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Photo of british BBQ brisket sitting on pink paper on a Big Green Egg

BRITISH GRASS-FED BBQ BRISKET

American barbecue, from the south, developed around turning the cheaper cuts of meat into delicious meals. The king of all barbecue dishes is BBQ brisket, which is usually slow-cooked until it is super tender and then sliced. You'll often be served brisket with other cheaper pieces of meat and sides of slaw, cornbread, pit beans and mac'n'cheese.
It's taken me a long time to make a success of brisket. It's one of the hardest cooks to get right but it doesn't have to be. Treat it gently and cook it with the right equipment to help you, and you will make it a success.
You need a packer cut of brisket (the American way of cutting Brisket), not brisket cut the English way. Butchers in different countries cut their animals in different ways. The way British butchers traditionally serve brisket is to separate the muscles and serve it rolled, and very lean. Do not attempt to cook rolled brisket this way.
Ideally, you want 6kg or more packer cut brisket. A small piece is almost impossible to cook correctly, you might think you are saving money, but you'll just be throwing it away when you end up with a piece of meat like shoe leather.
Please read the notes that go with this cook, not just the recipe, it'll give you an insight into the science of what is going on during this cook, it's important you understand this as it will help you make a success of your cook.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 20 hours
Resting Time 4 hours
Total Time 1 day 4 hours 30 minutes
Servings: 15 people
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: American
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Equipment

Grill Temperature

110C temp_icon

Surfaces

Stainless grid
An icon of the Big Green Egg ConvEGGtor, which used to be called a plate setter

Method
 

  1. Get you butcher to trim some, but not all of the fat from your brisket. I like to keep a good layer, it will help keep your BBQ brisket moist and it tastes amazing. DO NOT BUY rolled brisket - it will not work. You need a packer cut, which is both muscles (point and flat) with a layer of fat between them.
  2. Rub your brisket all over with Frenches Yellow Mustard. You wont taste this but it acts as a great binding agent for the salt and pepper we are going to add.
  3. In a bowl mix your salt and pepper together.
  4. Now liberally sprinkle the salt and pepper mix all over your brisket. Try and make sure you get it on all the edges too (unlike my photo).
  5. Setup your Egg for an indirect cook with the stainless steel grid above your ConvEGGtor. I now use the EGGspander system as it make lifting all of this in and out so much easier.
  6. Set the Egg to cook at 110°C. Make sure the temperature is stable and your ConvEGGtor has had time to warm up.
  7. When you're ready to cook, lift out the ConvEGGtor and place a couple of wood chunks into the middle of the charcoal (see notes as to what the middle). Not put the ConvEGGtor back in and place the stainless grid on top.
  8. Place your brisket into the EGG making sure it's not overhanging the gaps where the heat rises around the plate setter. Also make sure it's not touching a thermometer of a controller if your using one, you want it to be measuring the BBQ temperature and not the temperature of the meat.
  9. Close the lid and walk away. The temp of your EGG will drop, after all you've just put a big cold slab of meat in there. No need for adjustments, the EGG will recover its temperature.
  10. Your BBQ briskets internal temperature is going to start to rise. You'll see it start slowing down though as it approaches somewhere around 75°C. At this point you're going into the stall, don't panic, take the time to read the notes below. Definitely don't adjust your EGG temp, leave it at 110°C.
  11. Once the BBQ brisket temp start rising, say by 3°C or so, it's the time to wrap you brisket in pink butcher paper. Don't use foil or greaseproof paper, you just wont get the same results, I know, I've made the mistakes. I normally wrap it twice (two layers thick).
  12. Now leave your brisket to heat all the way up to 95°C.
  13. When it's reached 95°C, use a Thermapen to probe and check both the temperature of your brisket all over, but also how easily the probe slides into the meat. You're looking for it to probe with not much resistance. If you find you're getting resistance, wrap it back up and cook it for another hour or so.
  14. Once it probes softly, it's time to rest your BBQ brisket. I do this by wrapping in foil, then wrapping in some old bath towels and put the whole lot into a cool box. This will keep it how for hours. I like a rest of a minimum of 2 hours.
  15. And finally you can now serve it.

Notes

The easiest way to maintain the temperature of your Egg is with a forced air controller. Big Green Egg make the EGG Genius which is a great way of controlling any sized Egg from MiniMax to XL.

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