Yeah, I remember that. “Why isn’t the temperature rising? Isn’t it supposed to be rising now? Do I need to raise the temp more? Did I wrap it wrong?”
10 minutes later: “Oh, there it is, about 3 degrees. I guess I didn’t screw up.”
Smoking is a great teacher of patience and faith. It’s terrifically repeatable and reliable, as long as you take care of the basics (like maintaining your heat source) and have some faith in the process.
It’s also a great excuse to sit around and drink bourbon all day.
Which, if done right, may help both patience and faith.
Good bourbon can be an effective anti-anxiety treatment.
If you wanna be a little fancier, you can slather it in beef tallow (wagyu even—it’s not that spendy from what I remember buying it as a Christmas gift) and put it in the meat when you wrap it in butcher paper. This is purported to be a “secret” of Franklin Barbecue, but I see it all over the place these days.
When I first started smoking briskets, I tried to do everything by the letter of the law of whatever recipe I was following. Over the years I’ve come to accept that a full packer brisket is a large ornery chunk of beef that is going to do what it wants to. Get that thing in your smoker and keep your fire/smoke clean and resist the temptation to open the doors too often. Plan on pulling it off the smoker 3-4 hours before you want to slice. Enjoy the ride!
Amen!
I would further add that Aaron Franklin’s books are excellent reference material for all things BBQ.
I really like the Amazing Ribs website, good recipes for sides as well.
So I did a whole brisket again yesterday on my Weber kettle grill, as seen in the Cook’s Country video I originally posted in the OP. Can’t believe it’s been over 2 years since I last BBQed a whole brisket.
Turned out great again. If you only have a kettle-style grill and want to BBQ a whole brisket, you can’t really go wrong if you follow that video to the letter.
This time I did the rub suggested in the Mad Scientist BBQ video that pulykamell posted: I covered the brisket in mustard, then added a generous amount of Lawry’s seasoned salt, garlic powder, and black pepper. Definitely produces a better-tasting brisket than just a salt and pepper rub.
I also did a pork butt in my Weber Smoky Mountain smoker-- had a few friends and family over for BBQ and football watching. Even with 8 people, there is a ton of leftovers! Good thing pulled pork freezes well (not so sure about brisket). Will probably be eating thawed-out BBQ leftovers well into Winter 
I know I’m bumping this, but I think this question will work better in this thread rather than starting a new one.
Has anyone ever tried cooking a brisket in the oven? I see some recipes online calling for low and slow in the oven - I don’t have access to a smoker so I want to give this a try someday when I’m working from home.
I’ve never cooked a brisket in the oven, but sure, you could cook it low and slow in the oven to an internal temp of 200-205F and have very good results. The only thing you’d be missing, of course, is the smoke flavoring.
I’ve had brisket that was done low and slow in the oven. The guy who did it put little slits in it all over, and stuck cloves of garlic in the slits, then wrapped it in foil. It was pretty good.
Well, I went and bought a 5 lbs brisket and gave it a dry rub today. I plan to cook it in the oven tomorrow, will report back.
Here’s a guy I sort of follow, or more accurately don’t follow so much as get his videos served to me on YouTube. This one about the best way to cook brisket in the oven showed up in my YT feed soon after I responded to your question about brisket oven cooking. What are the odds?!? It’s almost like some entity is tracking my online activity or something.
The guy does know his stuff. Though I would have left a bit more fat on the brisket than he did:
The results were very good, but not quite great. I think it ended up slightly overcooked, I probably could have pulled it 30-60 minutes earlier. But it was tasty with great texture. I’ll try it again, maybe slight less rub as well.
Nice! What kind of rub mix did you use?
Looks pretty nice, but why did you think it was overcooked? Unless you’re wanting slices that hold together well (I don’t, the fall apart texture is part of the joy), it’s really hard to overcook a brisket.
You can dry a brisket out by overcooking it. Been there. It’ll be fall-apart tender, and still plenty tasty, but not quite as juicy as you’d want it.
Yeah, I’ve had juicier brisket, so that’s what I’d like to work on. Maybe change the way it’s wrapped in the oven, not sure. It was 5.5 lbs and it was in the oven for about 7 hours at 300. I actually dropped it to 275 for a while in middle.
The rub was a combination of store bought rub from Stubb’s combined with some brown sugar. Next time I think I’ll use mustard for a binder, I didn’t use any binder but it wasn’t a problem.
The important thing is not so much the oven temp (though yeah, you maybe could have gone 275 the whole time) but the internal temp of the brisket. Use a meat thermometer, take it out of the oven at between 200-205F internal temp, wrap it in old towels (with foil already tightly wrapped around the brisket of course), put it in a cooler, and let it rest for an hour or two before cutting.
Ahh, got ya. Plus, I’m always doing a whole packer brisket at about 225F average, so there’s always tons of fat to juice things up and little chance of drying out.
When I took the brisket out of the oven the temp was 201, so it seemed like it was in the right zone. The last hour of cooking brought it from 195 to 201, and then I rested it for a full hour.