Texas Smoked Brisket

Storing and Planning Ahead

Refrigerate sliced up to 4 days, freeze 3 months. Reheat in a covered tray with a little beef stock.

Making Texas Smoked Brisket

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1. Trim the fat cap to an even 6 mm and square off any thin, ragged edges — they only burn.

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2. Mix the salt and pepper and coat the brisket heavily on all sides. Let it sit an hour at room temperature.

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3. Bring the smoker to a steady 110 to 120°C / 230 to 250°F on the oak, with clean, thin blue smoke. Thick white smoke makes bitter meat.

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4. Put the brisket on fat side up, point towards the hotter side of the chamber. Close the lid and leave it alone for 3 hours.

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5. Spritz with vinegar every 45 minutes from hour three, only to keep the surface from drying.

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6. At around 70°C / 158°F internal the temperature will stop rising. This is the stall. When the bark is dark and firm to the touch, wrap tightly in butcher paper.

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7. Return to the smoker and cook to 95 to 97°C / 205 to 205°F internal, probing the thickest part of the flat. It should feel like pushing into soft butter.

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8. Rest still wrapped in a cool oven or an insulated box for at least 2 hours, ideally 4.

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9. Slice the flat against the grain at pencil thickness. The grain turns in the point — rotate it 90 degrees and slice that separately, thicker.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Tips for Success

• Thin blue smoke, not white. White smoke is unburnt fuel and it tastes like an ashtray.
• Wrap when the bark is set, not at a fixed clock time.
• The two-hour rest is part of the cook, not an afterthought. Slicing early loses the juice.

Why the Method Is What It Is

Brisket has two muscles with different fat contents cooking as one piece, which is why the lean flat dries out before the fatty point is done. Wrapping at the stall — around 70°C / 158°F, where evaporative cooling halts the temperature climb — pushes it through without stripping the bark, and the long rest lets rendered fat redistribute into the flat.

What to Put Next to It

White bread, pickles and raw onion · Pinto beans · A cold lager

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Skillet Cornbread, Creamy Coleslaw, Philadelphia Soft Pretzels.

Questions About Texas Smoked Brisket

What's in a Serving

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.

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