A.I. Brisket

Notes:

This was an iterative process with Q&A via Grok AI.

I would put a temperature probe in the meat and an additional ambient temperature probe in the roaster to verify roaster temperature settings. Roaster dials may be off by up to 20 degrees.

The original recipe is for a Texas Style brisket with SPGO rub. Use an alternate KC rub (below) and options KC Steps to change the brisket style.

INGREDIENTS:

19.8 lb packer brisket (this will trim down to about 15 lbs.)
Texas Style Rub Mix:
- 7.5 teaspoons of kosher salt (or about 1/2 tsp. per lb. of trimmed meat)
- 9 teaspoons black pepper (or about 2/3 tsp. per lb. of trimmed meat)
- 7 teaspoons garlic powder (or about 1/2 tsp. per lb. of trimmed meat)
- 4 teaspoons onion powder (or about 1/3 tsp. per lb. of trimmed meat)
KC Style Rub Mix:
- 7.5 tsp kosher salt (0.5 tsp/lb, unchanged for balance).
- 6 tsp black pepper (0.4 tsp/lb, reduced to balance sweetness).
- 1/4 cup (12 tsp) paprika (0.8 tsp/lb, adds sweet/smoky flavor and red color).
- 1/4 cup (12 tsp) brown sugar (0.8 tsp/lb, for sweetness and caramelization).
- 1 tbsp (3 tsp) chili powder (0.2 tsp/lb, for mild heat).
- 2 tsp garlic powder (0.13 tsp/lb, reduced for complexity).
- 2 tsp onion powder (0.13 tsp/lb, reduced).
- 1 tsp cumin (0.07 tsp/lb, for earthy depth).
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (0.03 tsp/lb, for subtle kick, optional).
2 cups of low sodium beef broth (or about 1 oz. per lb of trimmed meat)
1/4 cup (1/8 cup per cup of broth) of Kosmos Q Moisture Magic BBQ Injection (or other BBQ phosphates per directions on label)
¼ cup tallow or beef broth )
2 cups Kansas City-style BBQ sauce (Sweet Baby Ray’s, Gates) For KC Style brisket.
- 1 cup for glazing and 1 cup for serving

INSTRUCTIONS:

Warm (do not boil) beef broth in a small sauce pan.
Slowly stir in BBQ phosphates.
Cool the injection solution in the refrigerator for one hour or until it reaches < 40 degrees fahrenheit..
Remove approximately 5 lbs of fat from the brisket by trimming down to no more than 1/4″ of fat.
Separate the flat from the point to cook as separate pieces.
Coat the outside of both pieces of meat with the spices.
Inject the flat and the point every 1 inch with the solution.
Place the meat back into the refrigerator for 2 hours to allow the injection to settle and spread.
Place the meat, fat side down, on an open rack on a pellet smoker.
Smoke at 250 for 7.5 hours.
- Use Oak or Mesquite pellets for Texas Style
- Use Hickory, Apple, Cherry or a combination for KC Style
Preheat a large electric roaster oven to 250 degrees.
Place a wire cake rack in the bottom of the roaster.
- The purpose of the rack is to keep the meat off the bottom and out of the liquid in the roaster.
- You can purchase racks at the dollar store and cut them to fit, if necessary.
Remove the meat from the smoker.
Add the melted tallow or beef broth in the bottom of the roaster.
Place the flat and the point in the roaster.
Place the lid on the roaster.
- Do not add foil to seal. Some steam escape is expected.
Cook for approximately 6 hours or until the meat becomes probe tender.
- For Kansas City style only: After 4 hours (when flat nears tenderness), brush ~1 cup Kansas City-style BBQ sauce on flat and point.
- The flat may finish in 4 to 5 hours and the point may take longer.
- Monitor each piece of meat separately.
When either piece reaches 195 degrees, check it with a probe for tenderness.
Check again at 198 degrees, 203 degrees and at 205 degrees.
- If the flat becomes probe tender before the point, you can remove it from the roaster and place it in a tight fitting lidded stockpot or covered hotel pan and let it rest while the point catches up. Do not let the temperature of the flat fall below 140 degrees fahrenheit. If the flat temperature nears 140 degrees, return it to the roaster.
When both the point and the flat of the brisket become probe tender, put all the meat back into the roaster, reduce the heat in the roaster to 150 degrees to hold the meat for at minimum of 2 hours. At this stage, you can use your injector syringe to suck up some of the juice from the bottom of the roaster pan and inject it into the thinner, drier portions of the flat.
After 2 hours it is ready to slice and serve.
- If KC Style, drizzle with 1 cup BBQ sauce or serve BBQ sauce on the side.

Complete Bullet-Proof Process (ready by noon on day 2):

19–20 lb packer brisket
Ready to slice hot at NOON the next day
Equipment: Pellet smoker + countertop roaster (Nesco/Oster/Hamilton Beach type)

Time	Action for Texas Style Brisket	Action for KC Style Brisket	Notes
4:15 PM	Prepare the injection mixture of beef broth and phospates.	Prepare the injection mixture of beef broth and phospates.	Prepare warm and allow time to cool before injecting.
4:30 – 5:30 PM	– Cool the injection mixture in the refrigerator for 1 hour or until it reaches < 40 degrees fahrenheit.	– Cool the injection mixture in the refrigerator for 1 hour or until it reaches < 40 degrees fahrenheit.	Colder injection stays in meat better and poses less food risk.
5:30 PM	– Trim brisket (¼-inch fat cap). – Separate flat and point.	– Trim brisket (¼-inch fat cap). – Separate flat and point.	Remove hard white fat that will never render and separate meats for faster cooking and more surface area for spices and bark.
6:00 PM	– Coat the flat and the point with Texas Style Rub Mix.	– Coat the flat and the point with KC Style Rub mix.	Flavor
6:15 PM	– Use a large needle to inject cold broth and phosphates into the flat and the point every 1 inch.	– Use a large needle to inject cold broth and phosphates into the flat and the point every 1 inch.	Moisture retention.
6:30 – 8:30 PM	– Rest the injected brisket in the refrigerator for 2 hours prior to smoking	– Rest the injected brisket in the refrigerator for 2 hours prior to smoking	Moisture retention.
8:30 PM- 4:00 AM	– Light pellet smoker – Use oak/mesquite pellets – Set to 250 °F. – Put brisket on the rack in the smoker (Fat side down to protect the meat from the high heat from below on smaller pellet smokers.) – Smoke for 7.5 hours.	– Light pellet smoker – Use hickory/apple/cherry pellets – Set to 250 °F. – Put brisket on the rack in the smoker (Fat side down to protect the meat from the high heat from below on smaller pellet smokers.) – Smoke for 7.5 hours.	Smoke Ring Forms early (nitric oxide from smoke reacts with myoglobin); a pink layer under the surface, not related to doneness. 7.5 hours will create good smoke absorbtion and a dark, bark with good flavor.
4:00 AM	– Pull brisket. – Put melted tallow or beef broth in the bottom of a roaster pan. – Place meat on wire rack in roaster to keep above tallow/broth. – Set countertop roaster to 250 °F. – Place a probe in the center of mass of each cut of meat. – Put the normal lid on top of the roaster with no additional foil to seal it.	– Pull brisket. – Put melted tallow or beef broth in the bottom of a roaster pan. – Place meat on wire rack in roaster to keep above tallow/broth. – Set countertop roaster to 250 °F. – Place a probe in the center of mass of each cut of meat. – Put the normal lid on top of the roaster with no additional foil to seal it.	During this phase, remaining collagen is converting to gelatin and the gelatin is absorbing the injected liquid. Muscle fibers are becoming tenderized. Internal temperature will get to ~195–205 °F and stay there for an extended period of time. (second stall + low heat differential between roaster and meat).
4:00 AM – 10:00 AM	Roast at 250 °F – Probe for tenderness at several points. For example: when the meat reaches 195, 198°F, 203°F, 205°F degrees. The probe should push through the meat like warm butter with very little resistance. – The flat may tenderize faster than the point. If it does, pull it from the roaster and rest it in a lidded pot or hotel pan that is just bigger than the flat until the point becomes probe tender. – When both are probe tender, return the flat to the roaster.	Roast at 250 °F – Probe for tenderness at several points. For example: when the meat reaches 195, 198°F, 203°F, 205°F degrees. The probe should push through the meat like warm butter with very little resistance. – The flat may tenderize faster than the point. If it does, pull it from the roaster and rest it in a lidded pot or hotel pan that is just bigger than the flat until the point becomes probe tender. – When both are probe tender, return the flat to the roaster.
8:00 AM		After 4 hours (when flat nears tenderness), brush flat and point with ~1 cup Kansas City-style BBQ sauce. Continue roasting.	Sauce sets into a sticky glaze, enhancing KC’s sweet-tangy flavor.
10:00 AM or whenever the meat is probe tender.	Turn roaster down to 150 °F (or the lowest “keep warm” setting) At this stage, you can use your injector syringe to suck up some of the juice from bottom of the roaster pan and inject it into the thinner, drier portions of the flat.	Turn roaster down to 150 °F (or the lowest “keep warm” setting) At this stage, you can use your injector syringe to suck up some of the juice from bottom of the roaster pan and inject it into the thinner, drier portions of the flat.	2 hours hold time is optimal but more is OK up to about 12 hours. After 6 hours, the meat may become noticibly softer.
12:00 PM	Slice hot and serve	Drizzle with 1 cup of BBQ Sauce or serve it on the side. Slice hot and serve	Serve at an Internal temperature of ~185–195 °F – perfect

Goals for a perfect brisket:

Add a mild smoky flavor.
Add seasonings and spices to enhance “meaty” taste without changing the flavor.
Maximize the maillard reaction on the outside of the meat to add umami. This is often referred to as the “bark”
Minimize moisture loss from the meat fibers.
Increased moisture that can be absorbed by the gelatin. This helps create a silky mouth feel.

Facts:

Brisket changes as the internal temperature increases:

Internal Temperature Range	What is being tenderized	What actually changes	How the meat feels
160–185 °F	Connective tissue (collagen converts to gelatin) NOTE: This process can take more or less time based on the marbling or lack of marbling in the meat.	Collagen shrinks a bit at first, then denatures (heat breaks the weak hydrogen bonds holding the three strands of the triple helix together. The helix unwinds and falls apart) and dissolves into gelatin. This part is 80–90 % finished by 180–185 °F.	The meat now bends easily and has that jiggly feel, but when you probe or bite, it still feels tight, chewy, or “mushy-tender” (gelatin is soft, but the muscle fibers are still rigid).
185–205+ °F	Muscle fibers themselves are made of actin & myosin.	Myosin is already fully denatured by ~150 °F. Actin doesn’t fully denature until 180–190+ °F. Above ~190 °F the tight helical structure of the muscle fibers finally unwinds and relaxes completely. Additional fat rendering and protein breakdown continues.	This is the “probe glides like butter” stage. At 180 °F the probe still meets resistance from the muscle bundles. At 200–203 °F it slides in with almost no resistance – that’s the muscle fibers finally giving up.

Tougher cuts of meat, like brisket, contain a lot of collagen between the muscle fibers.
Collagen is sometimes referred to as gristle and it is difficult to chew.
At the correct temperatures, collagen converts to gelatin (like in Jello).
- This typically begins above 160 degrees fahrenheit and peaks between 165 and 175°F. Above 185 °F it slows again.
Gelatin is highly hydrophilic:
- Gelatin can absorb 10-15 times its weight in water. It acts like a sponge inside the meat.
If you want your brisket to finish with more moisture, you can inject it with a water-based mixture of BBQ Phosphates, seasonings, broth and sometimes sugar.
- The target amount to inject is 8–12 % of raw weight.
- Cooked meat that is not injected can lose 25-30% of it’s total weight. The loss is mostly water and some fat.
- Meat that is injected should only lose 4-10% of its weight while cooking.
  - Many competition cooks chill the injection liquid itself (phosphate brine, beef broth, etc.) to near-freezing (35–38 °F) before injecting. The colder everything is, the less leak-back / leak-out.
BBQ phosphates:
- Phosphates for BBQ injection typically refers to mixtures that are primarily sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) it may also include disodium phosphate.
- These phospates are created by mixing phosporic acid and caustic soda (lye) or sodium carbonate. This solution is converted to a powder form.
- This mixture of an acid an a base remains slightly alkaline (higher pH).
- A higher pH, improves protein solubility so the meat fibers stay moister. It provides good emulsion stability so the fats and water combine. It does not create overly strong alkalinity or off-flavors.
- You get all the benefits from the BBQ phosphates and the extra liquid from the injections can also be absorbed by the gelatin as it forms.
What happens after you inject a brisket (or any tough cut):
- Early in the cook (below 140–150 °F), the added water is mostly just “free” liquid” sitting in the spaces between muscle fibers.
- As soon as the internal temperature passes ~160 °F and collagen begins turning into gelatin, that newly formed gelatin immediately starts soaking up the injected water and locking it in.
- By the time the meat reaches 195–203 °F, almost all of the injected moisture has been bound by the gelatin network resulting in dramatically juicier end result with much less purge.
The point cooks faster than the flat. If you split the flat from the point you create more surface area for seasoning and bark. It also allows you to remove the point before it is overcooked.
Smoke and Bark Creation:
- Pellet smokers produce more smoke at lower temperatures.
- The best way to absorb a nice amount of smoke and create a great bark is to smoke the brisket on the rack at 225 for 3 hours then raise the temperature to 250 for 3 hours then raise the temperature again to 275 and leave it until the brisket hits 180 degrees internally (typically 3 more hours).
At 275 degrees in the smoker, the brisket should push through the stall. The stall usually ends at about 175 – 180 degrees fahrenheit.
You can move the brisket from the smoker to another oven whenever the bark is dark and leathery without regard to internal temperature.

Hold Time

You can hold your brisket for up to 12 hours at 150 degrees fahrenheit. At 6 hours, the brisket can become too tender. At around 12 hours the texture will be come more roast-like. The optimum hold time at 150 degrees is 2 hours. Typical restaurant hold times are in the 2 to 6 hour range.

First and Second Stall (or plateau) Explained

In most barbecue cooking the primary mode of heat transfer from the barbecue to the meat is done via convection. The barbecue pit heats the air and the air heats the meat.

As the brisket’s internal temperature approaches 150–170°F, its surface temperature is high enough for moisture (water, fat, and dissolved proteins) to evaporate significantly. This is often described as the meat “sweating” because liquid is drawn to the surface and vaporizes. This evaporation is driven by the heat from the surrounding air and the brisket’s internal moisture being pushed outward as the meat contracts and proteins denature. The process starts earlier but becomes pronounced in this temperature range.

Evaporation absorbs heat from the meat’s surface, counteracting the heat transferred by convection.

During this phase, the brisket’s internal temperature remains relatively constant (or, in rare cases, drops slightly) for several hours

There are two ways to speed up or eliminate the first stall period. The first is to wrap the brisket in butcher paper or aluminum foil (the “Texas crutch”) during the stall (typically at 160–170°F) minimizes evaporation by trapping moisture near the surface, reducing evaporative cooling and shortening or eliminating the stall. The drawback to this method is, it traps moisture inside the wrap and softens the crispy bark surface. The second way to push past the stall period is to increase the heat in the pit. Increasing the pit’s temperature speeds up heat transfer to the meat, overwhelming the cooling effect of evaporation and shortening the stall. However, increasing the temperature risks uneven cooking or drying out the meat’s exterior. Most pitmasters use the wrap method.

The second stall, if it occurs, has less to do with initial evaporative cooling but can result from renewed moisture release or slowed heat transfer as the brisket nears the pit’s ambient temperature. Energy is diverted to chemical and phase changes (collagen to gelatin, fat rendering), though evaporation may still play a role if unwrapped.

Scientific sources view stalls as primarily evaporative, while pitmasters often report higher plateaus due to variable conditions.

Smoke Absorption vs. Internal Temperature (Real-World Data)

Internal Temp of Brisket	Relative Smoke Absorption Rate	Why
40–100°F (4–38°C)	Very high (100 %)	Surface is cold → combustion gases (phenols, carbonyls, acids) from smoke condense easily and dissolve into the moist, cold surface. This is the classic “smoke ring” formation zone too.
100–120°F (38–49°C)	Still high (~70–90 %)	Surface still cool enough for good condensation, moisture still evaporating slowly.
120–140°F (49–60°C)	Drops sharply (~30–60 %)	Meat starts sweating heavily and surface temperature rises → less condensation of smoke compounds. This is when many pitmasters notice the bark “sets” and the meat stops taking smoke as aggressively.
140–160°F (60–71°C)	Very low (~5–20 %)	This is the stall zone. Surface is now 140°F+, evaporative cooling keeps it wet, but the temperature is too high for most phenolic compounds to condense efficiently. Smoke adhesion falls off a cliff. Virtually no additional smoke ring forms past ~140°F.
Above 160°F (71°C)	Near zero	Surface is hot and usually drying out or forming a hard bark. Heavy smoke at this stage mostly just adds acrid creosote or bitterness if you force it.

Scientific reason

The key smoke flavor compounds (guaiacol, syringol, 4-methylguaiacol, etc.) are delivered in two ways:

Condensation of vapor-phase compounds onto a cold, moist surface (dominant below ~130°F).
Dissolution of water-soluble compounds into the surface moisture.

Once the surface temperature exceeds roughly 130–140°F, condensation plummets and the surface moisture evaporates faster than new smoke can dissolve into it.