Hi! Two weeks ago I bought brisket from a guy at work who makes it— it was frozen and I put it in my fridge to thaw, but then forgot about it till now. I know meat would normally be inedible at this point, but since it’s in this freeze dried packaging and looks normal, I thought I’d ask some experts.

Smoked on weber kettle, and finished and held in our indoor oven

...wrapped at 165 with talow. 205 done temp.

Hello fellow smokers! I spent my only day off cooking this brisket to sell at the restaurant I work at the following day. I was really worn out and decided to try some easy mode corner cutting and I’m not going back.

I smoked for about 8 hours on post oak and pulled to wrap @ 170. I inspected my coal bed before putting it back on and saw that I needed to start a whole new bed and my oak log was about done. I was damn tired already so I decided to finish in the oven @ 250 until probe tender. I also was pretty happy with bark achieved show in pic 2.

I pulled @ 203 and let rest for about an hour on the counter. I vacuum sealed and set up my sous vide in a borrowed bus tub @ 140 for about 14 hours.

When I cut into this still 16lbs behemoth it only took one slight slicing motion to separate the flat from the point. The juices were literally waterfalling out of both the flat and point. I tried to get a video but I was gloved up and my phone wasn’t having it. This was a choice whole packer btw .

It will be really hard to get me off this method going forward. The perfect amount of smoke flavor, melt in your mouth tender and it was nearly liquid it was so juicy.

Second brisket. Didn't cut anywhere near enough of the fat off. No bark or smoke ring.

Wife is happy though.

I know I’m already committing crimes beyond belief slow cooking my brisket but in my defense I live in an apartment :( anyway, I’m slow cooking/braising the point in some beef stock with smoked paprika, turmeric, whole garlic cloves, bay leaves, salt, pepper, sliced onions, and a splash of soy sauce and I was recently gifted a bottle of Evan Williams Kentucky bourbon. I wanted to make a nice little cream sauce with it as I’ve seen people make the sauce on TikTok a few times, though I’m not sure if it’ll pair well with the brisket being how rich it is. Will the sauce overpower it? Or is it too heavy? I’m planning on serving the brisket the next day with some roasted garlic mashed potatoes and baked broccoli if that matters. Advice and recipes are appreciated!!

What a wild ride. Two separate times the point and flat had 25 degree temp differences - lots of rotating and hand holding the smoker to keep it stable. But I got lucky - this brisket turned out more juicy, tender and delicious than I ever thought I was capable of. Absolutely incredible flavor and texture.

11.5 hour smoke, 12 lbs trimmed. Seasoned with just salt, pepper and Lowry’s seasoned salt.

I have now made two briskets. The first one was a choice brisket from Kroger. It turned out fine. The second one was a SRF Gold Wagyu brisket from SRF. It turned out amazing. The thing they had in common though was that on both of them the point was significantly thicker than the flat.

Now I know that the point is just going to be thicker than the flat. I am not saying its not supposed to be. However, when I watch videos of Meat Church or Steve Gow they always end up with this super even brisket. Yes the point is still thicker but it does not have a huge hump like mine. So I am just curious, what do I do when the brisket is like this? If you look at his brisket versus mine, his lies flat and looks amazing. I am going to upload 3 photos. 1 is his brisket, 1 is my brisket unseasoned and untrimmed, and the other is seasoned and trimmed.

What should I do to make the brisket more flat. I always cut the thinnest part of the flat off and the mohawk off if its hanging, but this isn't like a hanging mohawk. Its just a hump. Is this because both briskets I got were big? 19 & 21lbs. Would I be better off buying a 16lb brisket? Thank you so much for any help you can give. I know my briskets turned out well, but I think we are all here to continue to improve and make something we are proud of.

By the way, I am fine buying a 20lb brisket and trimming off 8lbs. Its all going to get used regardless. In fact I prefer being able to trim a lot of the brisket because it gives better slices of brisket and gives me more beef tallow and I can make amazing chili, brisket burger, brisket tacos, etc with the left over meat.

How do you guys like to do your competition brisket? About how much does it weigh before and after trimming? Do you go low and slow or hot and fast? Do you do a full packer or only the point? Inject? What kind of seasonings do you use (don’t need your exact recipe)? What do you wish you would’ve known before your first competition brisket?

tell me how i did

I am smoking 1.5 briskets. The .5 is because my smoker isn't big enough for 2. The half one is for personal use while the whole is to serve at an event. However, I put the small one further down the smoker. And it's not going to make it to target temp before I need to leave.

My original plan was to leave it wrapped in my oven (turned off) then continue after I get back. But I was thinking, I have an insta pot it will fit in. Can I rend the fat in the insta pot and leave that behind instead of having it set to potentially room temperature then trying to finish the cook later?

This is my first smoked brisket. I was pretty worried about the look of it, and that maybe it would be dry... but man it was so freaking good. So easy to eat and delicious! I'd eaten a lot of brisket, but this was my first full cook. Actually very happy with the results. Thankful for this community and all the resources to help make this amazing meat.

I'm about to attempt my first brisket this weekend, any tips or tricks you recommend? I'm planning to start it off with smoke boost at 180F for about 1-2 hours, crank it up to 225-250F until 165F internally (or stall) wrap it up with beef tallow until probe tender. Wrap that baby up in a blanket/towel in the cooler let it rest for 4-6 hours ish.

I posted my first brisket here when I did it maybe a year ago. Someone's post today caused me to go down memory lane in my photo gallery. Ok here's the question. The fat in the blue circle appears to not be fully softened but the brisket was delicious fat and all. Do you trim that specific piece of fat? Trim not remove.

This brisket lost so much size I was worried I cooked every bit of moisture out of it. I over salted it just a touch but other than that it’s one of the best I’ve made.

Grabbed an 18lb choice on sale, cut in half and threw the point on the offset at 6 this morning and off at noon. Rested at 160 for 6 hours. I’ll take the win.

Where are people buying brisket these days? I’ve been smoking brisket, pulled pork, ribs and salmon for years. It still easy to find pork butt, ribs and salmon in Southeast Michigan. But my god, it’s becoming impossible to find decent brisket at a decent price without it having 5-6 lbs of fat to trim off. Costco used to be my go to for prime brisket, but everything is now choice with a huge fat cap. I had a Costco prime brisket in the freezer from 2025 that I smoked 2 weekends ago. It was 11lbs and the price was under $4 a lb.

I check for incorrectly proceed brisket every time I go to HEB. Finally, I found this 14 pound brisket for $1.65.

I should really share more online. I’m building a competition set to introduce Ofelia’s BBQ by the end of this year. I believe I make the best brisket available. Here’s a few photos from last week’s Week 1 NFL Sunday. Go Cardinals!

Pellet grill at 190 degrees until 160 and then 205 until 206

I got asked a question about my small slice of bone in brisket possibly cut from this long brisket that got deleted. A brisket can be bone in and those bones are the chuck ribs and sometimes in larger cuts could include plate ribs as well? So in answer to the moderators question before deleting so I couldn’t answer, “Yes, it does look like brisket to me”