brisket on green egg

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any tips on this? id like to try a 12-18 hour smoke, but havent had success yet on green egg

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You are cooking on an egg, it will not take you 12-18 hours to smoke a brisket. It will be much shorter duration. Here are my tips.

1. Know your brisket. Know what the point it, and what the flat is. This will be key at the end of the smoke.
2. Pick a uniform brisket. You want a brisket that is as close to uniform in thickness of the flat as possible.
3. Know how to trim your brisket. You want to leave about 1/4" of fat on your brisket. Whenever you get to the deckle (big section of fat separating the flat from the point) be careful not to trim it all off. That will be your separating line later. Aaron Franklin's BBQ book has a good step by step on how to trim.
4. Wood - i like to use oak for brisket. Just make sure it's not an overpowering wood like mesquite. Sometimes i mix some hickory in with the oak.
5. Grill temp - I like to smoke around 225-250 for my brisket, indirect heat.
6. Cook to temp (or feel if you're good) not time. You want to cook your brisket to about 170-180 before removing and wrapping. You can wrap with foil or butcher paper, foil retains more heat and may speed up your cook. The wrap's purpose is to retain moisture. Once you wrap, put back on and cook to 200-205. I use Weber's igrill.
7. Resist the urge to look at your brisket. It's tempting, but just leave it alone. As long as you have a good probe you should be good. If you keep opening it, you could dry it out a little. And don't worry about it not smoking the whole time. Meat can only soak up smoke for about the first hour to hour and a half. So if the smoke goes away after a few hours, that's fine. It's supposed to.
8. Once your brisket reaches 205, take it off the grill and wrap with an old towel and put in an ice chest for at least an hour. It can stay in there MUCH longer. Heat retention with the towel and it being in the ice chest can last for a long time. I've let mine go for 3-4 hours before in the ice chest. This rest will allow the brisket to reabsorb those juices it releases during the cook.
9. After the rest, take the brisket out, and with the back end of a knife, remove the point of the brisket. That deckle or fat line that i mentioned earlier, will be very soft, and is the perfect separation line if you want to make burnt ends. This isn't required but burnt ends is meat candy.
10. Once you've removed your point, take that point and cut it into large cubes. Slather on some sauce onto your point in a pan (saving the drippings and using that in a sauce will take your brisket up to 11). Get your egg back up to about 275-300 and cook for another hour, covered.
11. Cut your brisket against the grain, with a good sharp knife. You don't want to tear the brisket. Good 1/4" - 1/2" thick pieces are ideal.

BONUS: Here is Aaron Franklin's espresso bbq sauce from his book. The use of brisket drippings makes this stuff amazing.

- Try to keep my grill between 225-250, but closer to 225
- S&P plus a little garlic powder for the rub. Olive oil to as the binder
- Once I get a good bark I wrap in butcher paper (haven't done the beef tallow with the wrap yet, will be my next attempt though)
- cook wrapped until probe slides in like butta

Put the point end of the Brisket at the back of the egg cause that is where the heat rises up through the egg. The point is more forgiving the flat will dry out if it’s in a hot spot by the time the point end is done.

LINK


I did this last week with a flat I had laying around. It was good, not great. I agree that a water pan is necessary for these. It helped tremendously. I underpowered mine with seasoning. Next time, I'll add more.

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do you find you have to add more wood/charcoal at some point?

what are the required times, in each of your experiences?

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You should not have to add fuel. You can keep a ceramic going for much longer than a brisket will need.

I usually cook about a 4-5lb flat. I cook it over a drip pan and wrap at 165 degrees. Pull at 195-200 and rest for at least 30 minutes, more like an hour or more. Usually takes 6-7 hours.

Sometimes I will wrap by putting it in a disposable tin pan filled with large onion and green pepper chunks and beef stock. The veggies keep it above the liquid and you end up with a really nice au jus or stock that you can use in a soup or stew.

I'm often making brisket tacos with the result, so slicing it isn't a big deal.

I always do fat side down since the heat is directly below. I also add a pan of water. Depending the shape of the brisket I sometime will put some foil across the diffuser to help keep sections from getting too hot and drying out. Temp around 225-250. A few chunks of hickory early on give great flavor. Once a brisket warms up it doesn’t take much more smoke flavor. Royal oak lump charcoal is the same as BGE brand. I never need to add any while cooking.

Brisket - In Game Thread on PrimoXL (Egg)

Check that one out....

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I don't get this. Why are you putting the fat side down? Some of the fat will render and i would assume you want that fat to act as a baste on your brisket.

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This is a fallacy.

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Also, i smoked a brisket fat side down one time, and the fat stuck to the grill grates, so i lost a lot of the bark on those areas.

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Season the grates better

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Why are you putting the fat side down? Some of the fat will render and i would assume you want that fat to act as a baste on your brisket.

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no it wont.. as you ETAed, yes fat is used to protect against heat. you put the fat in the direction of the heat you get

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Also, i smoked a brisket fat side down one time, and the fat stuck to the grill grates, so i lost a lot of the bark on those areas.

ETA: Are you using the fat as a heat deflector? For a ceramic grill that shouldn't matter. Your heat is pretty well evenly dispersed assuming you have the ceramic heat deflector's in place.

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well bark isnt created on the fat. thats why you trim the meat so much, the seasoning and the meat reacted to the heat and create the bark.

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Are you using the fat as a heat deflector? For a ceramic grill that shouldn't matter. Your heat is pretty well evenly dispersed assuming you have the ceramic heat deflector's in place.

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i dont have the deflector plates. but you still get more heat from the bottom so it is good to put the cap down to protect.