Texas-Style Smoked Brisket

Ingredients

• 1 whole packer brisket, 5 to 6kg, with the fat cap on
• 60g coarse kosher salt
• 60g 16-mesh coarse black pepper
• 1 tbsp garlic powder (optional)
• 2 tbsp yellow mustard, as a binder (optional)
• Post oak or hickory splits or chunks
• Unwaxed pink butcher paper, for wrapping

Before you cook

• Trim the fat cap down to an even 6mm and round off the thin edges so nothing burns
• Remove the hard lump of fat between the point and the flat
• Mix the salt, pepper and optional garlic powder in a shaker
• Smear the brisket lightly with mustard if using, then coat every surface heavily and evenly with the rub and leave it at room temperature for 1 hour

Steps

1. Bring your smoker up to a steady 120C with a clean, thin blue smoke rather than thick white smoke.
2. Lay the brisket on the grate fat side up, with the thicker point end facing the hotter part of the fire.
3. Smoke the brisket undisturbed for 6 to 8 hours, feeding the fire to hold 120C, until the bark is dark mahogany and does not smudge when you touch it.
4. Check the internal temperature of the flat, expecting it to have stalled somewhere between 65C and 74C.
5. Lay out two overlapping sheets of butcher paper and wrap the brisket tightly, folding the ends under so it is fully sealed.
6. Return the wrapped brisket to the smoker and cook until the thickest part of the flat reads 95C, which usually takes another 4 to 6 hours.
7. Probe the flat in several places with a thermometer or skewer, feeling for the point where it slides in with no resistance at all.
8. Take the brisket off the heat and rest it, still wrapped, in a dry cooler or a switched-off oven for at least 2 hours and up to 4.
9. Unwrap the brisket over a tray so you catch the juices.
10. Separate the point from the flat by cutting along the fat seam between them.
11. Slice the flat across the grain into pencil-thick slices.
12. Turn the point 90 degrees and slice it thicker, or cube it for burnt ends.
13. Spoon the caught juices over the slices and serve with white bread, pickles and raw onion.