First brisket on the WSM 18.5”. Smoke & Sous Vide method. Long post, with photos.
As the title hinted, here’s my very first brisket. I’ve done plenty of pork butts on the WSM but never tackled brisket until now. Figured I’d document the whole process.
Setup:
7lb choice grade brisket from Costco. Trimmed, patted dry, yellow mustard binder, simple 50/50 kosher salt and coarse black pepper rub. Let it rest about 45 minutes before going on.
Fuel and smoke:
Kirkland briquettes as fuel using the Minion method. FOGO post oak chunks as primary smoke wood with apple chunks as accent. First time running my Inkbird fan controller and it held 250°F essentially the entire cook with minimal babysitting. Genuinely impressive piece of kit!
Cook:
On the smoker at 2:04pm. Had a minor wood chunk situation early on where nothing had caught so I pulled two chunks and placed them directly on the hot coals which solved it quickly. Thin blue smoke from there on out.
Stall hit around 165°F and sat there for nearly two hours. Added a foil boat at the 6 hour mark which broke the stall almost immediately. Pulled at 190°F internal at the thickest point at 10:20pm. 8 hours 16 minutes total cook time.
Sous vide hold:
(This is where the haters might do their best work.)
Rest 30 minutes tented, collected every drop of foil boat juice, vacuum sealed with a tablespoon each of homemade prime NY strip tallow and Wagyu tallow from Costco. Into the Anova at 150°F for an overnight hold.
Developed a small bag leak overnight and lost some liquid but captured most of it. I’ll have to double bag next time.
Finishing touches:
Pulled from the water bath and collected what juices I could, took out back and hit it with the torch until the crust developed again. Sliced and served.
Result:
Bark is present but not amazing. Smoke ring is consistent and flavor is good! The post oak did exactly what it was supposed to do. Texture was slightly tougher than ideal which I’ve since diagnosed as a slicing angle or even meat quality issue rather than a cook one.
What I’d do differently:
- Double bag the vacuum seal.
- Mark grain direction before the cook so slicing is cleaner.
- Inject with tallow before the smoke rather than adding it to the bag
Overall I’m quite pleased with this first attempt. The Inkbird and WSM combination made the actual cook surprisingly manageable.
Happy to answer questions on any part of the process.