---
title: 'EASY smoked brisket recipe to nail it your first time'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=PVycYj_PKgk'
video_id: 'PVycYj_PKgk'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 0
---

# EASY smoked brisket recipe to nail it your first time

> Source: [EASY smoked brisket recipe to nail it your first time](https://youtube.com/watch?v=PVycYj_PKgk)

## Summary

This video provides a step-by-step guide for beginners on how to smoke a brisket. The creator walks through the entire process from trimming and seasoning to smoking, wrapping, and serving, while sharing personal experiences and tips for success. The ultimate goal is to help viewers achieve a tender, juicy brisket on their first attempt.

### Key Points

- **Trimming the Fat Cap** [[0:06]] — Trim the fat cap to about 1/4 inch thick to ensure it renders properly and doesn't leave a thick strip on the slices.
- **Why Smoke the Brisket** [[0:56]] — The creator is smoking for their neighbor to borrow a Weber Smoky Mountain smoker.
- **Removing Hard Fat and Silver Skin** [[1:30]] — Cut off hard fat and silver skin (translucent film) as they don't render; save fat for rendering tallow.
- **Rendering Tallow** [[2:42]] — Place fat trimmings in a slow cooker to render into liquid tallow, used later when wrapping the brisket.
- **Simple Rub** [[3:04]] — Use a 50/50 mix of kosher salt and coarse black pepper. Apply to both sides and edges, let sit at least 30 minutes or overnight.
- **Time and Temperature Overview** [[3:38]] — Smoker temp between 225°F-300°F. Pellet smokers should be at or below 225°F with fat side down; electric smokers need periodic venting. Cook takes ~14 hours total.
- **Alternative Schedule** [[4:40]] — Cook all day Saturday, finish late night, refrigerate, then reheat Sunday for lunch/dinner — avoids early morning starts.
- **Smoking Process** [[5:26]] — Maintain smoker at 250°F-300°F. Spritz edges every few hours to prevent drying. Cook 6-10 hours until brisket hits 165°F-180°F internal, moisture recedes (stall ends), bark is dark and set.
- **Wrapping with Tallow** [[6:48]] — Place brisket on butcher's paper, spread tallow on paper and brisket to seal moisture and add flavor. Can skip tallow or use foil, but foil gives less crispy bark.
- **Oven Finishing** [[8:04]] — After wrapping, transfer brisket to oven at 300°F (non-convection) for 1.5-3 hours to finish cooking.
- **Three Tests for Doneness** [[8:43]] — 1) Internal temp at least 203°F. 2) Probe test: slides in like room-temperature butter. 3) Feel test: brisket bends easily and feels floppy.
- **Resting and Serving** [[10:17]] — Rest 2 hours on counter until internal temp drops to ~150°F. For next-day serving, refrigerate wrapped brisket, then reheat at 250°F-300°F until internal temp 165°F. Slice against the grain in 1/4-inch slices.
- **Outcome** [[11:44]] — Neighbor loved the brisket and lent the Weber Smoky Mountain.

### Conclusion

By following these detailed, step-by-step instructions and using the three doneness tests, even beginners can successfully smoke a flavorful, tender brisket. The video provides practical tips and timing strategies to fit a busy schedule.

## Transcript

it's a step-by-step video on how to
smoke brisket for beginners so let's get
smoking okay it's the night before
you're going to smoke your brisket let's
call it friday so grab your favorite
beer open it and have it on standby
because trimming is step one get
yourself a full packers cut brisket
between 10 and 15 pounds the best
quality you can afford you'll notice one
side has a lot of fat on it that's
called the fat cap start by slicing it
down layer by layer until it's only
about a quarter inch thick you'll need a
sharp knife for this now you may think
it's strange to carve off all that fat
you just paid good money for but there's
a good reason for it first we want the
fat cap thin so it properly renders and
it's nice and soft and juicy when you
bite into it
second most people don't like a huge
strip of fat on their brisket slices and
they end up peeling it off if it's too
thick so we don't want our guests or our
family to have to make that decision now
while i'm trimming this fat cap down let
me tell you why i'm smoking this brisket
because i'm not making it for myself
i've been thinking about asking to
borrow my neighbor's weber smoky
mountain for a long time now i've never
used one before and i've heard it's
great for set and forget smoking which
i'm all about right now because as a new
dad i just don't have a lot of time and
i finally got the perfect opportunity to
ask him because he just asked me to
smoke this brisket for him so the plan
is to smoke this awesome brisket for him
and then i'll ask him to borrow his
weber smoky mountain the perfect plan
now moving on slice the hard fat off one
side of the brisket this stuff doesn't
render down at all so you won't want to
eat it but make sure you save it because
we're going to use it in the next step
now i slice the corners off the flat
side of the brisket if i don't they'll
get really crunchy and dry and we don't
want that we want everything to be
tender and juicy
when you're done with that flip the
brisket over and slice off the hard fat
on the other side of the brisket again
you won't want to eat this stuff so get
rid of as much as you can while still
retaining the general shape of the
brisket you don't need to carve so deep
that there's a big crevasse in the
brisket if there's a little hard fat
left over that's fine you can just carve
it off when the brisket's done and you
slice it to serve it now moving on to
the back side of the flat you'll notice
there's fat and a translucent bluish
film called silver skin that stuff
doesn't render off so we want to slice
it off just poke your knife under the
silver skin and try to slice it off
without taking too much of the
underlying meat with it you don't have
to get it all off just most of it now
you're done trimming and you're left
over with a bunch of fat do you throw it
out no way we're gonna keep it and we're
gonna render it down into tallow so step
two is to render down your tallow place
your fat trimmings in a slow cooker and
just let it slow cook for the whole day
stirring it occasionally eventually
it'll render down into liquid fat that
you can strain into a container we're
going to use the tallow when we wrap
this brisket later on and it'll make it
super tasty and juicy now while that
tallow is rendering we're moving on to
step three
rubbing your brisket i like to just use
a really simple rub of 5050 kosher salt
and coarse grain black pepper i shake it
onto the back side of the brisket then i
flip it over and i do the top sides and
the edges then i flip it over again and
i give it another coating and then a
final coating on the top side now i'm
going to let it sit for at least 30
minutes so that salt can penetrate and
season the brisket you can even do this
the night before so all you have to do
the next day is wake up and throw the
brisket on the smoker okay it's saturday
and it's time to get excited because
it's time to smoke the brisket that's
why we're all here now prepare to drink
from the fire hose of knowledge because
we're going to talk about time and
temperature now but don't think you have
to retain it all i'm still gonna cover
everything later in this video step by
step now you can set your smoker
temperature between 225 degrees
fahrenheit and 300 degrees fahrenheit it
doesn't matter as long as you're in that
zone you're fine there are two
exceptions the first one is if you're
smoking on a pellet smoker you always
want to go fat side down to protect the
rest of the brisket from the radiant
heat coming off of that deflector plate
and the burn pot and you want to be
below or at 225 degrees fahrenheit you
don't want to go much higher than that
because again that deflector plate can
get really hot gives off radiant heat
and it can actually cook the brisket
really fast and it can burn it if you're
not careful and two if you're cooking on
an electric smoker then make sure every
few hours you're cracking the door open
to let that steam out because if too
much steam builds up then it can ruin
the bark and cook your brisket way too
quickly now whatever temperature you
choose the cook is gonna take about 14
hours to complete that means six to ten
hours of smoking it about two hours
after you wrap it and up to two hours of
resting so if you wanna serve your
brisket for dinner on saturday then that
means you're getting up at around four
a.m on saturday morning if you're not
into that i definitely am not into that
i wake up around 8am on saturday so i
have a decent sleep i get up i casually
cook my brisket all day have a couple
beers enjoy it and then i finish
sometime late at night before midnight
usually and then i just pop it in the
fridge i take it out the next day on
sunday reheat it for a couple hours and
then i just have it for sunday lunch or
dinner that's pretty much how i cook all
my briskets these days okay make sense
probably not but we're gonna cover
everything step by step later in this
video so don't worry about it i'll cover
it all now we're still on step four
smoking so i'm putting my brisket on the
smoker and i'm maintaining temperatures
between 250 and 300. every few hours i'm
opening the smoker and spritzing the
edges of the brisket to keep them from
drying out you'll probably run into
issues during this portion of the cook
in my case i had to look after my son
for most of the day so it was
challenging to run to the smoker every
15 minutes to add a split of wood and
also look after my son
luckily i had an extra baby monitor in
the nursery so i installed that next to
the smoker that way i could wash the
smoker while i was looking after my son
and watch my son while i was looking
after the smoker
now i'm going to keep smoking the
brisket like this for six to ten hours
until i see four things one the brisket
has reached a temperature of 165 to 180
internal two there was a bunch of
moisture pooling on top of the brisket
but now there's not so much anymore that
means it's dumped its excess moisture
and coming out of what's called the
stall
three the brisket has a nice dark bark
if you're burning charcoal or wood it
would be really dark like this if you're
using a pellet smoker it might just be a
kind of mahogany red because pellet
smokers burn really clean without a ton
of smoke and that's fine and finally
when you scrape your finger along the
bark of the brisket it shouldn't come
off easily that means the bark is set
and you're ready to move to the next
step step five is to pull your family
into the backyard and mansplain about
everything you're doing be sure to make
it all really complicated and let a
family member do something like spritz
the brisket or throw a split on the fire
so they feel like they're doing
something this will elevate you in the
eyes of your family and give them the
impression that what you're doing is
quasi-magical and they could never
replicate it now once everyone is
gathered around the smoker you want to
take it off the smoker and tell them
you're getting ready to wrap it and then
pray to barbecue jesus because we're
about to wrap our brisket and this is a
super important part of the cooking
process now for step six we're wrapping
our brisket place the brisket on a sheet
of butcher's paper now take that tallow
you prepared and spread it over the
paper so it soaks in and then pour some
on top of the brisket as well the tallow
is doing a couple things it's soaking
the butcher paper in fat so it seals in
the moisture it's adding flavor fat is
flavor and it's adding moisture without
dissolving the bark you can also skip
the tallow if you want to you can even
wrap it in foil but then you won't get
that really crispy sugar cookie bark
once the bark is wrapped up tight put it
in an aluminum pan or on a deep tray
with some foil to hold the drippings in
then we're moving on to the next step
for step seven the brisket goes into the
oven on the middle rack that's right
we're using the oven the brisket isn't
gonna absorb any more smoke being on the
smoker so you don't have to waste your
charcoal or your wood splits on your
smoker anymore just pop it in the oven
and that's how we're gonna finish it off
i'm setting my oven to 300 degrees
fahrenheit it's in non-convection mode
the brisket can take a higher heat at
this point because it's protected by
that butcher's paper so don't worry too
much about burning it or overcooking it
this step is going to take between about
an hour and a half to three hours so
after about an hour and a half we'll
move on to step eight step eight is the
most important step because we need to
do our tests to make sure that the
brisket is finished properly a perfect
brisket is cooked enough so that it's
tender and pulls apart easily but not so
cooked that it's dry and crumbly so how
do we know when we get it to exactly
that point well there's three tests you
start doing these tests around an hour
and a half after the brisket is wrapped
and you keep doing them every 30 minutes
until you pass all of the tests
test one the brisket should be at least
203 degrees fahrenheit internally you
can use an instant read or probe
thermometer to monitor this we want that
temperature high enough so it can render
the connective tissue in the meat
otherwise it's going to be tough test
two the probe test just because it's 203
degrees fahrenheit doesn't mean it's
done you need to probe into the thickest
part of the flat in the middle of the
brisket and make sure it probes tender
like butter if you pull your probe out
and it gets a lot of resistance and by
that i mean it drags the brisket with it
as you pull it out then it's not done it
should slide in easily and slide out
easily as if you were probing a stick of
room temperature butter test three is
the feel test you'll need cotton gloves
underneath waterproof rubber or nitrile
gloves for this you should be able to
pick up the brisket and it should bend
in on itself easily and it feels really
floppy like jello if it's stiff keep on
cooking once your brisket passes all
three finishing tests remove it from the
oven and place it on the counter for two
hours to rest it needs this time to come
down in temperature and reabsorb some of
the moisture before you slice into it i
like to wait until it comes down to
about 150 internal before slicing now if
you're three to five hours away from
dinner time when you need to serve your
brisket and the brisket is done you can
put it into a cooler and that will keep
warm and food safe for up to five hours
just make sure before you put it in the
cooler after you take it out of the oven
you open up the butcher's paper or the
foil whatever you wrapped it in and you
let the steam vent out for about 15
minutes otherwise
when you put that brisket into the
cooler right after you take it out of
the oven it could continue to cook and
it will overcook and if you're like me
and you don't eat your brisket until the
next day then just pop it right in the
fridge i don't even leave it out on the
counter or anything i just take it right
out of the oven and i put it right into
the fridge in the aluminum tray with the
butcher's paper i don't touch it at all
and then the next day i take it out of
the fridge pop it in the oven at about
250 300 degrees fahrenheit leave it in
there for about four hours until the
internal temperature comes up to
around 165 degrees fahrenheit and
finally step 10 slice your brisket
against the grain in quarter inch slices
and serve it up to your family or in my
case my neighbor
[Music]
[Music]
so in this case i got to serve up my
brisket to my neighbor and he loved it
his family loved it and i actually got
the opportunity to ask him if i could
borrow his weber smokey mountain and he
let me so i was really happy
because i'm going to be able to do a
video on uh the weber smoky mountain now
and i'll be posting that in the next few
months for you guys and if you end up
screwing up your brisket then watch this
video on a hundred brisket mistakes that
you probably made and also join my
patreon i'll link that in the
description section below you can ask me
any questions you want get access to a
private discord channel and i'll give
you all the tips you need to nail your
next brisket all right guys happy
smoking