Hush yer mouth: BBQ Beef Brisket

Sunday in the kitchen Part 1: BBQ Brisket.

It was a long day, but happy. Oscar Sunday started for me at 4:46 AM, I had to get dinner going.

Okay I really got started early last week when my neighbor gave me a frozen piece of brisket to smoke (don't ask me how I got it lit). The beef thawed in the fridge for a few days and I put a rub on it Saturday. Here's the rub mix (adapted from The Virtual Bullet)

1/8 cup salt

1/8 cup ground black pepper

1/8 cup paprika

1 T granulated garlic powder

1 tsp dry mustard powder

The meat we had was the flat cut of the brisket that had been well trimmed. If feel up to it just get a whole brisket and trim it yourself, leave about 1/8 to 1/4 inch of fat on it. I rubbed it in a large ziploc bag and left it overnight.

On Sunday morning I put the brisket on the smoker at 5:46 AM, the hood temp was 250F. I figured it would take about 12 hours to cook the meat to a finished internal temperature of 200F. By 7:45 AM the internal temperature was 160F. So, will I be having Brisket for lunch? No. At 4:00 PM (that's 16:40 for all my military and continental readers) I removed the meat for serving with the final temp only reaching 190F.

Brisket is a funny smoke, but man is it good. You don't need a smoker to do this recipe, just about any charcoal grill with a hood will do. Take a look at the Slow Pork Taco Recipe, for details on smoking in a kettle grill.

Hot smoked beef brisket for Oscar night. But wait there's more.

Cheers.