Smoking brisket on a gas grill.....

Smoke it for about an hour to hour and a half, then quickly remove from smoker and wrap in two layers of HD foil, sealing each layer individually, and place into preheated oven at 250o and leave it for about 3-4 hrs


If you don't want to do that and want to leave on grill, remove smoke chips after about an hour and let the heat do it's work, but remember, always...SLOW AND LOW...If you leave wood too long, it'll overwhelm the beef and make it taste like you're eating smoked wood, not beef.

Oh, REAL IMPORTANT, once you remove from oven or grill, let rest for at least 20 minutes.
If you stay with the grill, quickly wrap it after taking off grill and let rest wrapped in the foil.

Well?

Mine turned out pretty damn good.

2 hours on the smoker, 2.5 hours in the oven.

I am thinking next time, I am gonna do it on the smoker the full time. But not add wood till about the last 2-3 hours. I am thinking a solid 10-11 hours for a 7-9 pound brisket and it will be much more tender, and if I wait till the end to add wood to it, it wont get too smoked out.

Hey Dave do you brine your brisket before you smoke it?

Do you use the whole brisket or just the leaner bottom piece?

I haven't done brining yet, I am not that patient.
I use the flat cut, whole or half, typically half.
If the fat cap is really heavy, I'll trim a little, otherwise I leave it alone.

How much does the flat cut shrink?

I'm told about 50%. I'm just trying to get a handle on what I would be left with after cooking.

I don't know if it's 50%, but I'd say at least by a third.

I'm way hungry right now. Thirsty, too.

I posted this a couple of months ago on MT.
flarider you got a lot of things right.

Roy's West Texas Brisket:

Start with one large brisket. (Fat on, not trimmed)

Get your smoker fired up. I use one with a seperate firebox to help keep the temp down. You want to smoke the meat, not grill it. I also use pecan wood, if I don't have pecan then mesquite will do.
Rub the brisket with Lea & Perrins. Then rub it with molasses.
Shake on lemon pepper, crushed pepper and a little salt.

After your smoker gets hot put the brisket on the smoke side. Brisket needs to be fat side up. The fat will drip down and help keep the meat moist.
Adjust your airflow so that the smoker is around 275 - 300 degrees. Smoke the brisket 4 hours. Rotate the brisket after two hours. Don't flip it over, rotate it (like clockwise). Most smokers heat from one end so you are trying to equalize it. You always want the fat side up. Any way, after it has smoked for four hours take the brisket out and wrap it in heavy duty aluminum foil. Seal it up tight and put it back in the smoker for three more hours at the same temp. During this time you make your beans, potato salad and cut your onion. After the three hours are up (a total of seven hours cooking time) remove the brisket from the smoker. Leave it wrapped in the foil and let it rest for 30-45 minutes. Take this opportunity to have a shower before dinner as you will be covered in smoke by this point. After it has rested you remove it from the foil and cut it ACROSS THE GRAIN you will have to move it around as the grain will not stay constant.

Serve it with the beans and potato salad of your choice, along with the sliced onion and dill pickle spears. You will also need some sauce. Don't get one of those regular vinegar based BBQ sauces, look on the label and get one that is mostly molasses. ( I use Sweet Baby Rays) Warm the sauce up slightly and let the people put it on their meat after it is on their plate. Sauce is a personal taste kind of thing.

You are now ready for the best meal besides Christmas dinner you can have. Enjoy!

One other thing, it is mandatory that you drink a number of beers (your choice what kind) while you are smoking the brisket, you will also need to poke at the fire from time to time. No particular reason for this it is just a manly priviledge and the proper thing to do.

Yeah, I don't like the eastern wet sauce....all that vinegar in it...bleech...

Sweet thick red sauce is how it should be

I always use pecan. Cut me a another huge pile just a month ago. It doesnt last long though, bugs eat it up fast.

"One other thing, it is mandatory that you drink a number of beers (your choice what kind) while you are smoking the brisket, you will also need to poke at the fire from time to time. No particular reason for this it is just a manly priviledge and the proper thing to do."

Yes, it is.

I'm trying my best to duplicate the recipe for the Montreal smoked meat from Schwartz's deli in Montreal.

So far I've found that they brine them for 10-14 days, smoke them for 7-8 hours and then they spend another couple of hours in a steamer. No preservatives, never frozen. Spices seem to be a mixture of sea salt, brown sugar, coriander and peppercorns, although I haven't been able to find any hint of what kind of liquid they would use for the brine (if any).

Apparently they used to use wood to smoke them, but no longer do, although the schmutz factor in their 80 year old smoker must have plenty of smoke flavour still in it. I think that no matter how hard I try I'll never get close. The flavors imparted by an 80 year old smoker that's run around the clock probably can't be duplicated.

That looks like corned beef, which uses a brisket, but is done an entirely different way.

Many of the deli types and good Jewish type (RE: Kosher) corned beef briskets are not smoked, but are brined and steamed

It's not corned beef at all. Not traditional southern BBQ brisket either. No sauce is added.

It's smoked brisket for sure. The same cut, it's just a different method. It's brined, smoked, then steamed. I've never had anything like it before. I've had ton's of Montreal style smoked meat, corned beef, pastrami, etc. This stuff is unique and absolutely to die for.

It's definitely closer to pastrami or corned beef in taste than a Southern Style BBQ brisket would be, but to lump it into the same category doesn't begin to do it justice. You could never slice it thin. It crumbles too easily to serve like that. It's been smoked long and slow to achieve the texture it winds up with.

They do!
Those big ugly borer worms that turn into those big ugly beetles.
They absolutely ravage pecan wood. Strange.

God damn I am dying for some brisket now.....

And they do it FAST. Being that pecan is a nut bearing tree, most people dont cut on their pecan trees too often, so that kind of wood is not as common. I trimmed lots of our pecan trees at the farm and have lots of it this year, but wont be hacking on them for many more years. Its just a shame it wont last long, because if I dont use it up, the bugs will ruin it pronto !