help cooking my first Brisket on the BGE

Tom · September 2004

Hi all I am a new BGE owner and glad I made the change. I purchased my Lg BGE about two months ago. I have cooked steaks,chicken and pork tender loins and they all turned out fantastic. [p]I am now wanting to take a shot at Brisket. I have read a lot of the post and there seems to be more than enough info out there but what I am looking for is a no brainer method. I have had people telling me to wrap it in foil for the last 4 hrs. I have people tell me to wrap it in foil and a towel and put it in a cooler. I haver heard 250 to 300 degrees, I guess what I am saying is that I am confused.[p]
Also how long do I hit it with smoke and what would be a good recommendation for the type of wood to use.[p]Any help would be greatly appreciated.[p]Thanks in advance,
Tom[p]

yaB · September 2004

Tom,
I've tried several briskets over the few months I'ved had my Egg, and I'm slowly starting to draw a few conclusions:[p]-- Brisket is nowhere near as easy as pork butt to do successfully.[p]-- Buy the best grade of beef you can. The "USDA Choice" briskets I've done have been *much* better than the "USDA Select" or lower grades, to the point where I don't think I'll even mess with Select or lower in the future. The results just haven't been worth the time and effort.[p]-- Go easy on the smoke. Shoot for a "hint" of smoke flavor. It's probably a personal thing, but I think too little smoke is way better than too much with brisket. A lot of cooks say to use a "fist size" chunk of smoking wood, and that seems to work pretty well. My preference is leaning (back) toward hickory at this point, though there are a bunch of fruit woods I haven't yet tried.[p]-- Don't cook a brisket at over 250º at the grill. The couple times I tried higher temps, the result was very dry meat. Pork butts seem to be much more forgiving of a higher cooking temp, up to 300º or so.[p]-- If you're defrosting a frozen brisket, allow plenty of time. The couple I've tried seemed to take a lot longer to defrost compared to other cuts of beef. I'm guessing it's because the meat is just plain tougher and denser to begin with, so it just doesn't thaw as fast as a steak of the same thickness. If you put an unevenly thawed brisket on the Egg, it will take much longer to cook, and tend to be tougher and dryer than it could otherwise be.[p]-- Thawed, fresh or whatever, don't take a brisket right out of the refrigerator and immediately put it on the Egg. Let it warm up a bit so it doesn't condense the smoke and develop bitter flavors.[p]All of the above, and possibly the exact opposite of some of it, has no doubt been preached here many times before. It just itemizes some of my lessons learned on brisket Egging through 9/2/04. YMMV and HTH.[p]Good luck,
Bob

Borders · September 2004

Tom, I've done 3 briskets the same way, with success. I think the big wild card with brisket is the brisket itself. It's not like a Boston butt, which all look very similar. Briskets come in all sizes shapes and levels of marbling and fat caps. I think that's where all of the variables come from.[p]All of mine were fairly big, 8+ pounds, with fat caps. I used hickory. I smoked it the whole time. I cooked slowly til internal temp in the fattest part was 200 deg. Anything else is tweeking.[p]The towel/cooler method is just to keep it hot for an extended period of time, not really a cooking issue.

Tom · September 2004

Borders,[p]Thanks for the tips I will let forum know how it turns out.
Thanks again.
Tom

Tom · September 2004

yaB,
Thanks Bob I will try your tips. I will let the Forum know how it turns out.
Tom

James · September 2004

yaB,[p]I rather enjoy buying the 79 cents a pound select brisketts, and turning them into something fabulous. I've done the choice as well, but I haven't found them to be better for briskette.[p]

yaB · September 2004

James,
If I could find $.79 per lb. brisket anywhere within a few hour drive of where I live, I'd definitely give it a shot, and also rather enjoy it if it turned out fabulous. [p]I haven't found that source yet though, so I'll keep doing what works for me when I "need" a brisket, with the occasional brisket experiment when/if I find a cut of meat that looks promising. The search continues...[p]Bob

James · September 2004

yaB,[p]I live in Texas. That might explain it.[p]Where do you live?[p]

yaB · September 2004

James,
I'm in Maryland. I saw an article recently that compared grocery prices in our area to those in NYC, and we "won" (i.e., had higher prices) in far too many categories. Unfortunately, I wasn't surprised...[p]Bob

help cooking my first Brisket on the BGE

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