Four years ago, I wrote up how I cook a Texas-style brisket at home on the WSM. The plan was to change one thing for every cook and see what works. A few things did.
The process… in a nutshell.
Buy an untrimmed brisket. Packer cut. Trim to a quarter-inch fat cap. Rub with a rub of coarse salt and pepper (and nothing else, right). Smoke at 225°F on a Weber Smokey Mountain over post oak and pecan until the bark sets. Wrap in pink butcher paper with rendered tallow. Smoke until the probe slides in like butter. Rest in a dry cooler for hours. Slice against the grain.
I tried a few smokers over the years, but I still love my Weber Smoky Mountain (WSM). Harry Soo, who has won Grand Championships on the exact smoker said it best:
“Where else in the world can $300 and a pit get you the opportunity to cook against the best Pit Masters in the world?”
What got validated over the years
Lawry’s in the rub. The original recipe was half Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, half kosher salt, full cup of coarse Tellicherry pepper. People on the internet had opinions. Then Goldee’s in Fort Worth got named the #1 barbecue in Texas by Texas Monthly, and pitmaster Jonny White told the magazine, “Lawry’s goes on all the briskets at Goldee’s.” He called it the best secret ingredient in barbecue. I’d like it noted for the record.
Water in the pan. There’s a whole cottage industry telling you to replace the WSM water pan with sand, ceramic, or nothing. I tried them all. I went back to water. Chris Allingham at Virtual Weber Bullet said, “It’s almost impossible to run the Weber Bullet over 275°F as long as the pan is filled with water.”
The long rest. The 4-6 hour rest seemed to be perfect for brisket. Don’t skip the rest phase.
What changed in five years
Two probes, not one. This is the single biggest jump in quality. The flat and the point are two different cooks happening on one piece of meat. The point runs about 10°F hotter than the flat for most of the smoke. I used to pull when the flat hit 170°F. Now I pull on the average.
I write down every cook. Brisket weight, flat-to-point thickness ratio, ambient temp, fuel load, the time the probe-test passes. Median probe-test temp across 100 cooks: 203°F. Range: 198°F to 209°F.
I plan the rest, not the cook. I used to plan backwards from “brisket goes on the smoker.” Now I plan backwards from “brisket comes out of the cooler.”
What I’m trying next
The list for this summer:
- Buy by shape, not weight. The hypothesis is that an aerodynamic 12-pounder beats a lumpy 16-pounder every time.
- Render my own tallow every cook. I’ve used jarred Wagyu tallow. It’s fine. Tallow rendered from the trimmings of the brisket I’m cooking is the same flavor DNA as what’s on the grate.
- Fewer wood chunks, earlier. I think I’ve been over-smoking the bark in hour two. Going to try three chunks instead of five and see if the bark changes.
The short list
- Buy by shape, not by weight.
- Two probes. One in the flat, one in the point.
- Salt, pepper, and Lawry’s.
- Trust the water pan. It’s the WSM’s cruise control.
- Rest longer than feels reasonable.
- Keep a log.
In the year 2030…
I’m going to write the 2030 version of this post and half of what I wrote here will be updated, maybe AI will unlock more secrets of brisket smoking.
If you cook a brisket from the original guide, or from this update, tell me how it went. What you changed. What would you do differently? The more we share, the better we all get.