[0:00] do you want to learn how to smoke
[0:01] brisket then stick around because in
[0:02] this video i'm going to show you how to
[0:04] smoke brisket in a charcoal barbecue all
[0:06] right so we're going to be working with
[0:07] a full brisket today now this one weighs
[0:09] about six and a half kilos and we're
[0:11] going to get started by trimming it up
[0:12] all right so we'll start by flipping it
[0:14] over and we'll trim the underside first
[0:16] you've always got a big pocket of fat
[0:18] here so we'll work on taking that out
[0:20] [Music]
[0:22] all right so that's about as much as
[0:24] i'll take off there for now so we'll
[0:25] spin it around and now we want to work
[0:27] on taking some of this hard fat off the
[0:29] bottom
[0:33] you don't have to get all of it the thin
[0:34] layers will render down
[0:36] and because this end of the flat is very
[0:38] thin i'm just going to square it off
[0:40] through here
[0:44] all right now i'm pretty happy with how
[0:46] that underside's looking so we'll flip
[0:47] it over and get started on the top
[0:49] so you want to make your brisket a nice
[0:51] uniform shape so i'm just going to trim
[0:53] this top flap off
[0:56] the more evenly you trim your brisket
[0:58] the more even it's going to cook
[1:01] now i'm working on the point end here
[1:02] now there's so much intramuscular fat in
[1:04] there you can afford to trim a lot of
[1:06] this top fat off but on the flat side
[1:08] here it's a little bit leaner so you
[1:10] definitely want to try and leave a nice
[1:11] even fat coverage on there and you
[1:13] really want to try and trim your brisket
[1:15] in a way that no juices will pull up
[1:16] anywhere on it i know it's going to be
[1:18] hard to avoid sometimes but if you can
[1:20] definitely try and trim it that way and
[1:22] your brisket trimmings don't throw them
[1:24] away if you've got anything around 80
[1:26] lean meat and 20 fat keep it as it makes
[1:29] for the best burger patties if you've
[1:30] got a mincer and any hard fat i like to
[1:33] keep i'll put that in a pot later on
[1:34] render it down and make some beef tallow
[1:37] now this side of the brisket is a lot
[1:38] thinner than the other so i'm just going
[1:40] to run my knife down this side and just
[1:42] square it off a little bit
[1:44] [Music]
[1:47] all right now i'm happy with both sides
[1:48] of this brisket it's nice and uniform so
[1:51] let's season it up all right so
[1:52] seasoning your brisket now if you've got
[1:54] a favorite beef rub go ahead and use
[1:55] that or salt and pepper always does the
[1:57] trick some of the best briskets i've
[1:59] tasted is just a 50 50 mix of kosher
[2:02] salt and cracked black pepper which is
[2:04] the base for what we're going to be
[2:05] using today but we've topped it up with
[2:07] some steak shooter and garlic goals so
[2:09] that's what i've prepared here in this
[2:10] little shaker so we'll get it mixed up
[2:12] and season this brisket
[2:14] all right so we'll flip our brisket over
[2:16] and season the bottom side first
[2:19] i'll give it a light coat and mustard
[2:20] just to help bind our rubs
[2:23] and then you want to sprinkle from a
[2:24] height so you get a nice even coverage
[2:27] and give the bottom side of our brisket
[2:28] a nice generous coat
[2:32] don't forget the ends as well
[2:36] then we can flip it over and do the top
[2:43] all right so now our brisket is trimmed
[2:45] and seasoned we can get started on
[2:46] setting up our barbecue all right so
[2:48] we're going to be using the oklahoma
[2:49] joe's blackjack kettle so we'll get
[2:51] started by opening it up and taking our
[2:52] cooking grate out then you want to open
[2:54] up some briquettes now you can either
[2:56] rip the bag open or usually one side you
[2:59] can just untie
[3:00] the string a few times
[3:04] and then you should be able to just pull
[3:05] it
[3:06] and open it up like so and we're going
[3:08] to be using the snake method today so
[3:10] with your briquettes you want to just
[3:12] stack them up like so in a domino
[3:14] fashion
[3:22] all right so the bottom layer of our
[3:23] snake is done now if you were using
[3:25] larger briquettes you just run a single
[3:27] stack through the middle for our second
[3:29] layer but because these brick hats are a
[3:30] little bit smaller we're going to keep a
[3:32] double stack on top
[3:38] all right so our snake is pretty much
[3:39] done as you can see we've built it most
[3:41] of the way around our charcoal grate but
[3:43] we've just left a gap here and that's
[3:45] where our startup briquettes are going
[3:46] to go so in a charcoal chimney you want
[3:48] to get about 12 briquettes
[3:52] then we'll get a couple of fire lighters
[3:54] going
[3:56] we'll get our brick hats on top and
[3:57] we'll wait until they are nice red hot
[3:59] ashed over and ready to go so while your
[4:01] briquettes are coming along use that
[4:03] time to get some other things ready you
[4:04] need for this cook so we've got a foil
[4:06] tray ready we've got some smoking wood
[4:08] ready i'm going to be using a
[4:09] combination of pecan and cherry but if
[4:11] you've got another favorite smoking wood
[4:12] for beef go ahead and use that and we've
[4:14] also got our grill probe ready now this
[4:16] barbecue has a temperature gauge on the
[4:18] lid but as usual heat rises and you do
[4:21] normally get a slightly higher reading
[4:23] at lid level as opposed to grill level
[4:25] so that's all we need to do now until
[4:26] these briquettes are ready so we'll come
[4:28] back when they are ready all right so
[4:29] our brick hats are pretty much ready so
[4:31] i'm going to get this smoking wood on so
[4:32] we'll lay down a piece of our pecan
[4:35] piece of our cherry another piece of
[4:37] pecan and we'll save our other piece of
[4:39] cherry to put on at the start of our
[4:41] snake where our startup briquettes are
[4:42] going to go and that's what you want to
[4:43] see with your startup briquettes you
[4:45] want to see them nice ashed over and red
[4:47] hot so we'll dump those in at the start
[4:48] of our snake
[4:50] and then you just want to stack them up
[4:51] nicely at the start
[4:55] now you want to make sure they are all
[4:56] over the unlit stuff and then we can
[4:58] shut our lid and then we'll make sure
[4:59] our top and bottom vents are wide open
[5:02] so i get questions all the time about
[5:03] the snake method and if it produces
[5:05] dirty smoke throughout the cook due to
[5:07] all the unlit ricketts that you use for
[5:09] the snake now the answer to that
[5:10] question is no not when you set it up
[5:12] right because we're giving our barbecue
[5:14] five to ten minutes to preheat that's
[5:16] going to pre-heat our briquettes to a
[5:17] hot enough temperature that they will
[5:19] catch light from our red hot ones
[5:21] without producing dirty smoke it's the
[5:23] same concept as the minion method where
[5:24] you're using a bunch of unlit briquettes
[5:26] to fuel a really long slow burning fire
[5:29] for a long smoke like this as long as
[5:31] you use red hot briquettes to start your
[5:33] snake and you pre-heat your bbq
[5:35] everything around it will be preheated
[5:37] enough to catch light cleanly without
[5:39] producing dirty smoke so i hope that
[5:41] answers that question but if you do have
[5:43] any more questions don't hesitate to ask
[5:44] them in the comments below but for now
[5:46] we'll be back once this barbecue's had
[5:47] five to ten minutes to preheat right so
[5:49] as you can see nice clean burning smoke
[5:52] our bbq is nice and preheated so we'll
[5:54] open it up and as you can see our unlit
[5:56] brickets are already starting to catch
[5:57] light from our startup briquettes so
[5:59] we'll get our foil tray in we'll get our
[6:00] piece of cherry on at the start we'll
[6:02] get our cooking grate on we'll get our
[6:03] brisket on and you want to make sure
[6:05] that your brisket is never over the
[6:06] burning part of the snake so later in
[6:08] this cook once our snake starts burning
[6:10] around here we're just going to rotate
[6:12] our brisket around away from it and i've
[6:13] also positioned the thicker part of our
[6:15] brisket which is the point end closer to
[6:17] the snake which is just going to help it
[6:19] cook a little bit more evenly and then
[6:20] we can hook up our grill probe i'm just
[6:22] going to clip it in up the back here and
[6:23] then we can close our lid
[6:25] and let this brisket start smoking away
[6:27] all right now our brisket's on we're
[6:28] just going to get our barbecue to a nice
[6:30] smoking temperature for this cook i'm
[6:32] going to look to stabilize our barbecue
[6:33] off at around that 275 fahrenheit or 135
[6:36] celsius range and in this video we're
[6:38] going to be running through everything
[6:39] step by step so the next thing you'll
[6:41] see is how i like to stabilize my
[6:43] temperatures off so i'm going to leave
[6:44] our top and bottom vents wide open until
[6:47] we get back up to around the 225
[6:49] fahrenheit or 110 celsius at grill level
[6:52] so we'll come back once we've hit that
[6:53] stage
[6:56] so it's been about 15 minutes since we
[6:58] shut that bottom vent down to almost
[7:00] closed it's sitting just a crack open at
[7:02] the moment and again our top vent is
[7:04] sitting wide open now i've been keeping
[7:06] an eye on our temperature at grill level
[7:07] and it's been sitting really stable for
[7:09] the last five minutes so now's the time
[7:11] you want to make any further adjustments
[7:12] if you need to increase temperature open
[7:14] that bottom vent up slightly if you need
[7:16] to decrease it then shut it down a
[7:18] little bit now i will always try to
[7:20] stabilize off a little bit lower than
[7:21] where i want to be at as it's much
[7:23] easier to increase temperature than to
[7:25] decrease your temperature it can be
[7:27] quite challenging bringing your
[7:28] temperatures back down if they have
[7:29] gotten away from you and for whatever
[7:31] reason if your temperatures have gotten
[7:32] away from you and you've closed that
[7:34] bottom vent down to pretty much shut
[7:35] don't be afraid to pour a little bit of
[7:37] water in that drip tray below your
[7:38] brisket that's going to absorb a lot of
[7:40] heat and really help to stabilize your
[7:42] temperatures off so for the first couple
[7:44] of hours of this cook this is where you
[7:45] really want to just keep an eye on your
[7:46] temperatures and find that sweet spot
[7:48] with your vent set up and that's going
[7:49] to really vary depending on what type of
[7:51] barbecue you're using how hot it is
[7:53] outside how windy it is what type of
[7:55] briquettes you're using and much more
[7:57] it's all about finding and understanding
[7:59] what works for you making any
[8:01] adjustments needed and building off that
[8:03] so we're going to continue to let our
[8:04] brisket smoke away and we'll keep
[8:06] checking in throughout this cook all
[8:07] right so it's been a couple of hours
[8:08] since we last checked in so we're gonna
[8:10] have a look at our brisket and as you
[8:11] can see where our snake's burning it's
[8:13] getting close to being underneath that
[8:14] brisket so we're just gonna rotate our
[8:16] cooking grate around
[8:18] and now that's given us some good
[8:19] distance between the burning part of the
[8:21] steak and our brisket and while we're
[8:23] here i'm just gonna spritz our brisket
[8:24] with some water
[8:26] that's just really going to help with
[8:27] some moisture retention and bark
[8:29] formation
[8:30] and you don't want to leave your lid
[8:31] open for too long so we'll close it back
[8:33] up and let it keep smoking away all
[8:34] right so our brisket's looking great
[8:36] that barks coming along nice and our
[8:38] temperatures have been holding
[8:39] beautifully so all we're going to do now
[8:41] is let this brisket go for about another
[8:42] hour that's going to take us to around
[8:44] the four hour mark into this cook so the
[8:46] next time we check our brisket we're
[8:47] going to be checking the internal
[8:48] temperature and we'll potentially wrap
[8:50] it or boat it as well so we'll be back
[8:52] once we've hit that stage all right so
[8:54] we've just ticked over the four hour
[8:55] mark into this cook so let's have a good
[8:57] look at this brisket right so our
[8:58] temperature's still holding nicely so
[9:00] just be mindful whenever you've got your
[9:01] lid open you are letting lots of oxygen
[9:03] in so you might see a spike in
[9:05] temperature when you do close your lid
[9:06] again but for now let's have a look at
[9:08] these internals
[9:10] so the two things i like to look for
[9:12] before i wrap or buy a brisket is being
[9:15] at an internal temperature of around 160
[9:17] fahrenheit or 71 degrees celsius
[9:21] we're a bit further behind in the point
[9:22] so when we boat this i'm going to
[9:24] position the point a bit closer to the
[9:26] fire so it catches up
[9:28] i'm happy with the bark you should be
[9:30] able to touch around and it shouldn't be
[9:32] coming off on your finger that's when
[9:34] you know your bark set and we're going
[9:35] to boat this one which is going to
[9:36] really help preserve that bark too so
[9:39] we'll get some alpha already and then
[9:40] we'll boat it up
[9:42] all right so get two layers of good
[9:43] quality foil ready carefully get this
[9:45] brisket out
[9:48] and while we're playing around with the
[9:49] brisket we'll close our lid again and
[9:51] now we just want to fold the foil up
[9:52] around the brisket
[9:58] and then i'm quickly going to get our
[9:59] foil tray out
[10:02] and i'm going to use those beautiful
[10:03] drippings to go back into our brisket so
[10:05] we'll pour them over
[10:08] get our tray back in
[10:11] get our cooking grate back on and then
[10:13] our brisket and like i said that point
[10:14] end is now closer towards where that
[10:16] fire is burning so that internal
[10:18] temperature is going to catch up to the
[10:20] flat side right so now our brisket's
[10:22] back in we just need to let that smoke
[10:23] away until we're ready to check for
[10:25] probe tenderness and i'm going to start
[10:27] doing that once we reach an internal
[10:28] temperature in both ends of around that
[10:30] 200 fahrenheit or 93 degrees celsius
[10:33] mark now it can be challenging to get
[10:35] both ends of your brisket to the same
[10:37] internal temperature that's why it's
[10:38] always important to rotate whatever end
[10:40] is behind closer towards the fire where
[10:42] it's going to be a little bit hotter now
[10:44] to get to that internal temperature
[10:45] where we're going to start checking for
[10:46] probe tenderness might take us two hours
[10:48] to get there it might take four it might
[10:50] even take six i don't like putting a
[10:52] time on these things that's why it's
[10:54] always better to get your brisket on
[10:55] earlier than what you think that way if
[10:57] it is done a little bit earlier you can
[10:59] always rest it up until you're ready to
[11:00] serve it we're just going to be patient
[11:02] if our brisket stalls we're just going
[11:04] to ride through it we're not going to
[11:05] panic we're not going to increase
[11:06] temperatures we're just going to simply
[11:08] let it go until it pushes through it so
[11:10] be patient with your brisket we'll keep
[11:12] checking back in throughout this cook so
[11:14] we'll come back soon all right so it's
[11:15] been about three hours since we last
[11:17] checked in so that means we're about
[11:18] seven hours total into this cook now our
[11:21] bbq has been holding beautifully around
[11:23] that temperature we want it to be at so
[11:24] let's have a look at this brisket all
[11:26] right so i haven't had to do too much
[11:28] all i've been doing is rotating the
[11:30] brisket away from the hottest part of
[11:32] the snake
[11:33] i've faced the point in towards the fire
[11:36] so it can catch up a little bit
[11:38] about 180 internal in there
[11:41] in our flat we're about 185 so as you
[11:45] can see the two ends are starting to
[11:46] cook nice and even we've still got about
[11:48] two hours left on our snake i reckon so
[11:50] let's keep this lid closed and let this
[11:52] brisket keep going so in them three
[11:54] hours that passed since we boasted our
[11:56] brisket we did hit a stool for about an
[11:58] hour of that time we got stuck at about
[12:00] that 165 fahrenheit internal mark but
[12:03] like i mentioned earlier we were just
[12:04] patient and it eventually pushed through
[12:06] it so that brisket is looking absolutely
[12:08] fantastic i'm really happy with it all
[12:10] i'm going to do now is keep checking
[12:12] every 45 minutes to an hour i'll have a
[12:14] probe around i'll check my internals and
[12:16] if you wanted to put a probe in each end
[12:18] of the brisket by all means go ahead and
[12:20] do that but i'm happy with how that's
[12:21] coming along so we'll check back in soon
[12:23] all right it's been two hours since we
[12:25] last checked in so we're about nine
[12:26] hours in total into this cook
[12:29] i reckon this brisket will be pretty
[12:31] close to being ready so let's have
[12:32] another probe around a temperature check
[12:36] 196 in the thickest part of the point
[12:40] 199 start a probe quite nice do it a
[12:44] little bit to go
[12:45] 198
[12:47] it's quite soft there
[12:51] very soft there
[12:52] 201 we're almost at the end of our snake
[12:55] it's burning hottest a bit back here so
[12:57] i reckon it's got another hour's burn
[12:59] time i don't reckon our brisket will be
[13:01] far off maybe another half an hour to 45
[13:03] minutes so we'll check back in then all
[13:05] right it's been an hour and a half since
[13:06] we last checked in i did check it after
[13:08] about 45 minutes and it wasn't quite
[13:11] there
[13:12] but this is feeling
[13:15] nice and soft now
[13:18] up around the 203 sort of range
[13:23] it's just probing like butter and as you
[13:26] can see our snakes pretty much at the
[13:28] end so that's a pretty good 10 and a
[13:30] half hour burn time so i've just put
[13:31] some high heat gloves on and we are
[13:33] carefully
[13:35] going to lift this brisket out
[13:39] all right so when you get your brisket
[13:40] out i always like to just let it steam
[13:42] off for five minutes just to stop that
[13:43] cooking process so you don't overcook it
[13:45] and when it comes to resting you've got
[13:47] a few options based on when you want to
[13:48] serve your brisket if it's ready four or
[13:50] five hours in advance it's always a good
[13:52] idea to rest in an esky they hold the
[13:54] heat really well and they'll keep the
[13:56] brisket hot at a really good eating
[13:57] temperature until you're ready to serve
[13:59] it or you can hold a brisket in the oven
[14:01] at about that 70 degrees celsius or 160
[14:04] ish fahrenheit and i've done that for
[14:05] about 24 hours until i've been ready to
[14:07] serve it the next day but today i'm just
[14:09] going to let it rest at room temperature
[14:11] for an hour because i want to serve it
[14:12] in an hour and then i'll slice and serve
[14:14] it so we'll come back when we're ready
[14:15] to do that all right i'm just about
[14:17] ready to slice this brisket but i don't
[14:18] want to waste those juices in the foil
[14:20] so i'm going to put it in this container
[14:22] and then we'll get into slicing this
[14:23] brisket so i'll make a little lip in the
[14:26] foil
[14:27] i'll carefully pick it up
[14:33] put the lid on we can save that for a
[14:34] future cook or i'll slice it straight
[14:37] down the middle
[14:57] all right so that's the end piece of our
[14:58] flat as you can see
[15:00] juicy all the way through
[15:03] still pulls apart with these
[15:05] that is a great brisket all right so
[15:07] slicing the flat is pretty
[15:08] straightforward but as you get into the
[15:10] point
[15:11] we've got the flat muscle more on this
[15:12] side
[15:13] so what i like to do
[15:16] is on this side we've got that big point
[15:18] muscle
[15:19] is we can start taking
[15:21] slices
[15:23] off this way
[15:26] and that's where you start getting them
[15:28] beautiful
[15:29] fatty point slices from
[15:32] which are my personal favorite
[15:35] and once you've only got that little bit
[15:36] of point muscle left
[15:38] i like to just trim it off like so
[15:41] dice those pieces up
[15:44] and then turn it back to the way you
[15:45] were slicing the flat
[15:49] and continue slicing like so you get
[15:51] these beautiful little slices of flat
[15:53] but either these little cubes of point
[15:55] or the point and slices would have to be
[15:56] my favorite so let's have a taste all
[15:58] right time for a taste i'm gonna go for
[16:00] one of these little point cubes
[16:02] oh man that is incredible try a bit of
[16:05] this beautiful little flat
[16:07] so tender so juicy
[16:10] that is up there with one of the best
[16:12] briskets i've had such amazing bark
[16:15] incredible taste texture so juicy
[16:18] everything you want in a brisket and i
[16:19] can't recommend boating your brisket
[16:21] enough i absolutely love that method it
[16:23] would have to be my favorite out of
[16:25] wrapping in foil wrapping in butcher's
[16:27] paper or anything else i've had the best
[16:29] results every time i do it and as you
[16:31] can see this brisket turned out amazing
[16:34] well if you enjoyed the video everyone
[16:36] and you learned something from it be
[16:37] sure to subscribe to our channel so you
[16:38] don't miss any of our future videos but
[16:40] for now that's the end of this video so
[16:42] thanks for watching and we'll see you
[16:43] next time