Smoking a whole packer brisket

I've done brisket on the smoker a couple times. It had always been flats before, though the last one was enormous (for a flat) at probably 12 pounds. A month ago my wife brought home a packer. 17 pounds! It was yuge and would be my first. If you don't know the terminology of cuts, the 'flat' is a muscle from a cow that's relatively uniform in thickness, containing leaner meat. The 'point' is less uniform and sits on top of the flat, containing fattier meat. Together, with a fat layer between, it's called a 'packer,' or a whole brisket. The idea was to make it when my parents visited, which they did last weekend.

As I do for all things grilling, I use the recommendations of Meathead at amazingribs.com. His recipe for brisket calls for a 12 lb packer and to start it night before, around midnight. Because mine was 5 lb heavier, I planned to start between 10-11pm and hope for the best. The key with brisket is flexibility. You don't want to miss meal time. I knew that if the cook finished early, we could do the brisket for lunch. If it went close to the timeline, I'd leave it in a cooler a few hours. If it went long, there was time built in to still make dinner.

Because the meat was going on overnight, that afternoon ~4pm I started prepping the giant hunk. I opened the package and trimmed the fat. And holy cow was there a lot. It's a little annoying to pay a premium for a fine cut of beef then need to do all that trimming. That's just the way it is (hums the song). Trying to leave a 1/2" layer, I definitely got too much in a few spots but per Meathead 'no harm no foul' and I didn't worry about it. Then I generously salted both sides and put in the fridge.

(Prep stages)

After that night's dinner (some tasty kabobs), I finished the prep. First, I made the big bad beef rub and applied it all about 9pm. Second, I remembered to inject beef broth (optional). Meathead says to use about 1 oz per pound of meat, and after trimming mine was probably 12-13 lbs. It was messy, washing off some seasoning and in the end I only injected 4-5 oz. Third and finally, I started the pellet grill and set it to 225 degrees.

The brisket actually went on at 1030pm. I inserted the probe that comes with the grill to remotely check the temps. After not seeing any guidance, I put the flat side up. I'm not sure it matters on the pellet smoker but I wanted to keep the leaner meat up top to prevent overcooking. At this point my biggest concern was making sure the grill didn't run out of pellets overnight. My plan involved staying up late (video games) and filling up the hopper before bed. My wife would check when she woke up. You can do an overnight cook because the smoker keeps the temperature consistent and you don't have to do anything for hours. After waking up myself I'd verify the temp before deciding next steps. I tentatively thought we'd get to 160 late morning, I'd do a Texas Crutch, finally hitting 200 mid afternoon. Then it'd sit in cooler a few hours before dinner.

That's not how it went, but with the next day flexible it worked out great. Shortly after going on, the controller read 50 degrees at 11pm. It was 100 when I went to bed at 1am. When I checked at 6am it was already 170, a surprise. I was expecting a stall between 150-170 degrees where the internal temp doesn't rise for hours. I'm not sure that happened at all (and I should stop expecting it at this point). By 8am it was at 185.

(Grilling stages)

It appeared we'd be having the brisket for lunch and I decided to still do a crutch, which is a tight wrap with either heavy duty tin foil or butcher paper. It steams the meat, making it juicier at the expense of softening the 'bark' outside. I've always used heavy duty foil and did that again. I put a long strip, more than twice as wide as the meat, across a large baking sheet and added a second shorter layer to double wrap the bottom. You don't want juices escaping. With meat this size, I needed help and my wife held the sheet while I lifted onto the foil. Then I wrapped it tightly, put it back on the grill and re-inserted the probe. After re-positioning the thermometer showed 180, unsurprising as it hadn't been in the exact middle after cooking down overnight.

Over the next hour I checked repeatedly as you need to do when approaching the end. It continued to show 185 and I briefly thought it was stalling. This is possible as the differences in meat, grill, and outside atmosphere can alter the details of the cook, though unlikely as the crutch speeds up the process. At 940 I left the controller on a little longer and the meat temp shot up to 207 (whoops!). It was temporarily out of sync. This is a few degrees overdone and I rushed out there. I don't always believe the temp of the built-in probe, so I used my kitchen meat thermometer and verified it indeed was done. I pulled it off the grill, wrapped it in a towel and threw it into a large cooler. Lunch it would be. In all the total cook time was less than 12 hours, right about 11h15m to be exact.

It sat in the cooler until noon, then rested on the counter for another 30 minutes (it was still super hot), before I sliced some for lunch. I took off a few inches from both ends where it was most well done. I chopped this up and added a bit of sauce for some chopped brisket. Then I sliced some of the flat and point , giving everyone a choice between lean and fatty. I didn't slice up everything before the meal as you want to eat it quickly to prevent drying out.

(Slicing stages)

The result? It was delicious. The extra few degrees didn't hurt and the meat was plenty juicy. The sliced and chopped stuff, the lean and fatty was all good. I could pat myself on the back. We all ate plenty before I sliced the rest. There are a few methods to slicing. I separated the two muscles once I found the fat layer between them. And always cut across the grain. Even after eating I got five bags (~10 oz each) for the freezer, one chopped, two lean and two fatty. Plus extra for the fridge. The mess I'd made in the meantime was considerable, but not insurmountable, and definitely worth it.

Quick and dirty recipe:

1. Acquire a whole brisket, make sure it's entirely defrosted before grilling

2. Day before meal trim most of the fat cap, leaving 1/2" layer

3. Salt (4pm?) a few hours before applying rub and putting on grill, longer is better

4. Immediately before putting on grill (11pm?), inject if desired and apply rub

5. Put on grill set to 225 (midnight?), insert temp probe if you have one

6. Ensuring there's enough fuel, go to bed

7. In morning, check fuel and meat temperature

8. Decide on crutch, spends up time and keeps meat juicy

9. When meat gets over 200 degrees (203 ideal) internally at thickest part, pull off grill

10. If you're done long before meal time, stick in a cooler, wrap in a towel

11. Slice and enjoy, separate the two muscles and cut against the grain

I'll do a few things differently next time. Use a little less salt and don't reapply when doing the rub. It was a bit too much. Inject before applying the rub. Follow Meathead's advice more closely and start around midnight. The key really is thickness and not total weight. Our brisket this time wasn't crazy thick. Maybe next time I'll actually try burnt ends too. There's always improvements to be made, even if slight. Overall this went really well and I'm happy.

In case you can't tell, it's GrillingSZN and there should be more tasty treats to come.