AppleDownload on the App Store
All recipes

Texan · Dinner

Smoked beef brisket

Texas-style whole-packer brisket with a salt-and-pepper bark, clean post-oak smoke, a paper wrap only after the crust sets, and a long warm rest before slicing.

About 18 hrTotal
About 16 hrActive
$$$Cost
AdvancedDifficulty
Makes 14 servings
Central Texas smoked brisket with dark pepper bark, a moist smoke-ringed flat, and rendered point slices.

Equipment

  • Any safe smoker—or grill set for indirect heat—that holds 225–275°F can work.

Ingredients

1× recipe · Makes 14 servings

  • 1 whole packer beef brisket, 12 to 14 pounds
  • 1/4 cup Diamond Crystal kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup coarse 16-mesh black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
  • 6 to 8 post-oak or pecan wood chunks, for the smoker
  • 1 cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1 cup water
  • unwaxed pink butcher paper

Instructions

  1. Trim cold brisket to an even 1/4-inch fat cap, remove hard waxy fat, and square thin edges. Note the grain direction on the flat. Coat lightly with mustard, then apply salt and pepper evenly; let stand while the smoker heats.

  2. Prepare an at 225°F with a clean, nearly invisible stream of post-oak or pecan smoke. Place brisket with the fat toward the stronger heat and the point toward the fire. Smoke undisturbed for 3 hours, then maintain 250°F.

  3. Mix vinegar and water. Spritz only dry edges, not the whole surface. When the bark is dark, dry, and does not rub off—usually 175 to 180°F after 7 to 10 hours—wrap tightly in butcher paper.

  4. Return brisket to the smoker at 275°F until a probe slides into the center of the flat with almost no resistance, usually around 200 to 205°F. Temperature is a guide; tenderness decides doneness.

  5. Vent the paper 10 minutes, rewrap, and rest until the center falls to about 150°F, at least 2 hours. Keep above 140°F if holding longer. Separate point from flat and slice each across its grain only as needed.

Dinner does not stop at the recipe

Keep recipes, plan meals, and build the grocery list in Kwilt.

Use the recipe here. Get Kwilt when you want the rest of dinner to stay together.

AppleGet Kwilt for iPhone
See every recipe
Deeply browned herb roast chicken carved beside glossy pan gravy, lemon, onion, and fresh herbs.

American · Dinner

Herb roast chicken with pan gravy

Dry-brined whole chicken with deeply browned skin, rosemary-sage butter, tender breast and legs, and a silky gravy built from its fond and defatted drippings.

About 14 hr 50 min6 servings

Fork-tender pot roast with browned edges, carrots, potatoes, onions, and silky dark gravy.

American · Dinner

Slow-braised pot roast

Hard-seared chuck roast braised low and slow with red wine, stock, tomato, thyme, carrots, and potatoes until spoon-tender, then finished with a reduced silky gravy.

About 4 hr 55 min8 servings

Tender sliced beef-and-pork meatloaf with a lacquered tomato glaze and browned free-form edges.

American · Dinner

Classic glazed meatloaf

Tender free-form beef-and-pork meatloaf with milk-soaked crumbs, deeply softened aromatics, and two layers of tangy brown-sugar tomato glaze.

About 2 hr 10 min8 servings