At five in the morning, I placed a three-pound chuck roast in my WSM smoker at 225°F. A wireless probe sent temperatures to my phone so I could watch the numbers climb while I sipped coffee. Around 160°F, the meat “stalled.” The temperature sat there for what felt like forever. Instead of turning up the heat, I just waited it out after wrapping it. I have learned from fiddling with it before that time does the work; it is just water evaporating, they say. They all say. Totally normal. Nothing is wrong. I am not panicked. Are you panicked? I’m not. Who am I talking to?

When the internal temperature reached about 200°F, I cut the roast into two-inch cubes, coated the pieces with sauce, honey, and melted butter, and put them back in the smoker. After another hour, the edges turned dark and sticky. The burnt ends were almost burnt ends.

Why Burnt Ends Work

1. Fat plus time equals tenderness: Chuck roast is rich in fat and collagen. Cooking at a steady low temperature lets fat render and collagen turn into soft gelatin.
2. Bark builds flavor: A simple rub of salt, pepper, and brown sugar forms a crust. That crust holds smoke and keeps the inside juicy.
3. The stall is normal: Evaporation cools the meat surface and slows heating. Wrapping the meat helps push past the stall without drying it out.

Step-By-Step Cheat Sheet

1. Rub: Season with equal parts kosher salt and coarse black pepper, plus two tablespoons brown sugar per pound. This is a little different than my Trademark BBQ Rub. I use sugar when I am aiming for burnt ends.
2. Smoke at 225°F: Place the roast fat side up. Use oak and cherry wood for solid smoke flavor.
3. Wrap at 160°F: Wrap tightly in butcher paper. Continue cooking until 200°F internal.
4. Cube and sauce: Cut into two-inch cubes. Toss with half a cup of barbecue sauce, two tablespoons of honey, and two tablespoons of melted butter per pound.
5. Finish at 275°F: Return cubes to the smoker in a single layer, uncovered, for sixty to ninety minutes. Look for deep brown edges and a sticky glaze.
6. Rest: Let the cubes cool for 30 minutes.
7. Reverse rub: Just before you serve, sprinkle a light dusting of the dry rub over the top. The fresh spices bloom in the heat and give every bite a final pop of flavor. ALso, I like to serve them on butcher paper with a side of pickles.

I learned the reverse rub from Andy Husbands’ Overnight Brisket Class. This has been in my bag of tricks ever since. Just don’t go too far with the rub.

Have you tried the read-deal burnt ends before? Have you tried the poor man’s version? Do you really care which is better? What tricks do you want to share?

A brisket takes a long time to smoke but only takes up one rack in a Weber Smokey Mountain smoker. That means that you can smoke other things at the same time. I try to take advantage of the extended session and smoke a few things while the brisket is doing its thing, turning into magic.

I keep the brisket on the top grate of the WSM, leaving the bottom grate for more things to smoke. I also do this because I have friends who do not eat pork.

On the bottom grate, we can get creative. For one, you do have enough time for a pork shoulder or a Boston butt.

Smoked Queso and Cream Cheese are crowd-pleasers. It’s funny. I can put a day into a brisket, tending a fire and meticulously crafting the culinary experience, and people will rave about the cream cheese. If they were left alone, they would like the pan clean. They love it because its simple, flavorful, and novel.

Smoked Cream Cheese is pretty straightforward. You take out two bricks of cream cheese, place them in an aluminum pan, and score their tops… You know for extra surface area to house that smoke flavor. Season them with a sweet BBQ rub. I like pecan rubs like Meat Church Deez Nuts Honey Pecan rub. You can easily make your own with brown sugar, black pepper, salt, and toasted pecan flavoring. Anything sweet is going to work with the cream cheese. Smoke for an hour or so. Serve with crackers. I like to double down and use the pecan crackers from Blue Diamond.

So, have a fun weekend. I hope you smoke something awesome as well as try something new. Let me know how it goes. See you on the BBQ forums.

Choose a Brisket

I used to buy my briskets at a mass-market store and hope for the best. This still works, but there are some fantastic Brazilian butcher shops all around me. I have learned that I am looking for a carne de peito. If you have a few options, be picky. Pick a brisket with purpose. I tend to look for how much fat there is, the overall shape, and how thin the flat side is. I am thinking about how much I am not going to be able to use. I tend to trim aggressively, so I don’t want to pay for what I am going to throw away. Get the brisket home safely and put it in the refrigerator. Keep it cold until you are ready to trim.

Make a Brisket Rub

While your brisket is getting cold, prepare a fresh brisket rub. This is where your personality and preferences can shine through. Don’t worry too much about being traditional or what others like; try out different rubs, spices, and flavors. Over time, you will figure out what you like and what others tend to like. To me, a brisket rub is basically salt and pepper. This is because I have had many briskets in Texas, and they tend to be heavy on the black pepper. The trick is to use coarse grinds on the spices that you want to use. You want the smoke to make it the meat; fine powders tend to block the smoke from getting in. If you want to experiment, try coarse-ground spices instead of powders. I recommend Penzeys Spices Tellicherry Black Pepper and grinding it when you need it.

My Secret Texas Brisket Rub Recipe

• 1/2 cup of Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
• 1/2 cup of kosher salt
• 1 cup of tellicherry black pepper (coarse ground)

Add all of the ingredients to a container, seal it, and shake it to mix thoroughly.

Trim the Brisket

YouTube is your friend here. If you have never trimmed a brisket, watch a few hours of video to see different techniques and to get comfortable with what you are trying to accomplish. I will list some of my tips, but trimming a brisket takes some practice. It is also nerve-wracking, as you don’t want to mess up a very expensive cut of beef. Trim right out of the refrigerator—the colder, the better. I recommend a cheap deboning knife to trim a brisket.

At the end of the trimming process, you want a piece of meat that will be easy to smoke and yield eatable pieces. “Don’t be a hero” is what I say to the people who I teach. I aggressively trim and cut away pieces that are just not going to cook well or be tasty. Save the trimmings to make tallow.

At the end of the process, you want a brisket with an aerodynamic shape. This means no sharp corners and a rounded, domed shape. Trim down the flat side so it is at least an inch thick; any thinner, you run the risk of burning it up and drying it out. Trim the fat cap to around a quarter of an inch. Remove the silver skin and fat pockets from the bottom side. Take your time.

Apply the Rub

Put the brisket on a large cutting board. Apply your brisket rub to the brisket by shaking the container of rub from about 12 inches away. I start with the bottom side, go around the edges, flip, and cover the top of the brisket. I only lightly press the rub down. I don’t use any binders, and I don’t rub them into the meat. And make sure to get all of the sides. I tend to miss the side facing away from me.

Smoke the Brisket to 170°F

I use vertical smokers and charcoal and wood chunks for smoking meat. You can do this with a pellet smoker or an offset smoker. Use what you know and what you are comfortable with. I smoke at 225°F, and I am looking for an internal temperature of 170°F and a defined bark. Before I move to the next step, I like to have good color and have the bark in place.

Make Tallow

While your brisket is smoking, make some tallow. We are going to use the scraps from trimming and render them into tallow. I put some of my scraps in a pot and heated it up slowly for a couple of hours. I am not worried about getting all of the fat to render. I just want to make a cup for when I wrap the brisket and smoke it the rest of the way. I pour the rendered fat through a strainer and then a coffee filter. I am only trying to get a cup to use in the next step. You can also buy Wagyu Tallow, smoke it, and use it without all of the mess of making your own.

Wrap the Brisket

Take two large sheets of pink butcher paper and place them on top of a cooking sheet. Pour the tallow onto the paper, and put the bottom of the brisket down on the pool of beef tallow. Fold the paper around the sides, flip, and tuck. I like to make sure that there are no air pockets in the paper. It might take a few tries to wrap it, but I haven’t noticed too much of a difference in the output. Tallow helps with moisture, texture, and mouthfeel.

Smoke the Brisket to 203°F

Take your wrapped brisket in pink butcher paper and place it back on the smoker. I am looking for an internal temperature of 203°F and a certain feel of the temperature problem. I use an instant-read temperature probe with a pointy end. I want the probe to punch through the paper and have little resistance going into the brisket. It takes some experience to get the feel for this.

Rest the Brisket

Once the brisket is at the desired temperature and has the right texture, I let it cool down to around 180°F. I keep it wrapped the whole time. Then, I place it in a cooler until the brisket is ready to serve. I give it at least 4 hours and have gone as long as 8 hours. The resting part is really important for moisture. A good cooler will hold the internal temperature around 160°F. I used some extra butcher paper to fill up the space in the cooler. I am not sure if this helps, but it is something that I do every time.

Show Off the Brisket

I am a ham. I love to share my work. I usually gather everyone around for the big reveal. This step is optional.

Slice the Brisket

I use a sharp brisket knife while wearing gloves to slice to order. My first cut is around the middle to separate the flat from the point muscles. I pose for the moisture shot and then continue slicing. I have watched a lot of videos on slicing a brisket properly, and I learn something new every time I do it. My flat cuts are around a quarter of an inch, and my point cuts are a little wider. Over time, you will learn where the burnt ends are. I usually cube up four pieces from the flap on the point to make some really tasty burnt-end pieces.

Rest Yourself

I never sleep so well after a day or so of smoking and eating. It is exhausting to keep up with the fire, checking things, overthinking things, and striving for your best. Get some rest, reflect, and be ready for the next battle.

What tips do you have? Please share and help build up our community. I am always learning. And the more I share, the better I get. I love talking about BBQ, so connect with me here or on Instagram. Godspeed.

I mean, it’s about time that we give thanks and celebrate with others… and also smoke some meat. Smoking a turkey is pretty straightforward. I recommend that you get a small turkey and give it a try. If anything, you might learn something and you might just make something that everyone loves.

Some tips:

• Start small – 11-14lbs is a good-sized turkey
• Buy two turkeys and cook one in advance. This will be your ace in the hole. Or, it will be your no-pressure backup turkey.
• Brine the turkey for at least 24 hours – this will introduce some flavor and get the turkey ready for smoke.
• Apply a rub with salt, pepper, and herbs. Turkey doesn’t taste like much itself, so feel free to kick up the flavor with some herbs.
• Cover the tips of the wings and legs with foil. This will stop them from burning.
• Smoke at a higher temperature, around 335F for a couple of hours
• Add some cubed butter to the turkey and put it back into the smoker until the bird reaches 165F in the breast and thighs.
• Use your oven after the initial smoke if you can’t keep a steady smoker temperature on a cold day.

I also recommend that you watch some YouTube videos and absorb some of the processes and techniques. I suggest starting with Arron Franklin’s BBQ with Franklin series on Thanksgiving.

Let me know how it goes for you!

My process of smoking meat, cheese, or even ice cream is to monitor only the meat temperature and the internal temperature of the smoker. When I finish a cook, I go back and try to learn from the data. I do not attempt to control the smoker using the Internet of Things, I use IoT to collect the data with ThingSpeak, analyze the data with MATLAB, and apply the insights to the next cook. The best advice that I have been given is to not change too many variables. Stick with simple rubs, the same charcoal, the same wood, the same cuts of meat, etc. Only change one variable for one cook. It takes years of trial and error before you get great at BBQ. Stick with it and find your trademark.

With the help of ThingSpeak and MATLAB, I can help you understand one of the more frustrating parts of smoking meats… the stall! The stall is a period of time where what you are cooking does not seem to be increasing in internal temperature. I used to panic during the stall and mess with the temperature by adding more charcoal or turning the vents. Overtime, I realized this is normal. No reason to panic.

Cooking is taking something cold and getting its internal temperature up to a safe level. Everything that you cook has a different target internal temperature, but generally the sweet spot is 190-205F. Smoking is about low and slow cooking. This means that you are trying to raise that internal temperature slowly with a low temperature. I use a cook temperature of 230-250F. This means that smoking takes a lot of time to properly cook. In some cases, this is two hours per pound. Things don’t change much minute to minute in a BBQ pit, so you can collect data every few minutes and still have an accurate picture of what’s happening.

Collecting Data with ThingSpeak

First, I set up a ThingSpeak channel to store my temperature data. One field is for the smoker’s temperature and field two is for the internal temperature of what I am cooking. To get the data, you have many options. I did a quick search around the internet and discovered hundreds of Arduino and ThingSpeak projects to get data from a smoker. In general you need two temperature probes that can take the heat of the smoker, connectors, an Arduino with Wi-Fi like the MKR1000.

Analyzing the Temperature Data with MATLAB

The first step is to read in the temperature data using MATLAB that was collected by ThingSpeak. Data on ThingSpeak is stored in a channel and identified by a channelID. If you have a private channel, you will need to supply a Read API Key to get access to the data.

smokerTT = thingSpeakRead(279400,'ReadKey','9AYZQDT1XFDM98FW','OutputFormat','timetable','NumPoints',115);

Sometimes the data from your temperature probe is noisey. This means the value that the temperature probe reports is sometimes higher or lower than the actual temperature. If you take a few samples and take a median, you get a consistent result. In MATLAB, I use smoothdata to take a moving median of my time-series sensor data.

smoothSmoker = smoothdata(smokerTT);

After I clean up the data, I want to visualize it and to see what happened. This is a good time to learn how long things actually take, so on your next cook you budget the right amount of time and don’t rush any phases.

plot(smoothSmoker.Timestamps, smoothSmoker.Variables);

I can use this data to determine how long the total cook will last and even set alerts using ThingSpeak. I tend to watch the smoker and tend the fire.

BBQ Results

After a lot of research, I discovered what the stall is doing and why it is important to keep your patience and push forward. This is starting to sound like a metaphor for life. According to Prof. Greg Blonder, “The stall is evaporative cooling”. Prof. Greg is a physicist, entrepreneur, former Chief Technical Advisor at AT&T’s legendary Bell Labs, and regularly contributes to AmazingRibs.com. He likes to bust myths about barbequing and help us understand the thermodynamics of cooking. You are heating the meat slowly, but the moisture in the meat is evaporating at the same rate. This effect causes a stall in the temperature rise. The temperature of the meat will go up when the moisture is depleted. The stall is important to the cooking process and leads to something called the bark. This is an outer layer of the meat that is slightly thicker and less tender than the rest of the meat, but traps in lots of flavor and adds to its complexity. So, don’t rush during the stall. Keep the smoker temperature constant – avoid the temptation to turn the heat up to get through faster. And in the end, enjoy some well made BBQ with friends and family over the summer weekends and holidays.