The Mistake You're Probably Making When Spraying Brisket

There are countless different ways to cook a brisket, and pitmasters are often partial to their particular methods. Through all the varieties though, one common step in brisket recipes is spraying the beef.

Lightly spraying your brisket with some kind of liquid can be a good way to keep your beef moist and develop the pinkish outer meat layer known as a smoke ring. Apple cider vinegar is a popular choice, but pitmasters use a range of options such as beer, melted butter, or even plain water. Spraying also aids in caramelizing the outside of your brisket into the blackened crust known as bark, a highly sought-after feature of the ideal beef brisket.

But there's a common oversight with spraying brisket that can result in tougher meat. That's right, keeping your brisket too wet can actually make the meat less tender, which is the last thing you want after spending hours preparing such an exquisite cut. When you're spraying your brisket, avoid the fat: it has its own work to do.

Spray only the beef on your brisket to lock in moisture and develop your bark. Avoid spraying the fatty parts. This is because spraying the fat will lower its temperature, when the fat needs to maintain a higher heat in order to render properly.

Rendering is an important part of the brisket cooking process. Under consistently high heat, the greasy white clumps break down into the mind-blowing tenderness that makes a good brisket so satisfying. If you lower the fat temperature too much, it won't render enough, leaving the meat tougher, drier, and dotted with unappetizing globs of jiggly, un-rendered grease.

Whether you make your own or zhuzh up a store-bought bottle with some vinegar, Pepsi, or jelly, a good barbecue sauce can add a lot of flavor to even the best-cooked brisket. But no amount of sauce will fully make up for the lost potential of a drier, tougher brisket blanketed in sheets of greasy Jell-O.