How to pick a good brisket

[TL Parnell]

I will tell you guys how I was taught to pick a good, lean brisket to cook. Pick up the brisket & hold in the middle, if it is really floppy, it is a good one, if it is stiff, there is way too much fat in it, dig through the pile for one that you can fold up & stick in your pocket! LOL! I cook mine fat side up, I season it with a good brisket rub or make your own with a mix of chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder & little brown sugar. NEVER SMOKE any meat over 3hours!!! After 3 hours of smoking, put in a covered roasting pan or loosely wrapped foil TENT so it will steam in it's own juices & gets tender enough to pinch a bite off! It took me 30 years of experimenting to come up with this technique, try it, you'll like it! I use the little end for sandwiches or sliced plates & the big end for making chopped BBQ. Trim SOME, NOT ALL the fat out, chop it up with a meat cleaver, put in a sauce pan with your favorite sauce & simmer on the stove & enjoy! This is courtesy of "HANK'S BBQ WAGON"~!!!

[Gator]

TL, there is some good info in your post. What kind of Pit and wood are you using?

[SteerCrazy]

I will tell you guys how I was taught to pick a good, lean brisket to cook. Pick up the brisket & hold in the middle, if it is really floppy, it is a good one, if it is stiff, there is way too much fat in it, dig through the pile for one that you can fold up & stick in your pocket! LOL! I cook mine fat side up, I season it with a good brisket rub or make your own with a mix of chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder & little brown sugar. NEVER SMOKE any meat over 3hours!!! After 3 hours of smoking, put in a covered roasting pan or loosely wrapped foil TENT so it will steam in it's own juices & gets tender enough to pinch a bite off! It took me 30 years of experimenting to come up with this technique, try it, you'll like it! I use the little end for sandwiches or sliced plates & the big end for making chopped BBQ. Trim SOME, NOT ALL the fat out, chop it up with a meat cleaver, put in a sauce pan with your favorite sauce & simmer on the stove & enjoy! This is courtesy of "HANK'S BBQ WAGON"~!!!

Sounds like some good sound advice TL but smoking a brisket for 3 hours? What temps are we talkin here? Sounds like a high heat cook.

[TL Parnell]

I will tell you guys how I was taught to pick a good, lean brisket to cook. Pick up the brisket & hold in the middle, if it is really floppy, it is a good one, if it is stiff, there is way too much fat in it, dig through the pile for one that you can fold up & stick in your pocket! LOL! I cook mine fat side up, I season it with a good brisket rub or make your own with a mix of chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder & little brown sugar. NEVER SMOKE any meat over 3hours!!! After 3 hours of smoking, put in a covered roasting pan or loosely wrapped foil TENT so it will steam in it's own juices & gets tender enough to pinch a bite off! It took me 30 years of experimenting to come up with this technique, try it, you'll like it! I use the little end for sandwiches or sliced plates & the big end for making chopped BBQ. Trim SOME, NOT ALL the fat out, chop it up with a meat cleaver, put in a sauce pan with your favorite sauce & simmer on the stove & enjoy! This is courtesy of "HANK'S BBQ WAGON"~!!!

Sounds like some good sound advice TL but smoking a brisket for 3 hours? What temps are we talkin here? Sounds like a high heat cook.

I mean smoking it for 3 hours, if ya smoke it much more than that, it will be bitter tasting, after it smokes for 3 hours, FINISH COOKING IT on the pit in a roasting pan for about 8-14 hours, depending on the heat, I cook mine at about 300 degrees, even while smoking it! My pit cooks fast, I can fully cook a 15# brisket in about 10 1/2 -12 hrs!Try it this way, you will like it! I like to burn a little mesquite, mostly oak & pecan if I can get it!

[SteerCrazy]

I will tell you guys how I was taught to pick a good, lean brisket to cook. Pick up the brisket & hold in the middle, if it is really floppy, it is a good one, if it is stiff, there is way too much fat in it, dig through the pile for one that you can fold up & stick in your pocket! LOL! I cook mine fat side up, I season it with a good brisket rub or make your own with a mix of chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder & little brown sugar. NEVER SMOKE any meat over 3hours!!! After 3 hours of smoking, put in a covered roasting pan or loosely wrapped foil TENT so it will steam in it's own juices & gets tender enough to pinch a bite off! It took me 30 years of experimenting to come up with this technique, try it, you'll like it! I use the little end for sandwiches or sliced plates & the big end for making chopped BBQ. Trim SOME, NOT ALL the fat out, chop it up with a meat cleaver, put in a sauce pan with your favorite sauce & simmer on the stove & enjoy! This is courtesy of "HANK'S BBQ WAGON"~!!!

Sounds like some good sound advice TL but smoking a brisket for 3 hours? What temps are we talkin here? Sounds like a high heat cook.

I mean smoking it for 3 hours, if ya smoke it much more than that, it will be bitter tasting, after it smokes for 3 hours, FINISH COOKING IT on the pit in a roasting pan for about 8-14 hours, depending on the heat, I cook mine at about 300 degrees, even while smoking it! My pit cooks fast, I can fully cook a 15# brisket in about 10 1/2 -12 hrs!Try it this way, you will like it! I like to burn a little mesquite, mostly oak & pecan if I can get it!

Got it...so you are talking specifically smoke only....well then I would tend to agree if you tecnically smoke it for longer the meat will get bitter.....

[CoyoteBlues]

Thats pretty much the way I do it...kinda depends on how much smoke tho ...

Good info on how to pick one out...thanks

[perryranch]

Ok I've never cooked a brisket on the pit before only in a crockpot. And that was only the really small ones we get off the calves we butcher. But when I was a kid my granpa always said the more you can bend the brisket in half the better. So that's how I've done it for yrs and have never failed. Can't wait to cook my own.

[TL Parnell]

TL, there is some good info in your post. What kind of Pit and wood are you using?

Sorry gator for just now responding to your question, I cook on an old pit I built myself out of an old commercial air compresor tank, the firebox is my old cooker that I bought in 1986 the 1st time I went into the restaurant business. A guy that was building them outa 18 inch oil field casings, was selling them for $125.00! It rusted out on me last year, so I put a new bottom in it, cut the end out of it & welded it in the end for a firebox. It ain't pretty, nor is it all fancy smancy either, but it cooks better than any of the others I've ever built & I've built a lot!!! The configuration of it is perfect, it draws great & I can cook about 6 briskets & burn maybe 15 sticks of wood. I have all mesquite wood now, but I like to use oak, mesquite & a little pecan wood when I can get it! I've never entered any competitions & have no desire to do so, I just like to cook for family & friends since I went out of the concession trailer BBQ business. I traded my wagon for a Massey Ferguson tractor! LOL!!

[Gator]

TL,

Any guy that would trade his tractor for a concession trailer is a true cook! Keep up the good posts!

Gator

[nascarchuck]

Ummm... I think that someone read something wrong...

[DATsBBQ]

Left handed briskets from free range organic cows

In reality, I buy mine from a local butcher. I've never been disappointed. Can't say that with some I've gotten at CostCO. I only buy packers.

They smoke up right good.

[T-bone Tony]

Sounds like you've got it down to a fine art for your crew. And, while I agree with your stance on choosing a limber brisket for tenderness, me and my crew actually prefer a much longer smoke. I generally shoot for about 12 to 14 hours over Post Oak, Hickory and a little apple thrown in and I wrap it for about the last 4 hours holding a temperature of about 210 degrees on the smoker for the full length of the cook. I also cook whole, untrimmed briskets... Fat side up with S&P and a light brisket rub.

[dub']

pick up brisket.
look at price tag.
if the price doesn't make you cry,
buy it.

['BoutTime]

My method:
Go to Costco.
Look for Prime Grade briskets.
Pick up one after the other until one speaks to you.
That's your brisket.