Texas barbecue brisket

RECIPE

• beef brisket (I'd start with a half rather than a whole)
• Isalt
• pepper
• garlic powder
• pickles, buns, sauce, or other accompaniments

If the fat cap on the meat is too thick, shave it down a bit, but leave a good layer on there. Season the meat heavily with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Let the brisket sit in the fridge overnight, or smoke right away after seasoning.

Start smoking the brisket first thing in the morning.

If you're using a charcoal grill, ignite a handful of coals. Put some unlit coals along one side of the grill, and hold them back with some bricks or a drip pan, like I do in the video. Put the lit coals at one end of the unlit coals so that you'll have a narrow line of fuel that slowly burns across. Top the coals with some hardwood chunks to generate smoke.

Lay the grill grate on top and deposit the meat on the side opposite the fire. Put on the lid with the top vent directly over the meat, so that the smoke has to pass over the meat before it leaves. Choke off the bottom and top vents to restrict oxygen and keep the ambient temperature in the grill at 225-250ºF, 107-121ºC.

If you're using a gas grill, you may need to buy a smoking accessory. But if you have "flavor bars" covering your gas burners, you're good. Lay hardwood chunks on top of the flavor bars in a line over the front burner. Soak half of the chunks in water a little in advance to slow their burning. Ignite that front burner and taking it all the way down to low, or whatever temperature will allow you to maintain 225-250ºF, 107-121ºC inside.

Lay the meat on the back side of the grill away from the heat and close the lid. Most gas grills vent out the back, so this should force the smoke to pass over the meat on the way out. The wood chunks should just be smoldering — if they actually catch on fire, they'll make proportionally less smoke and heat up the interior of the grill too much. If they get too hot, you can turn off the gas and then pour a little water on the wood from a distance (there will be steam). Turn the gas back on and you should be good.

Whichever grill you're using, smoke the meat until you have a nice brown "bark" all around — three or four hours — using tongs to lift up the grates and replenish the fuel as necessary. At this point, you'll see juice pooling on top of the meat, and its internal temperature will plateau around 160ºF/71ºC. This is "the stall." The meat has taken all the smoke flavor it can, and you need to wrap it to retain moisture and let it braise until soft.

Wrap the meat tightly in aluminum foil or peach pink butcher paper (I prefer the foil, but the paper is traditional). Keep cooking at the same ambient temperature, 225-250ºF, 107-121ºC, and there's no need to keep any wood smoking at this point. You could do this last phase inside in the oven, if you want.

Braise the meat for another few hours until it's just barely fork tender — the internal temperature will real circa 200ºF/93ºC when done. Rest the meat like any other roast then slice against the grain. I recommend eating it with pickles, maybe some sliced onions, and nothing else.