How Long to Smoke a Brisket per Pound (Temps & Time Tables) (2024)

Beef brisket is one of the most popular smoked meats and that's because its unique flavor and melt-in-your-mouth texture.

But, smoking a whole brisket by yourself can be a lot of work for many. It requires a few hours of your time and you need to properly prepare the meat in order to get the best results.

We have put together the ultimate guide you will need to learn how to cook a brisket by yourself, with step-by-step process on how to prepare the meat, detailed cooking times, smoking temperatures and a few cooking tips to have in mind.

We will try to cover everything in details, so if you are in a rush, you can use the quick navigation table below to jump directly to the final summary or the recipe card at the bottom.

Now, let's jump into the preparing and the cooking process.

A full brisket can be an expensive cut and if you are smoking it for the first time, things can go wrong very easily.

If you follow all the cooking instructions, you will end up with an amazing and juicy brisket, itching yourself for the next time to smoke another one.

• Smoker (Obviously) - Anything will work great as long as it is capable of maintaining a steady temperature of 225°F for a few hours. (Also consider your preferred wood for smoking brisket)
• Meat Thermometer - Even though a lot of people don't consider it a mandatory tool, I think that having a meat thermometer will help you easily check and maintain the recommended temperature for the perfect cooked brisket. For suggestions, you can read our previous guide of recommended meat thermometers.
• Cutting Board - This is optional but recommended. You will need a big surface to properly prepare and slice the full meat cut once it's ready.
• Butch Paper & Chef's Knife - These two also are not mandatory but I totally recommend getting them. The Butch paper is used during the stall phase to wrap the meat and the Chef's Knife will make your job easier when you are ready to cut it.

For the best results, you need to understand what makes a brisket cut great. Just like any other cut, the quality of beef is one of the main reasons which will directly impact your end result.

The fat and marbling amount are going to hugely dictate the flavor and juiciness of your meat. For the maximum flavor and tenderness, you need to get a high quality brisket with a good amount of marbling.

Here are the main types of beef and briskets:

• Grass Fed - The Grass fed beef are amazing but when you compare the marbling with other types, you will notice that the fat levels are not the same. This type of beef will need less time to be cooked, especially when compared to the USDA prime grade. And the final flavor will be a little more earthy than usual.
• USDA Rated - The USDA rated beef are the most common and the most used ones. It comes into three quality grades: Select, Choice & Prime. Select tends to be the cheapest and the less quality from the three of them. Choice tends to have a good amount of marbling and is usually my go-to since it has the best proportion of price-quality. The Prime is even more marbled and is usually the most expensive one. USDA grading applies to all the beef cuts and are graded by a USDA inspector rating the marbling quality. You can read more about it on our detailed article about Steak Grading & Quality Levels.
• American Wagyu or Kobe Beef - These are the top quality beef and the most expensive ones. They have amazing marbling and taste amazing. They are very expensive and not so-commonly used. If you can afford it, go for this level of beef.

Different Marbling Levels on Three USDA Beef Grades

If you can afford, the higher the quality the better the end results. More expensive beef has a higher level of marbling, making it more flavorful when smoked. If you don't want to spend that amount of money on a cut of beef, then you can go for an average quality, such as USDA Choice Grade. This is also my go-to quality of steaks and other beef cuts, since you get the best quality/marbling to price ratio.

Since you are going to smoke the brisket for a few hours on a constant temperature, what you want is that the heat slowly rendering the fat pockets of the meat, causing the melted fat flavor to moisturize the surrounding cells.

One tip to inspect the marbling of the beef when in store, you can physically lift and bend the brisket to see if it is pliable and tender enough.

When ordering online, there is not much inspection to do but you can always go for good review sellers or trusted source.

Another picking tip to have in mind for brisket is to purchase a whole packer brisket, which includes both the point and flat muscle. This way you will get the most flavor at the end.

Trimming Fat off the Brisket

Before you season the meat, first you need to trim it, so it is ready for seasoning.

Each brisket cut has a significant amount of fat, also known as fat cap. Most of the fat cap will render but some will not. You need to prepare the meat by trimming off the fat that won't render.

It is not very difficult even though a lot of people get nervous and don't know how to do it.

You can find tons of tutorials and instructions online with detailed step-by-step guide on how to trim the fat cap. We have also previously published a brisket trimming and slicing guide. For a quick step-by-step instructions, you can find an attached video below which we think explains how to do this very clearly.

What I usually do is leave around 1/4 inch of fat layer on the fat side which usually renders down over cooking. I trim any other excess fat layers.

The flat and the point sides are both separated by each other by a layer of fat too. The best quality beef usually render this middle fat layer too, making the meat more pleasant to eat.

After we do the necessary trimmings, it is time to season the meat.

As for seasoning, we think that it totally depends on personal taste on what it the best combination to use.

We have previously published a full guide with the best rub recipes for brisket and also reviewing a few award winning championship rubs, so you can read it for a full list of dry rubs.

For this recipe, I decided to go for a Texas-Style smoked brisket, since this is probably the most popular one and it's very easy to do at home.

Down below you can find the ingredients and the amounts I personally use. You can adjust them to your liking, since this has a lot of cayenne pepper and hot chili.

• The Size of Brisket
• The Cooking/Smoking Temperature
• Whether or not you wrap the meat after it is done

The first one, the size of your brisket cut impact the cooking time since the bigger your cut, more time is needed to cook it completely.

Next, we have the cooking temperature. You should smoke the meat at the recommended temperature or you will end up with overcooked or undercooked meat. If you cook at lower than recommended temperature, it will require more time than usual.

The third one is the so-called 'The Wrap' process. This is if you wrap the meat after it reaches a specific temperature or not. This technique consists on smoking the meat for around 5-6 hours and then wrap it in butcher paper and return it to cook for another 5-7 hours. This can actually extend or shorten the time needed to finish cooking but it gives the best results.

These are three main factors to have in mind which directly impact the time needed to fully cook your brisket.

As I already told you, there are a lot of factors which come at play to determine the exact time needed to smoke a brisket.

I like to divide the whole process into three phases, the initial smoking phase, the Stall phase and the wrapping phase.

For the smoking phase, I plan around 8 hours of smoking at 250°F for a 12-13 pound brisketto reach theinternal temperature of 165°F. For smaller brisket cuts, you can use the table below for references.

At an internal temp of 145-165°F, you will experience the so-called 'Stall Phase'. This is the phase where the liquid evaporating from the surface of the meat and will cool it down while your grill is producing heat, trying to cook it. This is why it is called the Stall Phase, since the temperature will stay the same or slowly increases. This phase also is different from cut to cut, that's why the exact needed time cannot be determined.

After smoking for 7-8 hours (More or less, based on your meet weight), after the Stall Phase has passed and the meat reaches the 165°F internal temp, then it's time for the third phase, which is wrapping smoking.

During this phase, it is recommended to use butcher paper and let it cook for another 5-7 hours or until it is done. The importance of this phase is that the butcher paper actually protects the outside of the meat from getting burnt or too smokey. Also, the butcher paper concentrates the heat around the meat, speeding the cooking time a little. I consider my brisket fully smoked when it has reached an internal temperature of 205°F.

Credits: Which Brisket Wrap is the Best - YouTube

There are some techniques online where they suggest you replacing the butcher paper with aluminum foil and you will reduce the cook time to 45 per pound.

If you wrap in foil instead of butcher paper, you should first let the brisket smoke for about 6 hours, giving the meat all the time needed to soak up the smoke and develop the beautiful surface bark.

After that, make sure to wrap the meat tightly in double-layer aluminum foil. You can add half cup of liquid inside the foil wrap to help the meat braise itself. Put the wrapped meat inside the smoker again and let it cook for a few hours. If you have smoked a brisket before, you will notice that it will be done much sooner than with butcher paper.

I know that there are a lot of people who are against using the aluminum foil instead of butcher paper since they don't consider it good but the only real difference between them is that the foil will get steamed and you will get a looser bark than what you would get from a butcher paper.

There is another cooking technique which will reduce the cook time to 30 minutes per pound if you smoke Hot and Fast.

This technique comes from the Myron Mixon's brisket recipe, which has won several Grand Championships on Competition BBQ.

This technique consists of: 1) Smoking the brisket at 300°F for 2 hours. 2) Tightly wrapping the meat in foil and cook it again at 300°F for another 3 hours. 3) After that, remove the brisket, cover it with towels while still in foil and let it rest in an insulated cooler for around 3-4 hours.

With the Hot and Fast technique, you can smoke a 15 pound brisket in 7-9 hours.

The crucial step in this technique is letting the foiled brisket in an insulated cooler, allowing it to use its residual heat to continue cooking.

• 1 hour and 15 minutes per pound, cooking at 250°F and not wrapping
• 1 hour per pound, cooking at 250°F, until it reaches 165°F internal temperature and then wrapping in butcher paper, smoking again until 205°F internal temperature
• About 45 minutes per pound, cooking at 250° and wrapping in aluminum foil when it reaches 165°, smoking again until 205°F internal temperature
• About 30 minutes per pound, cooking at 300°F, wrapping in aluminum foil when it reaches 165°F & smoking again until 205°F internal temperature

How Long Do You Smoke a Brisket at 225°F?

There are different factors which come at play to determine the exact time needed but in general, if you arecooking your brisket at 225°F, it will take around 1 hour 15 minutes per pound of meat.

How Long Will it Take to Smoke a 12 Pound Brisket?

Considering that you will cook it at 225-250°F, until it reaches an internal temp of 205°, a 12 pound brisket will take around 15 hours in total to get smoked.

How Long Does it Take to Smoke a 4 Pound Brisket?

Again, if you set the cooking time at 225-250°F, and cook the brisket until it reaches an internal temp of 205°F, it will take around 5 hours in total.

How Long to Smoke a Brisket per Pound?

There are a lot of variables which impact the smoking time, so it is better to have these in mind:

• The quality of the meat - low quality meat will generally take longer than high marbling cuts
• The Temperature outside - If you are smoking in cold weather will also cause your smoker to take longer to produce the needed heat.

Beef/Steak Doneness Levels

Maintaining the recommended temperature is crucial for the best results. We recommend investing in some meat thermometer, since it is the easiest and the most accurate way to determine the internal temperature.

They are not expensive and you can grab a good thermometer for just a couple of dollars.

The meat thermometers are very easy to use. For you to check the brisket's internal temperature, put the thermometer probe around the center of the meat and make sure push it until it reaches the middle.

Be careful to not push it too much or going in the other side, since it will read the temperature in-accurately.

After you correctly place the probe, wait for a few seconds for the unit to read the temperature.

There are also some Bluetooth and WiFi thermometer models which continuously tell you the food temperature, but those tend to be a little bit more expensive.

Any model will work great, no matter if it is wired or wireless. You can also use it when you cook in the kitchen or when grilling steak.

There are some variations of different smoking techniques for beef brisket recipes online. You can always try different techniques and see which gets you the best results, based on your preferences.

Here are a few popular variations:

• A lot of people like to use binder to help rub adhere to the brisket. What I have read online, yellow mustard is one of the most popular one. It helps seasoning stick and the acidity helps break down the surface, creating a nice bark.
• Wrapping the meat - I already explained this technique in the upper paragraph. Wrapping your meat in butcher paper or even aluminum foil will reduce the cooking time, concentrate the heat around the brisket and will give it a lot of moisture even though the bark will be a little bit softer.
• Playing with temperature - I like the 'low and slow' smoking method but a lot of people experiment using hot temperature up to 275°F to shorten the cooking time. Even though I have not personally tried smoking a brisket at such high temperature, you can always give it a try by keeping an eye on the internal temp.

• When using a meat thermometer, the probe may meet resistance when inserting it. This is the phase when the intramuscular fat or the joined fat layer is not fully rendered yet. Just put a little pressure and for the most accurate reading, make sure the probe is in the middle of the flat and the middle of the point area.
• Fat side up or down? There is an on-going debate whether the brisket cooks fat-side up or down. The truth is that it really doesn't matter. I have smoked several briskets and I haven't noticed any difference. They all come out perfect, so place it whatever you want.
• Don't skip the rest phase - Letting the meat rest is a crucial step to get the best results, especially when you are making smoked beef brisket. Even though there is no exact time to let the meat rest, I prefer to leave it about 1-2 hours max. You can leave it on a flat surface or a cutting board; wrap in foil or butcher paper or simply using a towel. The resting phase is important as it lets the juices settle and enhance the flavor.
• Prepare your dry rub in advance - Don't leave the rub in the last minute. Put all your recipe ingredients in a small bowl and mix them well together. Make sure there are no small balls of one ingredient stuck together as it will not taste great on the meat.

After you finish smoking a brisket, you should make sure that you serve it properly. You don't want to ruin the meat just by not knowing how to slice it.

How to Slice a Brisket

Slicing Brisket Against the Grain

Very similar to many other meats, you want to cut brisket against the grain for the maximum tenderness.

But, differently from steaks or other uniform cuts, brisket is made of two overlapping muscles, so you will notice that it has two different grain directions.

The easiest and the quickest way to cut brisket properly is by splitting the flat and the point section from each other and slicing them individually against the grain. Using this way, you will end up with a few pieces without bark on top.

Some traditional Texas bbq joins split the brisket in the middle, as close as possible to the area where the flat and the point meet. Then, they turn the point side 90° and slice it first. Then, continue and finish slicing the flat side the opposite way. Even with these method, you will still end up with a few pieces where the cut is not completely against the grain but it's the best way to go.

Slicing the brisket can be a little bit confusing, so we have previously write a full article on how you can properly slice it, with step-by-step photos and video tutorial. You can check it down below:

• Also Read: How to Properly Slice a Brisket

Leftover Recipes & Suggestions

Since cooking the perfect brisket requires around 8 to 10 hours, including the prep time, cooking and resting, most of the people choose to cook a whole brisket or tons of it once and then store it for later use by reheating it.

Here are a few suggestions what you can do with your leftover brisket:

• Brisket Enchiladas - One great recipe you can do with your leftover brisket are enchiladas. Just saute some onions, toss the sliced brisket, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce, dump it all on a tortilla and grate some gouda or american cheese on top. (Recipe Reference)
• Scrambled Eggs or Salad - Two other easy ways to use your leftover brisket is by putting it in scrambled eggs or on top of a salad.
• Burritos or Quesadillas - Another use of brisket is by making burritos or quesadillas at home.
• Sandwiches - You will be amazed how good brisket goes on sandwiches. Put it on a roll bun, add some mozzarella or your preferred sandwich cheese, and pop it into the toaster or oven. Finish it off with some crutch sauce on the top of the toasted bun.
• Italian-Style Sandwiches - One great sandwich recipe made by Italians is with very cooked bell peppers, onions and Italian seasoning. Put it all into a crusty bread, by adding the sliced brisket. (Recipe Reference)
• I have not personally tried this, but there are recipes online combining the brisket with beans and frying them in some hash.
• Cottage Pie - This is a variation of the classic Irish recipe, using brisket instead of lamb. You can use sliced brisket covered in two layers of potatoes. There are tons of recipes online on how to make this since it is a full meal cooking, so you can check out this or this article for a better step-by-step instructions. Just keep in mind that you need to replace the meat with your smoked brisket.

I suggest you to use a local wood. If you can find oak, or even better post oak, then go for it. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, it may be a little difficult to find post oak, so you may use something like an abundance of apple and cherry trees.

For brisket cooking, fruit woods are preferred since they burn sweeter and avoid the campfire-like flavor which wood types like mesquite give to your food.

What is the Best Dry Rub for Brisket?

I already covered this at the upper section, but I think that choosing the best dry rub would be totally on your preferences.

I prefer to go for a traditional Texas-style recipe, so for me, a Texas-based rub recipe is the best. This kind has a lot of chili and cayenne pepper on it, so you better be prepared.

If you are not a fan of Texas-style flavors, you can read our previous article where we cover several dry rubs for brisket, including top 5 award winning championship rub products.

Should I Inject a Brisket?

Even though a lot of people are fans of injecting their brisket, I think that it doesn't make any major difference, especially if you are cooking at home. Brisket injecting is very popular on bbq competitions and anything outside that, I think isn't noticeable by anyone.

If you want to give it a try, then feel free to try it but you will see that it doesn't make any major difference.

Where to Buy the Best Brisket?

Your local butcher or a trusted online seller would be the best option. Consider picking at least a USDA Choice Grade or higher, with decent marbling.

I pick my own on my local butcher, so I can really suggest any online sellers since I haven't tried one but there are a lot of major meat selling stores online who have really good reviews.

Should I Wrap the Brisket?

There is no exact answer here but it is again based on your personal preference.

If you decide to not wrap, you will get a greater bark and a lot of people love that texture.

I personally like to wrap it, preferably using butcher paper. I think that wrapping actually enhances the smoke flavor since it concentrates the heat around the cut, even though it will make the bark a little bit softer.

What to Do with Brisket's Burnt Ends?

The burnt ends are actually usable and you can use them to make another recipe.

There are several recipes online who will suggest usage for brisket's burnt ends but here it is a quick one which I really like. (Recipe Suggestion)

Start by cutting out the point from the brisket, just before the wrap phase. Then, slice them into cubes, re-season them based on your liking and place them back into smoker to render out.

Final Thoughts

These is the complete guide and recipe for brisket. I tried to cover everything in detail, including the cook time, temperatures and anything else you need to know to cook the perfect brisket.

If you have any question, feel free to ask it down below in the comment section.