Smoked Brisket Flat

Today we are answering the age-old question of: Can you smoke just a brisket flat, and is it any good? Spoiler: yes you can, and its as good as you would expect. If this is your first time smoking anything, or are curious about trying just a smaller cut of brisket, I'll show you from start to finish how I smoke up JUST the brisket flat! I'm using a pellet smoker, but the methods should work on any type of smoker!

YouTube Instructional: https://youtu.be/yd9OPC-5KPg

Ingredients:
Brisket Flat (mine shown here was 3.5lbs)
Dried Minced Garlic or Garlic Powder
Coarse Black Pepper
Kosher Salt
Tallow/Butter/Ghee (optional)

Step 1: Trim the Brisket Flat

Trim off any very thin edges or weird flaps

If your cut has a fat cap, trim it down to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick

Step 2: Salt the Meat

Using a ratio of ~.5 to 1 Tsp per LB of trimmed meat, coat the non fat side of the brisket flat

(this ratio is using KOSHER salt, do not use table salt here)

Place the meat into the fridge until all of the salt has been absorbed.

Step 3: Apply Binder and Rub

Apply Binder (optional) - common binders are water, olive oil, yellow mustard, and pickle juice

Starting with the Fat Side, coat the entire exterior with coarse ground pepper, and then garlic

Move to the meat side, and finally do the sides

Step 4: Smoke at 180

Move the meat to the smoker at 180 degree

Smoke fat side down for 3-4 hours - this is when the meat wont take on any more smoke

Step 5: Bump smoker to 225

But the temp up to 225 and continue to smoke the brisket until the temperature stalls (155-170 degrees)

If the meat looks dry at any point, spritz it down - I use light beer or apple cider (hard)

Step 6: Wrap the meat

Once the meat stalls in temp, remove it and wrap it in butcher paper

I add in some fat at this point - butter, tallow, ghee

Return to the smoker and bump temp to 250

Continue to smoke until the meat becomes tender. When you insert a temperature probe or a tothepick it should go in like butter.Temp will be between 195-203

Step 7: Rest the meat

Once the meat is removed, leave it in the butcher paper and move it to somewhere warm to rest. A toaster oven or a cooler work really well here. Let it rest for at least a few hours, up to twelve (if you can keep the temp stable)

Step 8: Slice

Slice the brisket against the grain!

Enjoy!