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1
Trim the fat cap to a uniform 5 mm. Remove hard fat and any loose silver skin from the underside. A thinner cap will burn; none at all will leave the exterior dry.
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2
Combine kosher salt and coarse black pepper in equal volumes (50:50 by volume is the standard proportion). Coat all surfaces of the brisket generously and evenly. Nothing else is added. Set the rubbed brisket aside while the smoker comes to temperature.
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3
Bring the smoker to 107–135 °C using post oak. Maintain this range throughout the cook. Post oak is the wood of Central Texas brisket; the smoke must be thin and blue, not white and billowing. White smoke carries acrid compounds that produce a bitter bark.
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4
Place the brisket in the smoker. Fat side up or fat side down is determined by the heat geometry of the specific smoker: fat side down protects the flat from a hotter floor; fat side up allows the rendering fat to baste the meat. Both are correct in their context. Smoke uncovered for the first phase of the cook, until the bark is set — black-brown, dry, and firm to a light press.
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5
At an internal temperature of 68–72 °C the brisket will stall: evaporative cooling holds the temperature flat for hours. When the stall begins, wrap the brisket tightly in pink butcher paper. Paper breathes; it shortens the stall and retains moisture without steaming the bark soft, as foil would. Return to the smoker.
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6
This is where the brisket lives or dies. Continue smoking until the internal temperature of the thickest part of the flat reads 93–96 °C — but temperature is a guide, not the verdict. Insert a thermometer probe into the flat with no twisting force: if it meets any resistance, the collagen has not fully converted to gelatin and the brisket is not done. The probe must slide in with the resistance of warm butter. A brisket pulled at 85 °C will be tough; the cook must push through discomfort at the time already invested and wait for the probe to confirm what the thermometer alone cannot.
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7
Pull the brisket from the smoker still wrapped. Place it in an insulated cooler without ice. Rest for a minimum of one hour; two hours is preferable; up to four hours is acceptable. The rest allows juices driven to the surface by heat to redistribute toward the centre. Cutting immediately produces a flood of juice on the board and dry meat on the plate.
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8
Unwrap the brisket. Slice the flat against the grain into slices approximately 10 mm thick. Each slice should hold together under its own weight but pull apart with gentle pressure when draped over a finger. The grain of the point runs at a different angle; adjust the knife accordingly as you move from flat to point. Slice on butcher paper.
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9
Optional — burnt ends: cube the point muscle into pieces of approximately 3–4 cm. Return the cubes to the smoker uncovered for 1–2 hours until deeply caramelised, almost crunchy at the edges, and intensely flavoured. The exterior of each cube should be firm and dark; the interior yielding. These were the pitmaster's snack before they became a dish in their own right.