I’ve done a lot of slow bbq ing but never done beef brisket. There are a few ‘recipes’ on the net but does anyone have any real life experience of cooking it on the bbq successfully?

Not brisket but I bought a couple of Denver steaks from Cranstons in Penrith a couple of weeks ago, they were both spot on, they came pre-marinated, all I did was to sear each side in a very hot dry pan, placed in a sealed foil “duvet” cover in the oven 200degC for 20 mins, then left to stand for 20 mins and then sliced as this as possible, again I must say they were delicious and good value at around a tenner each !

Apparently the Denver Steak cut is a muscle from within the shoulder of the beef.

Tick. Cranstons now on the list!.

I picked up a sizeable lump of brisket from the butcher on my ride home from work and have just made the rub, ready for smoking overnight. First thing to be cooked on the new barbecue!

The rub is 40g sea salt, 14g soft brown sugar, 5g each of hot smoked paprika, English mustard powder and ground black pepper. That’s for about 2.5kg of brisket.

I think it’s then 8-12 hours at 115 deg C on the smoker, until the meat reaches 70 deg C internal – I’ll have to check!

Brisket is easy to dry. Tasty enough but best to have some sort of sauce to go with it.

86-88 deg C is the internal target temperature. It does take a long time and when the meat stalls (as the connective tissue is breaking down) it feels like it’ll never get there, but then it speeds up, so be aware!

I did this a few times last year and was very pleased with the results – even better than pulled pork.

This is from the Pitt Cue book which I highly recommend if you want some inspiration and don’t mind adapting things so they’re not quite so complicated (their Big Ode burger requires smoking a whole brisket and a whole pork shoulder, making your own sausage, making your own pickles, making your own sauces and making the bun!)

Serious eats is your friend.

How to BBQ brisket that doesn’t suck http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/07/how-to-make-beef-brisket-barbecue-hill-country-fatty-cue-nyc.html

And also

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/10/barbecue-brisket-recipe-20091023.html

Amazing ribs is a great site for everything BBQ and has lots of recipes and most importantly explains how and why.

For brisket and pork shoulder I cheat I just stick it on the kettle BbQ at a low heat using the snake method with fruit wood to smoke for 3 hours then I chuck it in the pressure cooker for an hour or so. Always works and keeps all the juices rubbish for bark but I don’t like bark so all’s good.

Took a bit of tweaking but I got it sitting stably smoking at about 105 deg C at 1am. Checked it just now and it’s at 110 C and the meat is up to 68 C so progressing nicely. This is with a smoker tube using wood off my apple tree on a gas (horror!) barbecue plus a cast iron casserole of water keeping the humidity right.

Try this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5y2voEWJ6U

The Americans get what they call a “packer” cut which is a point end and a flat. A good butcher will be able to do you a point but they may need to see a picture of it.
It’s actually quite tricky, I’d say very very difficult without a meat probe. I have a maverick wireless thing, perfect for use with the smoker.
A sugary rub as above makes it nice, if you get it spot on you’ll get burnt ends too.

I use a wireless meat probe when smoking or roasting on the bbq, it take the guesswork away and stops having to keep dropping temp to check by hand.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maverick-Range-Digital-Wireless-Thermometer/dp/B00FOCR4UI/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1469266796&sr=8-5&keywords=wireless+meat+thermometer *

*Other units and vendors are avalable

I have never tried smoking without having one thermometer stuck in the meat and another poking into the barbecue in the right vicinity. Anyone who can get it right without them is either very lucky, very experienced or very talented!

My meat one isn’t wireless but it has a braided cord so you have the probe in the meat and the digital display outside the barbecue, with an alarm set for the target temperature. The other one is a sugar thermometer (which disagrees with the the lid thermometer because it’s so much hotter under the top of the hood where the meat isn’t).

Blimey…it’s all a bit complex. What happens if I cook it for 9 hours at 300 deg f ? Will it be a disaster?

Well that was awesome! Still got about half left – mmmmmm…

Get a meat thermometer and it’s straightforward – they cost less than a decent chunk of brisket and they’re brilliant for all roasting and slow cooking, takes the guesswork out.

Well I wasn’t able to follow such precise instructions, but cooked it for 9 hrs at around 90-100deg c mostly and for the last hour sealed it foil with beer and took the temp to 150deg c. (Just wanted to infuse some moisture)

It was great, really tender and tasty, so whilst it might have been as good as others, everyone loved it.