My first attempt at a brisket- Excited and nervous

[Warrior68]

I have been smoking for years and have master the easy stuff, Ribs, Pulled pork, smoked sausage, pork loin, chicken thighs, wings, while chickens, turkeys, and even some of my own creations like Spicy venison meatloaf stuffed with mushrooms and cheese (the meatloaf is always a huge hit with friends and family).
Although I have tried brisket at every smoke house I have been to, every rib fest I have been to and tried it every time a friend would smoke one, I Have only had good brisket once in my life. I am starting to believe that good smoked brisket is almost a urban legend, or wives tale. I am starting to wonder if the good brisket I thought I had in Texas was just a really good dream?
I have been challenged by several friends to make a brisket, one of those friends is from Texas and he claims to be the brisket master. My buddy, "the brisket master" has smoked two briskets, one was not worthy of feeding to my dog, the other was fair to midland. I have stepped up and decided to do the brisket for everyone next Sunday for football, I do Sunday football and smoked food every weekend for friends and family. Last week while smoking a pork but I put a small chuck roast on figuring it is a similar piece of meat, everyone loved it. Not wanting to fail, or serve bad brisket next Sunday, I canceled my weekly football party this week, went to the butcher and had him cut a smaller brisket in half for me so I could do a stealth trial run today .
I ended up with a 6 lb brisket which from my reading and research tells me I should smoke it around 8 to 9 hours? I used a very simple rub, sea salt, cracked black pepper, garlic powder, and a spice from a local vendor called volcanic seasoning (Volcanic seasoning is amazing if you love spice!). At 3:30am I fired up the Traeger, at 4am I put the brisket on, thus beginning my virgin brisket smoke. I am unsure if I will use a wrap from 175 to 190, or not, I love a good crunchy bark, I want the meat to be nice and soft and slice up perfect, I don't want it to fall apart into chunks, or be tough.

Wish me luck and post any pointers you have please.

 

[Big Poppa]

read the brisket tip sections....foil is your friend...what you get is nice smoke on it and then when the meat stops accepting smoke you foil which skips the stall, reduces the dehydration on the cooker and actually braises the meat for more tenderness.I t will cut your cooking time and pellet usage a ton

 

[Warrior68]

Brisket is done! Talk about meat butter! I smoked it between 200 and 250 till the meat was about 160 degrees, then wrapped it for about an hour and half. I took all the juice form the foil, separated out the juices and put them in a small pan with some BBQ and the onions I topped the brisket with when I wrapped it and reduced the mix while the brisket sat wrapped in foil and two towels for about 30 minutes. When I originally had removed the brisket from the smoker I turn the smoker up 350. After letting it rest for about 30 minutes in the foil/ towel wrap I put it back on the hot smoker for about 5 to 10 minutes. The brisket had a nice 1/4 to 1/2 smoke ring, super tender, almost to tender, I had cooked it for 1.5 hours per LB, next time Ill cook it 1.25 hours per LB. I was a bit to tender to cut slices less than 1/2 think, but certainly wasn't mush or shredded. All in all for my first brisket it came out really good, and I have no fear of cooking one for the masses next Sunday! I did use a lot of Big Poppa's brisket tips, but slightly modified them, if you follow his guidelines you cant go wrong.

The only real issue I had was once I separated the point form the flat, the point cut up nicely and it was easy to read the grain... However the flat seemed like the grain changed directions a few times and was not the easiest to continually cut against the grain like I wanted too. In the long run it didn't matter, even the parts that were cut wrong were still tasty and tender.

 

[Big Poppa]

Nice cook Warrior!

 

[scooter]

Awesome! Expect some lessons to be learned along the way. Brisket is a natural product. We cook 2 in competition and we cook them exactly the same. It's amazing how one can be tougher, dryer, and less flavor than the other.