About this recipe
This base brisket recipe is our starting point for most of our smoked beef brisket recipes. It provides a balanced flavor between sweet and with a hint of spice. The flavors blend well with other recipes and we find we will use this for other meals like burritos, appetizers, chili, and even a breakfast hash.
This recipe uses a whole brisket and we separate the point for future uses including things like burnt ends. Just like the seasoning, the fat should be trimmed to your liking as well as the amount of seasonings. You’ll see we do not have a qty for the amount of seasonings because it’s to your taste – you want more garlic and less spice, you can change it up to suit your taste pallet.
Things to think about
The times listed will also change based on the size of the beef brisket you’re smoking. If you’re smoking in cooler weather (below 50F) it’ll take a bit longer. We look for “bark” content on the meat, we don’t like a super thick “bark”. We watch for the top to look a nice dark chocolate color but is not burnt.
For the “cooking towel” – we bought specific bath towels that are solely used for the resting period. These can be bought from a local retailer and do not need to be expensive.
Why the cooking towel and the cooler, you may ask? Cooler is insulated which helps maintain the temp of the beef brisket but still stay food safe. The cooking towel? Protects said insulated cooler from the heat of the meat. You’re paper leaks? The cooler is easier to clean because the towel goes into the wash and you’re not scrubbing out your cooler.
What we do
But, wait – that’s a lot a beef brisket you might be saying to yourself. We will cook a large whole brisket and portion out the meat for a variety of uses using a FoodSaver freezer seal machine. According to the FDA: https://www.fda.gov/media/74435/download, cooked meat in the freezer will last you for 2 to 3 months. This allows us to cook and plan ahead, or just randomly pull a piece of brisket from the freezer for dinner or SURPRISE! friends are coming over. In our opinion, the freezing does not change the texture, taste, or the seasoning.
We hope you give this a go and let us know your take and and changes you do with this recipe. We love to learn from others and would love to learn with you.
Mayhem’s BBQ
Mayhem’s Base Beef Brisket
Ingredients
- Whole brisket or flat
- Pellets For this recipe we use a blend containing hickory, oak, maple, and cherry.
Seasoning
- Traeger Coffee Rub
- Traeger Beef Rub
- Kinder's Red Garlic
- Worcester Sauce
- French's Yellow Mustard
- Beef Broth
Equipment
- Smoker We use the Traeger Iron 885
- Insulated Cooler Used during the rest period
- Towels only used for cooking Used to wrap the brisket after wrapping in parchment paper
- Parchment Paper Protecting your work surface and used for wrapping for rest period
- Metal tins Will be used to hold the brisket and the point separately.
- Foil Used to cover the metal tins for the final cook phase
Instructions
- Preheat your smoker to 300 °F and clean the grates. Reduce heat to 220 °F and let the smoker cool down to close to the 220.Pellets
- Meanwhile, using a whole brisket, remove from the plastic and get ready to trim the fat and separate the point. Carefully trim the fat from the brisket. Separate the point from the flat for another use.
- Grab your spices
- Using the Worcester sauce add just enough to coat the meat
- Drizzle some yellow mustard and smear across the meat to evenly coat the meat
- Apply spices generously to evenly coat the meat. This is done to your own taste preferences.
- Rub all the ingredients into the meat and the sides and repeat for the other side.
- Once ready, smoke for 5 hours.
- Increase heat to 250 °F Remove from the smoker and put in a metal tin. Add enough beef broth to cover no more than 1/2 the sides of the brisket – do not submerge. Cover with foil. Cook until internal temp reads 204 °F
- Pull from the smoker, remove from the broth and tin, and wrap in parchment paper or butcher paper
- Then take beef wrapped in paper and wrap in the cooking towel.
- Put in an insulated cooler for 1 to 2 hours to rest
- Enjoy
