I’ve been exposed, good eye. This brisket was actually done in an air frier, I just drew the smoke ring on.

Smoke ring is the coveted aesthetic by most BBQ enthusiasts, but it doesn’t always translate into more smoke flavor. This was done on a pellet grill, so not matter how sexy the smoke ring, you’ll never get the same smoke flavor as an offset or other smokers that use wood chunks or charcoal.

With that being said, the smoke ring develops from Nitric oxide that is present in wood smoke. This Nitric oxide combines with myoglobin, a protein in meat. Science does science stuff, and the result is the pink ring you see here.

The smoke ring develops the most in the first few hours of the cook as the moisture present allows the meat to absorb more nitric oxide myoglobin.

Beef naturally has a lot more myoglobin than other meats like pork, which is why it’s so much redder in color to begin with.

Fuckin’ Beau. Story time.

I hosted a St. Patty’s Day table tennis tournament at one of our restaurants, and Beau is my beer distributor rep for that location, so he brought in a local brewery to Collab with us.

End of the night and we are all half in the bag, I feel someone grinding on me. I turn around and see this thicc booty gyrating on my crotch and make eye contact with my fiancé across the restaurant.

Later she asks me who the nasty bitch with the long brown hair was grinding on me. Start laughing my ass off and said, don’t worry, that was just Beau.

I agree, let’s have a moment of silence for our one eyed brethren, for not seeing the full scope BBQ has to offer.

In all seriousness, I think it’s important to take your first bite without any sauce to appreciate the flavor of the brisket. After that respectful bite, I’m busting out some homemade sauce.

Absolutely. I’ll share those later tonight when I have a bit more time to refine them. I make small additions every time I make them and always forgot to update my recipe note section

Lock me up, preferably with the death penalty so I can request this brisket with BBQ sauce as my last meal.

I was surprised when I cut into it! This is the first brisket I’ve done on my Grilla pellet smoker and wasn’t expecting such a large smoke smoke ring

Yes, this was done on a Grilla pellet smoker since the heat comes from the bottom. Fat cap down with directional heat from pellet smokers helps protect from excess charring in my experience

Agreed, red pickled onions slap. Add apple slaw with a little bit of BBQ sauce and you’ve got a mean brisket taco.

Could just be the lighting, but that point was like jelly before I cut into it. Far from dry.

The flat on the other hand that isn’t cut at the left of the photo is probably drier than I’d like. Going to warm it back up for some chopped brisket tacos tonight.

I used a 4-1 ratio of fresh ground black pepper and smoked kosher salt I made with Mesquite pellets.

I also added a bit of smoked paprika and cayenne pepper I made along with a bit of garlic powder. However this doesn’t necessarily translate into better bark as I’ve gotten similar results from purely black pepper and salt. I’ve started using more spices as I don’t feel you get a lot of flavor with a pellet smoker, so the brisket needs a little more than just salt and pepper.

No binder such as yellow mustard was used, however I’ve had great results with a binder too. Here are some of the important practices I’ve found to get a consistent bark:

1. Do not wrap your brisket until you’re happy with the bark. This means you’ll have to ride out the stall without wrapping until the bark is ready. For this cook, it meant not wrapping until the brisket was fully cooked and probing tender before pulling off and wrapping to rest.
2. Coarse ground black pepper in a 4-1 ratio with salt, and a liberal application of it. You can google the most recommended Mesh size for the pepper, but I just use hand crank grinder and dial in the size until it looks right.
3. Resting the brisket in the fridge uncovered for at least 1 hour before smoking. I’ve also done overnight, but that was a bit overkill. This helps dry the surface of the meat out to assist with bark formation. Go straight from the fridge to the smoker with it.
4. Don’t use a water pan with a pellet smoker. You want the airflow to be as dry as possible for the bark to form
5. Don’t spritz until the bark is fully formed. If you add moisture to the bark, you’ll slow the bark formation.

You’re beautiful, king.

Fair point. Thank you for the inspiration, I haven’t tried making smoked Mac and cheese yet. I’m going to play around with that next week.

Thank you! I was able to post my smoked vegetable casserole recipe at the airport. I’ll work on the rest over the next couple of days.

I eyeball a lot of ingredients so it’s taking a bit of time to write out and format!

I promise I will be back soon with recipes. I’m leaving for vacation soon and trying to wrap everything work related up before I depart.

Thank you. I grant the Delegation of Beards permission to confiscate my smoker if ketchup ever touches brisket on my property.

You’re amazing

I agree, simply because it’s a special occasion to do at home. You need to organize a small army to help you eat the brisket if you’re going to smoke one.