Hot & Fast Smoked Brisket

The first step to cooking the perfect brisket is getting your hands on a good quality cut of meat, Tom Hixson of Smithfield's wealth of expertise and experience gathered over years means they deliver an unrivalled quality of meat. In this video we opted for a 6 kilo grain fed Australian brisket.

Once you've got your meat you'll need to trim it down. Many briskets will come pre-trimmed, but it's still worth checking it over. You'll want to remove any hard bits or dangly pieces of fat. By making it more streamlined you'll reduce the chance of pieces burning, charring or drying out, this way every bite will be as phenomenal as the last.

Next, you'll want to add some form of oil, such as rape-seed or olive oil. This will act as a binder for whatever rub or seasoning you're going to add to the brisket. You may also opt for a mustard or Worcestershire sauce, to help add flavour. For your seasoning, you can choose from a huge selection of rubs or even some simple salt and pepper. Here at Riverside, we sell a variety of rubs to help add some delicious flavour to your meat. Avoid rubs or seasonings with high sugar content as this increases the chance of it burning. Apply the rub on all sides of the meat to evenly distribute the flavour.

Add your pellets to your Traeger BBQ, we recommend getting your hands on some Signature Blend pellets due to their great flavour and versatility. Set your Traeger BBQ to 105°C and use Super Smoke to get the most smoky flavour into your brisket in the shortest amount of time. Leave it for about 30-45 minutes.

Return to the brisket and apply your spritz if you choose to. A spritz will help to keep the meat moist whilst adding slightly to the flavour. What you choose to use is up to your taste but we tend to use either Guinness Lager, Beef stock, or Coca Cola. Increase the temperature to 160°C to start rendering the fat and reduces the total cook time to 6-7 hours. Smoke adheres well to moisture so spritzing your brisket, especially when aiming for a shorter cook, will really improve the flavour.

After an additional 3-3.5 hours on the BBQ, your brisket will be ready to wrap. Start by spraying your foil or butchers paper with your spritz and place the meat on top. Spray the meat with more spritz and wrap it in the foil. Then wrap it in a second layer of foil or butchers paper but without the spritz. make sure there are no air gaps as this will soften the bark on the brisket.

Put the brisket back in the barbecue for an additional 2.5 hours at 160°C. After you've finished you'll want to leave the brisket to rest for an additional half an hour. Now you should be ready to cut in and enjoy some fabulous brisket.