Brisket help please

Your first mistake is dont buy one trimmed and dont trim it either, when you cook a brisket cook it fat side up so that all the fat will melt and basically seep through the meet causing it to be moist, hope that helps, i asked my uncle who has been cooking brisket in his Tx restaurant for the past 30 years how to keep it from being dry, that was his advice for me to give to you.

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dont buy one trimmed and dont trim it either, when you cook a brisket cook it fat side up so that all the fat will melt and basically seep through the meet causing it to be mois

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This. And keep the temp. low, like the guy said, 225° or so. It'll take a while to cook it, depending on how heavy it is. Check it after an hour or so. But I'm guessing 3-4 hours, maybe more.

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les miles makes a killer brisket

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Yep. Mighty tasty!

its defiantly an unorthodox way to cook brisket but it does come out tasty. He does have issues getting the brisket out in a timely manner but other than that is great

Every time Les makes a brisket he has to toss out two of them before he gets one right.

1. Dry rub of choice ... Maybe add a little more black pepper than you think you'll need. Rub that baby down, all over. You can leave in fridge overnight. You can also inject some steak or hot sauce into the brisket prior to rubbin' ... not traditional, but tastes good. I do it traditional 2/3 of the time
2. Remove from fridge, let meat come to room temp.
3. Offset vertical smoker works really well. I like a water pan for a "wet smoke"
4. Keep smoker temp around 225-250
5. Many opinions here--I prefer to cook brisket fat side up, but fat down is okay too. Don't sweat this part
6. Smoke with Pecan logs if you can. Hickory and oak are okay too, but mesquite can get away from a newbie and leave a harsh flavor. Pecan is my favorite.
7. Try to limit it to 1 piece of wood on the fire at a time and make sure your smoke is pretty clear. If it's billowing out white, you have an issue (and will have a harsh smoke taste). If you need to raise the temp, open the vent to let air in and raise the flame, don't just instinctively "add more wood."
8. Smoke for at least 4-6 hrs ... The meat can't take much more smoke after 6 hrs, but there may be more beer to drink
9. Remove and wrap in old, clean towels and put in an insulated cooler while you get everything else ready to eat.
10. Use an electric knife to remove the fat cap and then slice the brisket against the grain.
11. Central-Texas-Style Brisket should be tender inside and starting to flake along edge, but not falling apart. If it does, you probably cooked it too long or "steamed it" in aluminum foil, instead of "smoking."
12. If it looks like my photo, "you did good"

yep this is an easy one; the meat stops accepting smoke at around 140 internally or so and so continuing to add wood could make the bark 'greasy' and 'over-smoked' from the wood. wrapping it in foil will solve the problem if you have to keep adding wood.

i've never had a pure wood smoker so its always been fairly easy for me to only have wood in the smoker for the first 3-4 hours of the smoke.

alternatively you can take it out and put it in the oven once its reached its maximum smoke potential but thats kind of cheating and bbq purists will laugh at you.


eta i used to always smoke mine at 215-225 which meant a looooooong cook but i've found with the bubba keg (green egg, etc) you can smoke it at 250 and because of the wonderful way these ovens cook, the brisket will stay super moist even at 250 and not turn out tough.

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6. Smoke with Pecan logs if you can. Hickory and oak are okay too, but mesquite can get away from a newbie and leave a harsh flavor. Pecan is my favorite.

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Where do you get pecan chips or chunks? I have only seen hickory and mesquite

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Where do you get pecan chips or chunks?

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ace hardware and kroger here in nashville carry apple, cherry and pecan chunks. also try academy.