Aging the Brisket:

If you bought a market-trimmed brisket, pull it out of its package and vac-seal it; a packer is cry-o-vac’d and ready.

Place the brisket in the fridge for at least 2 weeks (3 is better) turning it over every day.

Trimming the Brisket:

The day before your smoke, pull the brisket out of its package for some fat trimming. If you bought a market trimmed you’re already good to go.

On your packer, trim off the heavy chunks of fat, but don’t get too carried away on your cap, as it serves as a self-baster while we’re cooking it.

Once you’ve got the heavy parts of fat removed, you’ll see the fat ribbon that separates the flat from the point. Run your knife along this ribbon as if you were going to separate the two. If your flexing at the store was correct, you shouldn’t have too thick of a ribbon and will not have to remove very much.

Smoking/Cooking Preparation:

Pick your favorite rub and don’t be shy with it. Cover the entire brisket and don’t forget to coat where the fat ribbon was.

Place the brisket into a 2 gallon zip lock (if you can’t find a zip lock that big just vac seal it) and get as much air out as possible.

Refrigerate overnight.

Smoking:

Pull the brisket out of its bag and place it on your rack on the counter.

Leave the brisket on the counter for about an hour. Once it starts to get a sweat you’re good to go. And the cool thing is, it’s not even cooked and it smells good already.

Pre-heat your Bradley Smoker to 220°F.

Place the brisket into the smoker on the middle rack. The cabinet temperature will take quite a while to recover, especially if you have a full load.

Once the smoker has come back up to 220°F, apply 4 hours of smoke. I use mesquite but use whatever flavour suits you.

Pull the brisket from the smoker and you’ll notice they have shrunk quite a bit – this is a good thing.

Put the brisket into a foil pan with a splash of apple juice.

Cover the foil pan tightly with heavy-duty foil and place into the oven @ 220°F.

Doing brisket I don’t shoot for any internal temperature more so just low and slow, but if I were to guess probably 190-205.

Remove from pan and wrap tightly in foil.

FTC for just a few more hours (4-5 hours). Time your FTC for dinner time, if you need a bit more or less you’ll be OK! I’ve learned FTC is a big key, thanks to the folks on the Bradley Forum … Pulls all of the juice back into the meat! Speaking of juice when you pull your pans full of brisket out of the oven, pour the juice into a stockpot. It makes for one heck of a base for sauce!