5 Best Tips To Smoke A Brisket Like A Pitmaster

The hallmark of any great pitmaster is their brisket. Ah yes, the coveted yet elusive brisket can be one of the most rewarding or worst experiences with your smoker. By the end of this article, you will possess the knowledge to smoke brisket like a pitmaster—but more importantly, you will gain the confidence to execute. 

Nobody is born smoking a brisket except for maybe Aaron Franklin, the king of brisket, the owner of one of the best brisket spots in Texas. I don't know about you but I wasn’t smoking brisket right out of the womb. The great news is that it's never too late to learn.

Here are 5 tips to help you smoke a brisket like a pitmaster. 

1. Track All Temperatures: To achieve a perfectly cooked brisket you need to know your temperatures at ALL TIMES. Meaning you need to keep track of the ambient temperature(inside the smoker) and temperature of the flat + point (two muscles that make up the brisket). To track all of these at once you need 3 probe wireless thermometer with a high & low alarm.
2. Don't Put Lipstick On A Pig: Everyone has heard this saying, but what does that mean for brisket? Well, there are 4 grades of meat: Select, Choice, Prime, and Wagyu(listed from worst to best). DO NOT USE SELECT. Even if you smoke a Select brisket perfectly, it will be near impossible to have the delicious final product because the quality of meat is not there to begin with. We recommend using choice if it's your first brisket or money is tight. But if this ain't your first rodeo then ideally you should use Prime grade or Wagyu. You should be able to pick up prime from your local butcher shop, Costco, or Snake River Farms (best quality).
3. Get Through The Dreaded Stall: What’s the stall? It’s a product of evaporative cooling: once the internal temperature of the brisket hits around 155°F to 165°F, the muscles will start to tighten up, forcing moisture to the surface of the meat, and thus, cooling down the brisket. The last thing you want is to get stuck in the stall for too long. The best way to get through the stall while keeping your brisket juicy is to wrap it aka a texas crutch. Many use Tinfoil but butcher paper keeps the moisture in while keeping the bark crispy. Check out our favorite butcher paper here.
4. Get That Seasoning To Stick: If you purchase a nice grade of brisket(Prime) all you really need for seasoning is kosher salt and coarse ground pepper. Make sure to use yellow mustard as a binder. The binder is whats makes it stick to the meat and don’t worry...you won't taste the mustard by the time it's done smoking
5. You Need Game Plan: Would you hit the field on Sunday if you didn't have a playbook? I don't think so...Brisket is no different. You need to have a plan for temperatures, times, when to wrap, when to spritz, when to pull, etc. We have developed a playbook (20+ page eBook) that outlines exactly how to smoke a brisket called the Rollin Blue Brisket Blueprint. Check out the comprehensive guide to smoking a brisket below.

What's inside the Brisket Blueprint eBook?

1. Rollin Blue BBQ’s “5 Steps to a Perfect Brisket”—the absolute “bulletproof” best strategy to avoid wasting hundreds of dollars on meat, charcoal, wood, or pellets. 
2. How to get smoking with a proven, 6 stage brisket smoking process (which means you will save weeks of wasted time researching, reading articles, watching videos, and soaking up ineffective methods). (Page 11-13)
3. The *sure-fire* secret to the black crisp bark, a thick pink smoke ring, and a juicy flat & point while having more fun than you ever thought possible. 
4. How to quickly avoid the #1 mistake smokers make that sets them up for failure before they even start smoking their brisket. (Page 8)
5. The step by step explanation of how to get through sensitive periods during the cook—how to get through the stall quickly and when to pull/rest your brisket (Page 13)
6. The MUST-HAVE tools so you can smoke brisket easier than ever imagined which means you won’t waste money on useless accessories and gadgets. (Page 6)
7. The “Brisket Chronicles” sections will speed up your learning process which means you will be smoking perfect brisket faster than you can imagine. (Page 16)