Whole Beef Brisket, Packer Cut (Fresh) 5kg

This is the choice for the bbq enthusiast looking to smoke a brisket at home, low and slow.  

The Whole Brisket includes the Point and the Flat.  You’ll want to keep the brisket in the chiller right until you trim it as it’s easier to trim when cold.  Start by facing the Point face down and remove the silver skin. Flip it over, now point up, and trim the moon shaped chunk of fat near where the flat merges with the point.  Trim the sides and square off, removing any remaining silver skin and going for a uniform fat level of ~ half a cm.

Note you will trim a lot of fat; this is normal. Leave a bit as described above but do take the time to trim the fat and shape your brisket so your rub will penetrate the meat and to protect your bark.

Cooking Tips

The flavor you think of in a Texas brisket is coming from a generous and evenly applied dry rub of salt and pepper.  Purists stop here.  Common additions for flare: garlic powder, onion powder, paprika.  When you determine how much rub to apply, use the weight of your trimmed brisket.  

Classic salt & pepper dry rub, we recommend 50/50 kosher salt and ground black pepper, premix, apply 1.5- 2tsp per kg.

Flare Dry Rub: a common rub with flare is 40% kosher salt, 40% black pepper, 10% garlic powder, 5% onion powder, 5% smoked paprika. Premix, apply 1.5-2tsp per kg.

Optional: some cooks use a “slather”, a thin coat of mayonnaise or mustard, on the brisket to help your rub stick.  

Low & Slow:  Smoke cooking indirect on low heat.  105-110 C cooking temp recommended.  The stall (temp stops rising for a few hours as the brisket “sweats”) will occur around 75C internal temp. Time to pull it out and wrap.   Done temp is 93-95C, there’s a bit of a buttery feel element here, which is kind of an art.  Don’t let it go past 96C.

To Wrap, or Not to Wrap?  Most competition pitmasters wrap the brisket tightly at the stall, using butcher paper (meat scientists say foil is fine).  

Wrapping will decrease the risk of a dry brisket, but will modestly impact your bark. Generally you can expect to keep most of your bark if you wait until the stall to wrap. 

Note on grass fed beef: most recipes on the internet today are based on big grain finished feedlot cows.

But the original Texas cowboys were using local pastured beef, just like Dirty Clean Food.  We prefer the rich and more complex natural flavor of grass fed beef. Our briskets will be a bit smaller, so use a thermometer as cook times may be faster than the bloggers predict.

Cut against the grain.  Keep wrapped while the brisket rests before you serve.

Can you do it in the oven? Yes. Indirect heat by smoker will give best results, but cooking in the oven will also produce a great meal.  Optional (cheat): smoke until the stall, wrap, finish in the oven.