Smoked Brisket
This is the cook I've been obsessively logging since 2023 — every temp, every wrap, every stall lives over on the Brisket Data page. The recipe itself is almost aggressively simple: this is Texas barbecue, so the flavor comes from salt, pepper, post oak, and time, not a cabinet of spices. My advice for your first one: have all day and have no expectations.
Method
- 1
Trim it like a little racecar
Trim the top fat cap to about ¼" thick and round off any weird hunks and rough edges so it cooks evenly. Do NOT throw anything away — render the trimmed fat into tallow and grind the odd meat scraps into ground beef. Trim it more than you think you should (a note I've literally written at the top of every cook log).
- 2
Slather and season
Slather a thin coat of yellow mustard — just enough to barely cover. Mix your salt and pepper 1:1 in a shaker so it lands evenly, then season the meat side first, then the fat side. You should still see some meat through it; the bark builds off of that.
- 3
Smoke low at 225 °F
Set the smoker to 225 °F and put the brisket on fat-side up (or toward your heat source). Heads up: my Traeger thermometer reads about 10° hotter than reality — know your own pit. Spritz with apple cider vinegar once a bark sets and it starts to look dry.
- 4
Ride the stall, then wrap
Somewhere around 160–170 °F internal the temp will stall for hours as moisture evaporates. When the bark is set and color is deep, wrap tightly in butcher paper and (optionally) bump the pit to 240–255 °F to push through.
- 5
Pull at probe-tender, then rest
Start checking around 200 °F — you're cooking to feel, not a number. It's done when a probe slides in like room-temperature butter (usually ~203 °F). Rest it long and hold warm; a hot brisket cut too early gives all its juice to the cutting board.
Notes
- Standard Texas seasoning is salt + pepper only. Some folks add granulated garlic or paprika — your call.
- See every one of these cooks charted, stall and all, on the Brisket Data page.