Try our hints and tips for tender, juicy, flavoursome beef brisket
There’s nothing like the taste of smokey melt-in-the-mouth beef brisket cooked on the BBQ. We have added extra layers of flavour to ours by using an Angus & Oink rub, Moo-mami, and Weber hickory wood chunks. This is a really easy dish to cook, just leave it to cook low and slow, check it a couple of times and enjoy the result. An essential piece of kit is an Instant Read Thermometer as this piece of meat is a working muscle so needs to reach a temperature of 95C (203F) in order for the tough connective tissue to break down and leave you with a tender, juicy piece of meat. We are cooking this brisket on the Weber 57cm MasterTouch BBQ; we have also cooked the same cut of meat on the Traeger Pro 22 and the Weber Smokey Mountain cooker.
Most brisket in the UK comes boned and rolled but just ask your butcher to bone and trim it for you, if there is any hard fat left just cut this off as it won’t render down. Cover the brisket with a little American mustard as this will add another layer of flavour and enable to rub to stick. Cover all the meat with a generous sprinkle of the rub and leave at room temperature for it to start melting into the meat. Meanwhile start up the BBQ and let it come to a temperature of 120 – 135C (248 – 275F), keep this temperature maintained throughout the cook by opening vents and adding more fuel as necessary. Place the two char baskets at either side with a Weber Drip Pan of water between them. Divide a third of a large chimney starter of briquettes between the two baskets. The tray of water helps regulate the temperature and keeps the meat moist. Place a couple of hickory chunks in each basket, these don’t need soaking.
Cook the meat using the indirect method by placing it over the tray of water. Just cook the brisket directly on the grill. When it has reached a temperature of 72 – 75C (161 – 167F), usually after about 4 hours of cooking, take it out and wrap it in tinfoil. Place the wrapped brisket in a foil pan with some beer added to moisten the meat. If you just place the wrapped brisket directly onto the grill there is a danger the foil will tear when you temperature check and lose all those lovely juices. At this stage you don’t need to add any more hickory chunks as the meat has sealed and won’t absorb any more of the flavour.
Use the thermometer to monitor the meat after another 2 – 3 hours cooking and once it reaches the required temperature take the meat off and let it rest for 30 – 45 minutes before serving.
We regularly hold BBQ demonstrations in store, click here to visit the Events page to find the date of the next event. Even if we don’t have an event there is normally something cooking at the weekend so visit The Barbecue Shop here in store for recipes and advice from our trained, enthusiastic staff.
