still be very hot when you take it out. Your temps will carry you to 203 - 205+ while it is in the cooler.
Cutting can make or break you. Take a big slice through the center to show off to your friends and take a picture to show all of us so we can drool. When you slice through the center this way, you have the fattier part of the brisket on the bottom and the leaner part on top. In Texas, we serve it that way. In restaurants, they split it and ask you if you want the fattier side or leaner side. The lean flat will give you the look you are wanting, but the fatty parts have more flavor. That is why we serve both together. You can also take some of the point (fatty side) and cube it, throw it in sauce and smoke in a foil pan for another hour. Those are your burnt ends. The burnt ends are best if the rub contains sugars. That is because they caramelize and create a thick sweet bark.
The big think on slicing is to make sure you are slicing perpendicular to the grain of the meat. The point and flat go different directions. If you separate, no problem. If you don't separate, like in the video below I made, and serve both together... slice perpendicular to the flat leaner side. Slicing against the grain will give you a better texture for chewing. You can see this in the video by how easy it falls apart.
You've got this!
