Grass-Fed Beef · American (Texas BBQ)
Texas-Style Smoked Brisket
Central Texas barbecue proves that a great brisket needs only salt, pepper, wood smoke and time. Grass-fed brisket is leaner than feedlot beef, so we wrap it with a little rendered beef tallow to keep it moist through the long cook—the result is deeply beefy with a crackling black bark.
- Prep30 min
- Cook600 min
- Total630 min
- Servings10
Ingredients
- 1 whole organic grass-fed brisket (4–6 kg) $405
- 1/4 cup coarse kosher salt
- 1/4 cup coarse (16-mesh) black pepper
- 1 tbsp garlic powder (optional)
- 250 g grass-fed beef suet, rendered into tallow $220
- Oak, mesquite or pecan wood
- Unwaxed pink butcher paper
- Pickles, white onion and white bread to serve
Instructions
- Trim the hard fat and leave about 6 mm of soft fat on the fat cap. Round the edges so they don't burn.
- Mix salt, pepper and garlic and season the brisket evenly on all sides. Let it sit while the smoker heats.
- Bring the smoker to a steady 120–125 °C (250–260 °F) with clean, thin blue smoke.
- Smoke the brisket fat side up (or toward the heat source) until the bark is dark and set and the internal temperature is about 70–74 °C, 6–8 hours.
- Lay the brisket on a large sheet of butcher paper, brush with warm tallow, and wrap tightly.
- Return to the smoker until the meat probes like soft butter, around 93–96 °C, another 2–4 hours.
- Rest the wrapped brisket in a dry cooler or a 65 °C oven for at least 1 hour (up to 4).
- Separate the flat from the point. Slice the flat across the grain the thickness of a pencil and cut the point into thicker slices or cubes for burnt ends.
Tips
- Probe tenderness matters more than an exact temperature—every brisket is different.
- Don't skip the rest: it lets the juices redistribute and the collagen set.
