First Time Brisket on New Masterbuilt Digital Electric Smoker!

You may have followed the progress on Facebook of our overnight smoking of a brisket last weekend on our new Masterbuilt digital electric smoker.  Here are the details:

First, let's settle the issue of charcoal vs. electric smoker.  We own two CharGriller units that use charcoal to grill or smoke.  We've been very successfully with them but there are always issues because the units are very drafty and difficult to keep a steady temperature.  The Masterbuilt electric unit is well-insulated and holds its temperature very well.  It cooks from 110-275 degrees so its great for smoking jerky and smoking other things that need lower temps.  Of course, we'll still use our CharGrillers but the Masterbuilt allows us to do things like this overnight smoke with a minimum of trouble.  Now on to the brisket!

We used a 13 pound "packer" brisket.  This is a whole brisket in its Cryovac wrapping. A whole brisket includes both the "flat", the larger, narrow, leaner portion and the "point" (also called the "deckle"), the smaller, fattier (and therefore moister) part.  We neglected to take photos of the raw brisket but you can search Google images and see exactly what we mean.  Also, if you look at the final two photos of the cooked brisket the flat and the point can be clearly seen.

First, we wash the brisket under some running water to remove blood and that "raw meat smell".  We always wash our meat before we smoke it. We then like to trim it down to 1/4" of fat and also trim a lot of the fat between the flat and the point, almost separating the two parts.  Indeed, for this cooking we DID separate the brisket into halves to fit it into the smoker although one half had point and flat while the other had just the flat.  Your tolerance for fat might lead you to trim more or less of it off.  Some fat is necessary to baste the meat as it smokes.

After trimming we coated the brisket with our special rub (you may use store-bought rubs, find a recipe, or create your own), and allowed it to warm up a bit. There are conflicting opinions about allowing meat to come up to room temperature before cooking but we do it and are always happy with the results.  The photo shows the two halves waiting to go into the smoker.

We turned the Masterbuilt digital electric smoker on and set the temperature to 250 degrees.  Once it was hot enough we added a combination of hickory and apple wood chips.  Hickory, although it's been the favorite smoking wood for most meats, can bit a bit strong so we sweeten it up with the apple.

The meat then went into the smoker with the probe thermometer placed into the thicket part of the brisket but not into the fat.  We wanted the meat to cook to 165 degrees for this first step of the cooking process, which would take about 6 hours. The time was 1:45am...time to go to bed for a few hours!

Carol woke up at 4:30am and added more chips, then woke up at 7:30am.  The meat was at a perfect 165 degrees and so she removed it to wrap it.  We used a wrapping mixture created by chef Adam Perry Lang for his "Serious Barbecue" cookbook.  Combine 4 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter, 1/2 cup of honey, and a 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar to make this mixture...try not to taste it or you might end up finishing it all before you get it onto the meat!  It's delicious!  Here's a photo of the ready-to-wrap brisket, the two halves stacked...

Using a double layer of heavy duty foil, Carol placed the brisket onto it, partially wrapped it, then poured the wrapping mixture on and completely closed the foil.  The probe thermometer went back into the brisket and the brisket went back into the smoker to cook until it reached 200 degrees.  This took about 2 1/2 hours.