The thinking on temperature to cook brisket has changed a bit over the last few years. For a long time cooking at 225 was considered the gold standard. But more recently there has been a slight shift to cooking at 275 or even up to 325. Advocates of those temperatures claim the results are about the same as you get cooking at 225 and the brisket cooks much faster.
I don’t think keeping a super consistent temperature throughout the cook is really necessary. Some people like to get their cooker to 225 and keep it there the whole cook. For me as long as I am somewhere between 225 and 275 I am happy. I use my Thermoworks Smoke thermometer and set the low alarm to 225 and the high alarm to 275. Most smokers will have some temperature fluctuation. If you can keep the temperature steady at 250 the whole time that is great but don’t stress out too much if it jumps up to 270 or drops to 220. Temperature swings like that definitely won’t ruin your brisket.
I also will adjust the temp up and down a bit depending on how the brisket is cooking and when we want to eat. If things are going a bit slow I will go closer to 275 and if things seem to be cooking quickly I will back it down to 225. The last briskets I cooked the temperature of the smoker spiked up to 335 while I was at church on a Sunday morning and the briskets were some of the best I have cooked.
The specific temperature you cook at isn’t a huge deal but pick a temperature and stick with it for a few cooks. It could be 225 or it could be 275 but if you are consistent for a few cooks you will get a good idea of how long it should take to cook, what the stall looks like, and so on.
After cooking a few briskets you will start to get a feel for how long your briskets are taking at a specific temperature and can adjust up and down if you want to cook faster or slower. Like most things with brisket there isn’t a right or wrong temperature to cook at. Different smokers do better at different temperatures and it will be a bit of trial and error to figure out what works for you.
The higher the cooking temperature the more likely it would be that I would wrap my briskets after the stall.
Cooking temperature also plays a huge role in the cooking time. A brisket cooked at 275 can finish in 8 or 9 hours but could take 13-14 hours or more at 225. From my experience you get a bit crustier bark at 275 than 225 so if you like more bark crank the heat up.
Depending on what sort of cooker you have you will need some way to accurately track the temperature of your smoker. The Thermoworks Smoke X4 would be my choice. It has 4 temperature probes so you can see the temperature of your cooker and keep an eye on the temperature of your meat as well.
12 Commonly Asked Questions About Brisket
- What is a brisket?
- Where can I buy a brisket?
- What should I look for when buying a brisket?
- How big of a brisket should I buy?
- How should I trim a brisket?
- How should I season my brisket?
- What type of wood should I use when smoking brisket?
- What temperature should I cook my brisket at?
- How long should I cook a brisket?
- Should I wrap my brisket?
- How long should I rest my brisket?
- How should I slice my brisket?
