Brisket
Rub Ingredients
⅓ cup kosher salt
¼ cup brown sugar packed
1 tablespoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons course ground black pepper
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoon cumin
*The original source of this rub recipe said this would be good for a 6 to 8 lb brisket
I have used about 2x batch for ~14lb briskets
Original rule of thumb says 250°F and 30 minutes per pound, a 7 lb brisket in Colorado took 8 hours at 275°F. Give yourself 1.5 hours per pound to cook in an oven and use a probe thermometer.
Directions
Prepare to cook
Use double batch rub for ~14lb brisket cut in half. (Double batch likely would have worked for 22.5lb in one piece)
Pat brisket dry with paper towel.
Cover generously with rub on all sides
Use wire rack or smaller tray on foil-ball legs to keep brisket off the bottom.
Lay brisket fat cap down in pan - smoking instructions say to flip half-way through cooking, I didn't flip it while baking in the oven, just rotated the pans on the same shelf. If cooking in a smoker I would maybe start fat cap up, then flip it once; about 3-4 hours into cooking. We couldn't flip the 22.5 lb brisket, rotating was difficult to manage so we didn't do that either.
~14 pounds halved in two pans (cover with foil) will bake at 250°F about 6.5 hours total. Started 22.5 lb at 23:00 Tuesday at 275°F, cooked for 2 hours then lowered to 225°F and covered with foil. We uncovered it at about 147°F around 05:00. It reached 154°F by 07:15 Wednesday.
Move pans (if on different shelves) to get approximately same amount of time on each rack level if they don't fit on the same shelf.
Stick the probe in the center of the thickest part of meat and the milestones are (adjust as needed):
Cook Uncovered for 2 hours, or until about 150°F, cover with foil
If needing to cook overnight, lower temp to 225°F, and do not leave unattended for more than 4 hours. I recommend checking every 2 hours, or every hour if you're >=175°F, uncover when you wake up (4 hours) and hold on to foil.
Covering with foil helps raise the temperature faster, which can help with a stall. If you don’t want sweat and drippings to make the bark soggy, cook uncovered for a couple hours at the beginning to set it up nice, then don't cook it covered for longer than 4 hours at a time.
When the brisket reaches 185°F, that's a good time to pull it to rest.
Rest for 2 hours minimum, any size. Larger briskets will benefit from a longer rest, I'm aiming for at least 4 hours for the 22.5 lb before I even think about cutting it. I may only cut it enough so it'll fit in a smaller pan for reheating.
Baking/smoking steps:
1. Cook 2 hours, fat cap down if oven only, start with fat cap up if smoking so it gets flipped once and finishes cooking with the fat cap down.
2. Swap shelves/rotate
3. Cook 2 hours
4. Uncover, flip, and swap, if >=175°F leave uncovered, if not cover it again
5. Cook 1 hour
6. Swap shelves or rotate, check temperature, looking for ~182°F to 185°F, will keep climbing after removed, check after about 5 minutes, the actual goal temperature is 190°F to 203°F
7. Cook in half-hour or hour (based on temp and thickness: hour for thicker piece 10°F+ away from goal, half-hour for flat) increments until done.
8. Let rest 30 minutes before cutting across the grain (perpendicular to the grain).
07/16/2023 cook the day before and reheat notes, 7.75 and 7.25 lb halves of whole brisket from Neville's (15.36 lb cost $88.70) the meat reached 160/170 and was still decent after reheating this way.
Take the brisket out of the fridge and set a 30 minute timer
When the timer goes off, start preheating the oven to 325°F (approximately 10 minutes) and cover the brisket tightly. (Instructions I found say double layer, I'm just going to use the pan we have with a lid)
For the unsliced halves (or "whole") of brisket, bake for about an hour, covered (instructions I found suggest basting) I will probably probe to check the progress about 30 minutes in, it needs to get to 140°F
If reheating sliced brisket, bake for about 20 minutes, until it reaches 140°F
Double Recipe for quick reference
⅔ cup kosher salt
½ cup brown sugar packed
2 tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoon smoked paprika
4 teaspoons course ground black pepper
4 teaspoon cumin
References
Brown, A. (2020). Smoked Brisket Recipe. Retrieved 26 July 2024, from https://altonbrown.com/recipes/smoked-brisket/
Evinks, J., & Evinks, J. (2020, March 17). Brisket rub. Gimme Some Grilling ®. https://gimmesomegrilling.com/brisket-rub/