Brisket Questions?

Unknown · July 2004

I just got my BGE a week ago. I would like to make a brisket his weekend. How long must I marinate the brisket? What is the shortest amount of time I can cook it? Any advice is appreciated

JM3 · July 2004

Grillboy,
I've done 3 briskets so far and haven't marinated any of them. I do like the rub to sit on them overnight in the fridge but even did one straight from store to egg and it came out good. Low, slow, smoke, and be patient. You will be well rewarded.[p]John

Roundman · July 2004

JM3,[p]I read some posts about 5 hour brisket earlier this week. I always cook mine low and slow till internal temp is 180 to 190. I cover with mustard and dry rub this make a crust on the brisket tastes great. When you slice your brisket cut across the grain this make for a super tender piece of meat.

ChefRD · July 2004

Grillboy,
I have done several briskets and I have never marinated any of them. I know others do but I seem to do mine on the 'spur of the moment type cooks'.
So far all who have had them think they are really good, but, they "might" be better with the marinade is what I wonder. However, the taste is good enough for me to cook it when you want it and just go for it and not mess with the time marinating.

So while I personally like to marinate a turkey if I have the time, I am satisfied with a good brisket that has not been marinated. [p]As for speeding up the cook, I have never tried to do that so I can't be of any help on that.
[p]

StubbyQ · July 2004

The key here is time. 225° pit temp for about 12 hours for a 10 lb. brisket. You are looking for an internal temp of 185°. You can go higher but it just dries the meat out. You will notice that the 185° and the 190° brisket are both juicy but after the slices set for a few minutes the 190° slice will be dry. The 185° slice will still be juicy.[p]I use a BBQ Guru to control the pit and the meat temp. It works great and I highly recommend it. It's really made Qing a fine art for me. So much control.[p]Low temp - slow cooking is the key to tender juicy briskets.[p]Also when you fire up the pit up, sneak up on the pit temp slowly. If you let it get above 225-250 it will take a long to come back down due the thermal holding qualities of the BGE.[p]I have never marinated mine but I do put the rub on and wrap the whole thing with plastic wrap. Place it in the fridge over night. The rub won't penetrate very deeply but the flavor will be enhanced considerably.[p]I always add some wood chunks, which I never soak in water. Your choice but I like hickory and pecan. If you soak them the chips have to dry out before they will start smoking. It's just a waste of time. Use chunks not chips.[p]I also trim the fat as close as I can leaving about a 1/4 inch. I also trim the large chunk of fat on the side to form a V. I cook fat side up so the fat melts down into the brisket for tenderness.[p]They come out great. Been perfecting this technique for some time now and this really works for me. The family loves them anyway.[p]Even temps friend.

Unknown · July 2004

Grillboy,
I've had my large bge for six weeks. I did a 6.6 lb. brisket three weeks ago. It took 15 hours. (At first I thought this was too long; but come to find out this is pretty normal for low and slow). I used a yellow mustard coating with a basic beef dry rub. I put it all on about an hour and a half before putting it in the egg. This was done while the brisket was coming to room temp. I've taken everyone's advice and used the warm up method of coming to temp in the egg vs. cool down to temp. I now use two polder probes. One is in the meat and one is in a potato that sits on the grid to monitor surface temp. (See posts about temperature difference between dome temp and surface temp)
Next time I am either going to take the brisket off at 175-180, or wrap it in foil at the 10 hour mark until it reaches 185. Why? I thought the meat was a little dry. Someone has posted a recipe for a 5 hour brisket. Don't smoke for longer than 2 hours.

Brisket Questions?

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