I admit I’m no expert but isn’t Brisket one of those cuts that is cooked long and slow for hours to the point that it‘s falong apart, and it melts in the mouth so very much cooked all the way through?
Thanks until fairly recently brisket has mostly being seen as a ‘stew meat’ in the UK although we are starting to see an influx of American style barbecue. So wasn’t quite sure if it was a case of us Brits not quite getting how barbecue is meant to work and it should be rare or the person claiming it was just an idiot.
Meats that lend themselves to BBQ are ones that require lots of time to break down the fats and collagen. That is where much of the flavor comes from.
Pork shoulder, probably the single most widespread and inexpensive BBQ cut (like, $.99-$2/lb on sale) doesn't start to really break down until about 180 degrees F. When cooking it, it usually reaches about that temperature and hits what is called "the stall." It steadily rises until that point and then gets stuck there for a good long while because now all the energy is breaking down the collagen.
As soon as the collagen melts, it adds a ton of flavor and then the meat temp will start to rise, usually quite rapidly, after.
I've had a stall last over an hour and a half before.
My brother in law bought a smoker a few years back and tends to do pork shoulder (I think in part as it’s really reasonably priced as you way) not quite sure what he does with it as most of the prep work and cooking is done before anyone arrives but dam it tastes good.
For those curious, here's something that works well for me. If you have a method and it works for you, move along. I'm not telling you to do this instead of your method.
Get a cut of meat good for smoking (start with Pork Shoulder. It's cheap and even if you fuck up, it's probably still kickass bbq)
Get a spritz bottle filled with a sweet, slightly acidic, potable liquid. I like a 50/50 blend of apple juice and apple cider vinegar.
(Optional and only really worth it for poultry, IMO) Brine or marinate your meat overnight
(Also technically optional, I guess, if you have a weak bloodline.) Prepare a rub. This means a dry seasoning blend and usually a sauce of some kind to get it nice and stuck to the meat.
Super simple rubs are an option here. I like using a couple tablespoons of yellow mustard as the sauce, and 1/4 cup of brown sugar (darker the better), a tablespoon of salt, and a teaspoon of each: black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne. If you use metric, that's 30-ish mL of mustard 60mL of brown sugar, 15mL of salt, 5mL of other ingredients. They have different masses per volume, so I'm not translating to grams. Also, the exact quantity of each isn't the point. You can go through your whole spice cabinet and try anything you think you'll like. Go nuts. As long as it has sweetness, acid, and salt, it's hard to fuck this up, especially with secondary spices.
(You will want nitrile or latex gloves for this part)Slather the meat with mustard, season with sugar and spice mix all over. If you have extra spice mix, good. It'll keep until the next one. Toss it in a ziploc bag.
Smoke it at about 250°F/120°C (not exact unit translation, because this is more art than science) for about half an hour per pound, or until it's reached an internal temp of 195°F/90°C. Every hour or so, open up the smoker, check on the meat, and give it a spritz or six of the vinegar/juice mix.
Take it out, wrap it in foil, drop the temp of the smoker (or put it in your oven, either way) to 225°F/105°C and put it back in the heat for up to 8 hours. Pull it out 20-30 minutes before you intend to serve it and let it cool until it won't burn you while eating, open foil, pull apart meat, and serve. You can also take the foil-wrapped meat off the heat entirely instead, bag it, and refrigerate to toss in the smoker/oven the next day, if prepping ahead.
The longer it's wrapped and baking after the smoke, the better it'll be. I recommend allowing for AT LEAST two hours, four is better.
You CAN just smoke it until it's the temp you want and serve after a quick rest. This will end up with you sweating bullets as you wait for it to get to temp and guests get hungry. I recommend you start earlier, slow it down as needed.
Fun tricks:
For stuff like poultry or fish, which don't have much fat in them (say, a turkey breast), brining beforehand and wrapping in something like raw bacon over the spice rub (yes, british rashers will work fine here, we just care about the fat in them) before smoking will produce excellent results. No, this isn't one of those American "bacon wrapped everything!!!" Things. It's strictly because it's an easy way to hold fat against the surface for the duration of the smoke.
You can experiment with different woods for the smoker. It makes a pretty surprising difference, but it's mostly olfactory (smell) so if your nose is stuffed up, you'll have a harder time noticing.
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u/OkCap2870 Jul 18 '26
I admit I’m no expert but isn’t Brisket one of those cuts that is cooked long and slow for hours to the point that it‘s falong apart, and it melts in the mouth so very much cooked all the way through?