Beef Brisket
Recipe Created By: Gettin' Basted 
A perfectly marbled beef brisket is out on the table in front of me.
Dryness is the enemy. Injections and salt will help us, but it will take the moisture that only fat can provide to truly win the war. I gently separate the two muscles by cutting out the hard fat between them. Then I follow the fat line and make small cuts. You don’t need to cut it in two, just expose some of that point muscle to seasoning and smoke. I completely remove the fat off the top of the exposed point muscle as I go.
Next I inject with my favorite injection.
Now rub. Which rub should I use? Cooking your brisket right is the most important part. Any commercial beef rub will work. Grab a beef rub, any beef rub, and lay it on heavy. I grab a shaker of Blues Hog Bold & Beefy and lay down a thick even coat.
My Gateway Drum is fueled with Blues Hog Lump Charcoal and running at a perfect 300º. Straight up and down on the dial. I put on a chunk or two of pecan wood for flavor and place the brisket on the cooker. Only a chunk or two? That can’t be enough wood. We want the smoke to flavor the meat, not take it over.
Laying the brisket fat side down on the top rack, the fat serves as protection from the direct heat of our fire. Now what? Now we wait.
Three hours and a 12 pack of beer go by. Now it is time to wrap. Wrapping our meat tightly with foil in a flavorful liquid will produce a tender juicy brisket. I rip off 3 large sheets of foil and mix a can of beef consomme with some allegro beef marinade. Any marinade will do, we just want to add beef flavor and salt to our liquid. I place my brisket in the center of the foil, dump the liquid over the top, wrap tightly in the foil and place back on my drum.
We will start checking for proper tenderness in an hour and a half. Another six pack of beer and an hour and a half are gone, never to be recovered. What temperature are we looking for? Briskets are judged by feel, not temperature. When your probe goes into the flat like a warm stick of creamy butter, it is done. The brisket is still tight. Probing more like a block of cheddar cheese than butter. I put the lid back on the drum. We will check again in 30 minutes, and every 30 minutes until it is done. It is always better to go long than to leave it underdone.
One hour later, I probe my brisket. It feels like… butter. It’s done. I pull it off and place it in that warm cooler. It is done cooking, yes, but it isn’t done. We have been hammering it with direct heat for 5 hours, it needs an hour or two to rest while the temperature slowly comes down. This keeps it from drying out and tightening up when we slice it. I lay a clean towel on the bottom of the cooler and gently place the still wrapped brisket on top shutting the lid tight.
Two hours later, I unwrap my brisket and separate the point from the flat. The fat will offer little resistance if you cooked it right. I cube up the point and cut the flat into long even slices against the grain laying the pieces back in the foil juice as I go to keep them warm until it is time to serve. Perfect. You did it. Now you are ready. Go out and spread your knowledge to the hungry masses.
