I’m with bump on the higher heat method. Same with pork shoulder. For me, it turns out tastier and juicier (and faster, to boot!), but most of the regular wisdom is 225, like you say, and let your taste be your guide. That said, there are people who do brisket and shoulder at even higher heats: 300-350. I’ve never tried to go that high myself – 275 is about my sweet spot.
Well, I’ve never had a brisket or shoulder that could be considered dry, and I’ve certainly had smokes that went well above 225 for extended periods of time. So, really, hitting 300 or so for awhile shouldn’t be a problem. I often finish mine at 275, after all. They turn out to be perfectly fine briskets.
But the briskets where I was amazed at how well it turned out and have been most complimented on were the ones where I actually didn’t watch the fire well, and it often dipped down to 190-200, and really spent most of its time below 212. That’s a slow, almost torturous way to cook, but when I’ve had the time to be that inattentive, it seems to have paid off. I’ll normally just give up and eventually pop it in the oven to have it done before guests arrive, but when time’s not a concern, it’s paid off.
225 shouldn’t be dry at all, I agree. I just find 275 to have a better bark and it seems a little bit juicier to me.
I’m one who doesn’t pay any attention to what the heat is in my smoker. I just use a WSM, fill it, set the “water pan” filled with sand in it, and go to town. My heat is probably around 275/285 for most of the cook, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it spikes to 300 – I just leave it alone until it looks like it may be running out of fuel (around 6 hours – although I’ve done a brisket on one oversized load of charcoal). The only temps I take are to get an idea of where it is (below stall, at stall, climbing up from stall?) and then mostly go by feel from there. Sometimes I crutch, sometimes I don’t. I do find crutching makes things a bit more consistent, but my best brisket ever was cooked naked. (So was my most mediocre, though.)
Ok, so everything else you say makes sense to me (after all, the internals kind of depend on you guessing what the cow has made inside there, and what’s going on at that temp). But my brother raves about my bark, and so far how much he raves seems to correlate with how much I’ve gone low/slow with increasing proportions of wood to charcoal over the years as I’ve worked through different smokers (generally at about 50/50 these days). What’s the high temp doing to the bark that you’re enjoying? I generally think of the bark as the carbon layer that mixes with the spices and the smoke ring on the outer layer of the meat. I don’t understand how a higher heat could make that form faster.
Of course, we’re smoking meat. Don’t need answer fast.
Oh, and I’m one of those obsessives who has a grate level thermometer and a probe in the meat, with it wirelessly connecting to an alarm unit I can carry around the house. Life was hard ten years ago when I would just set an alarm to get up periodically to check the fire and the temps. These days I just get told that I’m an idiot and have let the fire die down at the appropriate time, and I like it that way.
I agree. I’ve always gotten great results from ~275. And it doesn’t take freakin’ forever.
I’m glad @bump bumped this thread, because it’s about time I BBQed up another brisket, and this time I want to try the method from the video in @pulykamell 's post #23, using seasoned salt, mustard, pickle juice and a couple other ingredients. Been saving up on pickle juice for just such an occasion. Thanks for that video, pulykamell!
Coincidentally we are having four other couples over this Saturday and am doing all of ribs (12 pounds of spare ribs cut St Louis style), smoked chicken (two birds worth, brined with a coffee based dry rub), and a 7 pound brisket flat. Along with the variety of sides. So thinking again about the details. (Obviously I didn’t go with the whole packer squeezed in.)
One cheat for a better smoke ring that I’d like input on (it’s cosmetic in any case) - ground celery seed in the rub? Natural nitrates.
Any thoughts about having the dry rub on from the night before? The salt is the only part that gets sucked in well but maybe getting it more absorbed helps?
As you say it will be cosmetic only, a cheat for appearance’s sake. It won’t make any difference to the flavor. Plus you’re adding nitrates, which is not a great additive just for the sake of appearance alone. Add celery seed if you like the taste of ground celery seed in your rub., otherwise I’d say leave it out.
I’ve always heard the night before is best. I’m not sure of the exact science, but I imagine some flavors get to piggyback along with the salt osmosis. Plus, I think it just helps the rub ‘set’ on the meat better. Again, not science, just my $.02.
Does the seed have any nitrates? I thought it was the juice that was high in nitrates.
At any rate, I’ve never had a hard time getting a good smoke ring with charcoal, natural gas, or straight wood smokers, just on things like electric Bradley Smokers.
Yup. A Masterbuilt electric.
I’ll have to check about the seeds having nitrates or not!
As far as health … I’m making a cornucopia of smoked meats. It’s a once in a while thing. A little extra nitrates are swamped by the rest.
Looks matter!
I’ve heard to let the fire get well established and smoky and then put the meat on cold. I don’t smoke enough to give reliable data, though.
I’ll plug r/bbq and r/grilling. Good groups of folks.
@solost, apologize for the bump, but I just watched the brisket episode of Cook’s Country and wanted to ask you a few questions about your cook last year.
Specifically, did you worry about temperature control at all? They don’t mention it in the show, beyond opening both vents full and saying “It will keep the temperature at a steady 275-300”. Did you do the same? Did you make any adjustments during the cooking process?
I’m planning on making this in a few weekends, and it will be my first attempt at a brisket solely on the Weber kettle. I’ve done briskets with the “sous vide then smoke” method, and found it to be disappointing.
Pshaw, no need to apologize! I love talking brisket, and I’m very happy to hear someone else is going to try this method.
As I described in this post as I went along that day, I followed the directions in the video absolutely to the letter, and everything they said along the way was spot-on accurate-- the grill temp staying steady, the “at X hours the internal temp will be Y and the coals will be Z% consumed”. As they say in the video, normally they take 6 weeks to perfect a recipe for the show; perfecting this brisket technique took them 2 years and 500 lbs. of brisket. So they ain’t fooling around. When they say “use two layers of exactly 58 briquettes per layer in a semicircle” or whatever it was, use that exact amount! It’s basically the way Walter White would BBQ a brisket, if he was into BBQ instead of meth.
Good luck! Looking forward to hearing how it turns out!
I thought of another piece of advice for you, muldoonthief-- the one thing I will do different next time I do this technique again is to try a more complicated rub or marinade than the supposedly traditional Texas ‘salt & pepper’ rub, which is simply salt and pepper.
As pulykamell points out in his earlier post in this thread, Texas pit masters themselves these days likely have their own secret rub recipes that are more complex. In addition to the video in this post, I’ve watched many videos with great brisket rub or marinade ideas since then:
Damn, it’s been far too long since I’ve BBQed anything! I’ve grilled a lot, and improved on my jerk chicken technique, but it’s been a busy spring and summer and I just haven’t had an entire weekend day to devote to it. Need to do this brisket technique again, with a better rub. Thanks again for the bump / wake-up call!
Thanks solost. It just seems very hairy to trust the temperature, but I’ll give it a shot. I’ll definitely watch the video about more complex rubs as well. I assume you don’t want a brown sugar heavy rub like you’d use on ribs or pork butt though.
I believe that the somewhat limited number of coals used in the circular ‘snake’ formation ensures that the grill temp stays moderate, even with the vents fully open. I mean, I would keep an eye on the grill temp just in case, and in colder temps you’d maybe need to have a few more coals to keep the temp high enough.
But when I did it in June of last year, I didn’t have to adjust or change anything from the video; it all worked like a charm.
As for brown sugar, my understanding is it’s a general rule not to use a sugar-heavy rub for BBQ at all, because sugar can tend to burn during the long cooking times. Save the sugar for the BBQ sauce, and only sauce the meat in the last 1/2 hour of cooking time, or only serve sauce on the side (or not at all in the case of brisket, accoridng to many brisket purists. But it’s an individual choice).
For my ribs, I use a rub I buy locally with sugar as the 1st ingredient, and it comes out great. But that’s a 4ish hour 225-250 cook, so less chance/time for the sugar to burn.
I’ve never done the kettle method, but I rarely bother with checking grate temperature when I smoke anything. You have a lot of leeway. Anywhere from 225 - 275 is fine, though my temps sometimes flare up to the very low 300s the few times I’ve checked. I suppose it depends on your personality/cooking style. Some people need to do it scientifically, with temp probes everywhere. I like to do it by feel, but I do have a baseline idea of what looks and feels right and where things should be about. (Though the first few smokes I did on the Smokey Mountain, I just followed instructions and used no thermometers whatsoever). I would trust those directions, but do stick an oven thermometer in there just to give yourself some peace of mind and an idea of where you’re at and how how a certain temp feels coming off the vents. Just don’t get too persnickety about it. If it’s running a little hot or cool, don’t worry about it. OK, maybe I’ll contradict myself. If you see it running much over 300, then I’d knock down the vents to 2/3 or so. Too low should not really be an issue, just will take longer.
Any advice on wood for smoke? In the CC video he uses hickory, but said apple, pecan or oak would be fine as well. I have a bunch of pecan right now.
Yeah, any of those woods should be fine, though I’ve never used pecan so I can’t speak to that. I had apple and hickory on hand, and I ended up using all hickory on my brisket because apple wood, as great as it is for pork or chicken, didn’t seem quite ‘right’ for beef. But that’s my own personal peccadillo.
jinglmassiv had a great suggestion early on in this thread:
Ha - I finished the Mad Scientist video about the Lawry rub and am currently watching his barrel stave video. Sadly, bourbon barrels aren’t easy to find where I live.