Brisket HELP!!!!! (so confused)

[Tim_Abrahamson]

[Virginiasmoke]

Well... his handle is Smoke&flame after all.

I bet he was trying to be tongue and cheek sarcastic though, like Oregon smoker was. Not flaming.

[k.a.m.]

[raystevens]

Low and slow; as long as you don't over do it. In other words, don't dry it out. Different smokers, the amount of fat and temps will dictate this.

I will decide on how to cook a brisket depending on what it looks like when I buy it. And, where I am here in Northern VA, briskets are hard to come by except for flats.

wallace
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Life is good, butt BBQ is Better!

[Harry Nutczak]

buy brisket, choice grade or higher.
remove from package
season with salt, pepper & garlic
place in smoker preheated to 225-240'ish
cook until done, let rest for 20-40 minutes, slice across grain and enjoy.

Done!!

I see many people purposely make things much more difficult than they should be. There is nothing wrong with just seasoning a quality chunk of meat and cooking it.

Btw, this will most likely take more than 8 hours to cook, and possibly up to 14 hours.
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[Pit Boss]

[lennyk]

I find the foiled in a cooler resting of minimum 45min-90min makes the biggest and most dramatic difference after getting up to temp.

you can feel the whole thing turn into a mass of jello

[SoEzzy]

I think often the biggest confusion is caused by folks reading 20 threads and getting 20 different ways, and trying to cook them all the first time.

When I started cooking, (many years ago), I was given a recipe card to follow, (or a cookbook), and I got to cook one recipe, I might cook the same recipe 3 or more times, then I was invited to change things up, and experiment with it.

Folks now a days appear to want to read 20 recipes instead of doing 20 cooks...I get that to buy and cook 20 briskets isn't cheap, and takes quite a long time to do when you only cook once or twice a month.

But from a practical point of view there are enough variables to make anyone confused, type of pit, quality of the meat, quality of the fuel, direct heat or indirect heat, indirect and radiant heat, radiant heat on it's own, (and I'm sure I missed some out), sometimes you just need to pick one method and try it out.

Until you start practicing, one can talk up a whirlwind and still have nothing to base your first cook on.

Many people have the only method you need to cook things, without mentioning all the variables that I listed above, or even a different style of cooker.

So to all that are thinking about a new piece of meat that they have never cooked before, just season it with the first rub that sounds good, cook it to the consensus, (or average), temperature people say to cook it to, rest it the average time, and see how it turns out.

You sure can ask questions before, during or after, and then you need to balance the answers, pick one you felt works the closest to your method, and then see what you can do the second time you practice that piece of meat.

Take a deep breath, ask your questions, weigh the answers, experiment with one method or combine a couple of methods into your own method, do the cook, weigh your results, question your methods and what you feel worked or didn't work, question the forums some more and repeat all of the above!
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Here's a change Robert.

I still work here!

[lennyk]

SoEzzy,

those are very good points,
if you talk to many people they will boast about how many
recipes and cookbooks they own yet hardly ever master a particular item and understand the process to turn something into something else.