It's an all day event, and that's half the fun. Plus, in the end it's really really really worth it.
The first step is finding your brisket. You don't want a trimmed brisket. Fat is good. You can get an entire brisket or they section it off into two parts. A flat cut and the point cut. The point cut is fattier, which equals more gooder. But you can do the whole brisket, the flat cut or the point cut. It doesn't matter.
Next is the dry rub. This is pretty straightforward and as long as you have the basics you can add different spices depending on your preferences. You'll need Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Paprika, Brown Sugar, Salt, Pepper at the very least. Other spices you can add: Ginger, ground coffee, turmeric, cumin, chile powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, thyme.
For mine I did 1 part Garlic Powder, 1 part granulated garlic, 1 Part Onion Powder, 1/2 part Paprika, 2 parts brown sugar, 1 part salt, 1 part pepper, 1 part white pepper, 1/4 part ginger, 1 part coffe grinds.
Don't worry about this too much, put your spice mix together, taste it or smell it, get the salty sweet balance right, and a little sweet is better. And you want it to be full of flavor.
Rub down your brisket with your spice mix. And be very liberal with it. This will be your bark when you're done. And you want it to have a little bit of thickness. The brisket should have enough moisture to hold the rub. Really get it in the meat and completely cover the entire brisket. Top, bottom, sides, everywhere.
Cover that in foil and put it in the refrigerator overnight.
Next you'll need to get your grill ready You'll need a charcoal grill. I have a basic weber grill.
You'll need a aluminum tray, you know the ones at the grocery store. Get one the same size or bigger than your brisket.
Charcoal. And mesquite wood chips. As any texas man knows you don't smoke with anything other than mesquite.
Instant Read Meat Thermometer.
The key to smoking meat is time and temperature using indirect heat. If the heat is direct you'll have a charred piece of grizzle.
You want to create a space for your meat. And a space for your charcoal. This is where the aluminum foil tray comes into play. Put it in your grill to one side. This is your meat area. You'll then have a smaller space on the side where you can put your charcoal. You'll want to put your meat as far away from the flame as possible.
Fill your aluminum tray with two inches of water or beef stock. Light your charcoal, if you have a charcoal chimney works great for this. You want about 10 coals to start with. Let the charcoal burn until there's no black left. Then spread it on the side, next to the foil tray.
On other trick here, is positioning the grill right. Leave the opening, below the handle, on top of the coals. That way, when you have to add a coal or two later you'll have space.
Put the top on the grill. And put your thermomentor in the vent.
Now comes the tricky part. You want a temperature between about 215 and 240 degrees F. Adjust the top vent and the bottom vent to get the right heat. Open them up to get more heat, close them off to cool off your grill. Chances are, you'll be hot when you first put the top on the grill. As your charcoal is still pretty hot. Close the vents and smother the fire a little if need be. If it's really cool you might open the top completely. throw on a couple coals and let the fire really get going.
Once you get your heat right, it's time to put on the brisket. First, open the top and drop on some mesquite chips and a couple coals. Then place your meat as far away from the fire as possible. FAT SIDE UP. This is very important. The fat actually bastes the meat. It melts and keeps the brisket moist. So double check and make sure your fat side is up.
Put the top back on and watch the temp.
Brisket is actually a tough piece of meat. It takes a long slow cook and then suddenly you get a tender piece of meat that tastes like its from heavenly cows. The goal is to get the meat up to a minimum of 185 degrees and a max of 200 degrees. This takes about an hour and 15 mins per pound. Give or take. It's never the same.
Once your brisket is on, check on it every half hour or so. Make sure your temperature is good. Every hour or so drop a couple pieces of charcoal and a wood chip on the coals. And that's it.
Check the temperature of your meat after a couple hours. And then hourly after that. You'll hit 140-150 degrees and it will stick. For some reason the temp plateaus there for a couple hours. Just keep your temperature constant.
You can also mop your bbq with beer, coffee, stock, or bbq sauce. I wouldn't recommend bbq sauce early on, it jsut tends to burn. I wait until the last hour before i put any bbq sauce on. But, you don't have to do that at all.
That's it. Once you get it up to 190 or so, you can take the top off the bbq pit and let the meat rest for about 30 mins. This makes it even more tender. Honestly, i've never had a chance to do that. You can also put it in the oven for the last part. Smoke it for at least a couple of hours, then throw it in the oven. That perfectly acceptable as well, as long as you can look at yourself in the mirror afterwards.
