Central Texas Smoked Brisket

By Sprig Originals ✓ · with credit

Adapted from dontsweattherecipe.com

A whole packer brisket rubbed with nothing but coarse salt and cracked black pepper, then smoked over post oak until the bark is black and the meat pulls apart under its own weight. This is the plain-spoken Texas approach: no sauce, no sugar, just smoke and time.

Ingredients

• 1 whole beef brisket, packer cut

• 1/3 cup kosher salt
• 1/3 cup coarsely ground black pepper
• 2 tsp garlic powder (optional)

• post oak wood for smoking
• unwaxed butcher paper

Instructions

1. Unwrap the brisket and pat it thoroughly dry with paper towels. Set it fat side up on a large board and trim the fat cap down to an even 1/4 inch, cut away the hard wedge of deckle fat between the flat and the point, and trim back any thin, ragged edges that would burn over a long cook. Take your time here — 30 to 45 minutes of careful trimming pays off.
2. Stir the kosher salt, coarse black pepper and garlic powder together, then press the rub over every surface of the brisket — top, bottom and sides. Be generous; a packer brisket is a lot of meat and the rub becomes the bark. Let it sit at room temperature while the smoker comes up to heat.
3. Fire your smoker to a steady 225°F using post oak. Wait until the smoke runs thin and clean-blue rather than thick and white before the meat goes on.
4. Set the brisket on the grate fat side up, with the thicker point end facing the heat source. Close the lid and hold 225°F, resisting the urge to peek. Smoke for roughly 6 to 8 hours, until the internal temperature of the flat reads 165°F and the bark is dark and set.
5. Lift the brisket onto a double layer of unwaxed butcher paper and wrap it tightly, folding the ends under so the seams are sealed. Return it to the smoker, still at 225°F.
6. Keep cooking for another 3 to 5 hours until the internal temperature reaches about 203°F and a probe slides into the thickest part of the flat with no resistance — like sliding into warm butter. Go by feel, not the clock.
7. Take the brisket off the smoker and let it rest, still wrapped, for 90 minutes in a cooler or turned-off oven. Unwrap, separate the point from the flat, and slice both against the grain — pencil-width from the flat, a little thicker from the point. Serve straight away.

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Nutrition (per serving, estimated)

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