- Agressive trim, remove the hangers, round the flat out, cut the huge thick hard chunks of fat off - the fat won't fully render, and the chunks and hangers burn and dry out so they're not edible.
- Grind the meat for smash burgers, put the fat in a cast iron pan to smoke/rend along side the brisket
- Apply course pepper, kosher salt, and Lawrys in that order to the meat. Sometimes I use a binder (mustard), I'm pretty aggressive with the pepper, but with a mustard binder and Lawrys, it ends up looking orange.
- Smoke for 3 hours at 150-175, heavy smoke. Fat side up.
- Smoke for about 2 hours at 225
- By this time the bark is pretty set and you can now spray with Apple Cider Vinegar every hour or so with out rinsing off the rub. My goal in this step is to build up a bark. With a non-offset, this is the hardest part.
- Wrap when the bark is nice and dark. This could be at 165 internal temp or as high as 190. Wrap with peach paper and tallow on the non-fat side. Put back in the smoker, fat side up.
- Remove from smoker when internal temp is 203 and let rest wrapped on the counter for 1 hour.
- Place in an oven or warmer at 150 until ready to serve. I've been using an electric roasting pan with great results.
As you can see, I can be kept fairly busy cooking a brisket but as noted above, if you're spending a pile of money on meat, it deserves the attention.