Let me preface this blog post by letting you know that good BBQ is all about failure! Brisket is one of the toughest meats to smoke so you should be sure to take excellent notes so you know what you did and can improve upon it next time. Your cooker is your cooker and the only way to know is to use a guide like this as a starting point, there are always improvements that can be made, you just need to figure them out on your own!

Ingredients

1 10-15 lb. packer brisket (The Whole brisket including a point and flat) Suggested Brisket BBQ Rubs – Plowboys Bovine Bold – Big Mista’s Bitchin’ Beef Rub – Porkmafia Texas Gold – Big Butz Cow Pow and Oakridge BBQ Black Ops Brisket Rub are a few of my go to BBQ rubs. (Kosher Salt and Cracked Black Pepper with a touch of Cayenne is fine too)

Preparing the Brisket:

1. Trim fat cap down to ¼ inch thickness on top and around the edges of the brisket. If you buy from a butcher, make sure that you let them know to go easy on the trimming!
2. Look at the end of the flat of the brisket and cut a notch on end of brisket sliced against the grain (lines in the meat).
3. Grab your favorite rub and apply to brisket generously, coating the outside of the meat all around.
4. Either put back into fridge and let the brisket sit until meat begins to sweat and the rub moistens and adheres to the brisket. Try not to do rub it down to long before you cook it.

Prepare your ceramic smoker:

1. Load the coals box with charcoal, and mix in 6-8 chunks of Oak or Pecan Wood for smoke, this is going to be a long cook!
2. Light the center of the pile of coals, let it burn for 5 to 10 minutes and then put your plate setter or heat deflectors in.
3. On top of the heat deflector plate, fill an aluminum pan with 1/3 water and place directly on top of the plate setter. (If you have a Primo XL or a larger egg, you may need two.
4. Adjust your BBQ Guru or set your smoker to run at around 225-235 F

The cook:

1. After smoke starts to flow from the smoker, put brisket on smoker, fat side up, you can lay a Frogmat underneath to keep it from sticking to the grates during the cook.
2. Close the lid and make sure it is secured and sealed around the edges.
3. Make sure that the vent at the top is cracked in a “crescent moon” so that the fire can breathe but not suck in too much air.
4. Cook 10-15 hours, try not to open the smoker too often, I usually check it about 10 hours in and insert a remote thermometer in the flat and another in the point to get reading without opening the cooker.
5. After 10 hours, check the meat or check the thermometers until you get a 180 to 190F internal temp in the flat then check the brisket and see if it is tender to the poke, thermometer should slide in like it is butter.
6. Remove the point (deckle or fatty end) by slicing through the fat layer between the point and the flat, cube it, put it back on the smoker for a couple of more hours to render out more of the fat and make some delicious burnt ends.
7. Double wrap flat in heavy duty foil. Cover with blankets and insert it into a cooler to rest for 1-3 hours or until ready to serve.
8. Remove point from smoker once a bulk of the fat is rendered. Cube point and slice the flat against the grain and serve immediately.

Serving:

1. Let the brisket rest in open air after removing from the foil do it can settle.
2. Slice against the grain (Use the notch you cut and slice at that angle) use an electric knife or a serrated blade and slice it in 1/4 inch thick slices.
3. Serve hot.

Just In Case:
If the brisket is really dry, then slice it thin, or feel free to chop it up with some of the deckle or the fatty point and served chopped brisket.

Is your Primo Charcoal grill new? Try out this link to find out more about How To Season A Charcoal Grill!