Preparing The Brisket

1) Selecting the Right Brisket - It's important to purchase a whole packer brisket complete with the point and the flat.

The quality of the meat you choose matters when you are attempting to cook a great brisket; prime beef has even marbling meaning more flavour and juiciness!

To figure out how much brisket you need, try to plan or 226g of brisket per person.


2) Trimming the Brisket - This is a crucial step!

You need to spend 20-30 mins if required to just away all the hard fat and membrane that won't melt away in the smoker and if skipped, will greatly affect the outcome of your brisket!

Shown below is how to trim your brisket from a master smoker!

3) Season your Brisket - Seasoning all comes down to personal preference on the flavour you would prefer your brisket to have!

Click HERE to see a range of flavours you could use to season your brisket!

If this is your first time, we would recommend using a traditional seasoning of salt and pepper with a bit of rosemary.

Apply the seasoning in a fine coat; you want to cover the brisket without going overboard.

Let's Get Smoking!

1) Light up your smoker using the fuel type of your specific smoker and the flavour you are after.

The goal to smoking is to keep a consistent heat and a steady flow of thin blue smoke.


2) Wrapping the Brisket - This is a very important step!

Wrapping your brisket in butcher paper retains the meat's natural juices and keeps the brisket from drying out.

Wrap the brisket up like a present, folding edge over edge until it is fully sealed.

Return the brisket to your smoker with the folded edges down and continue smoking at 107 degrees Celsius until the internal temperature of your brisket reaches 94 degrees Celsius at its thickest part (make sure your thermometer is in the meat, not the fat).


3) Allow the brisket to rest - DO NOT SKIP THIS!

Letting the brisket to rest allows for the hot bubbly juices to settle down and redistribute throughout the brisket.


4) Slicing the Brisket - You want to slice your smoked brisket against the grain for maximum tenderness.

But remember!

There are two overlapping muscles and two different grain directions.

You can split the point and flat sections and slice each individually against the grain before serving, but that sometimes leaves pieces with no bark on top.

Traditional Texas joints split the brisket down the middle, as close as possible where to point overlaps the flat, they then turn the point 90 degrees and slice it that way and then finish by slicing the flat the opposite way.

You will have some pieces where the grain isn’t perfect but if your meat is tender enough, this won’t matter too much.


5) Now, dig in and enjoy your hours of hard work!

How Long To Smoke?

For the initial smoke phase, we recommend you plan about 8 hours at 107 degrees Celsius for 5-6 kg of brisket to reach 73 degrees Celsius.

However, your brisket will enter a phase between 62 degrees Celsius and 73 degrees Celsius where the liquid evaporates from the surface of the brisket, cooling it while your grill is trying to cook it.

This is called the stall, and the time frame is different during this phase for every brisket.

This is where a good internal thermometer comes in.

The second phase (once it’s wrapped in butcher paper), can take anywhere from 5-8 hours.

We recommend you plan an extra 2 hours for each brisket you cook because if it is done early, you can always set it in a cooler and allow it to rest for a while.

The bottom line is to plan for anywhere between 12-18 hours to fully cook your brisket.

This includes the initial smoke to 73 degrees and the wrapped smoke to get your meat up to 94 degrees Celsius.