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How To Cook A Brisket In The Oven
You can cook a Brisket in the oven by simply putting it in a large pan that prevents it from chipping grease, either wrapping it or leaving it unwrapped, and setting the temperature anywhere between 225°F and 350°F.
At the conclusion of the overall cook, just make sure to pull the brisket out of the oven or turn it off once the brisket is probe tender.
This will ensure that the brisket has cooked all the way through, and will produce an amazing result.
How many hours does a brisket take in the oven?
The length of time it may take a brisket to cook all the way through in the oven is entirely dependent on how hot you cook it, the grade of brisket that it is, the cut of brisket that it is, and how well marbled it is.
In general terms, a brisket will take anywhere from 12 to 16 hours to cook all the way through assuming that you cooked it at a temperature of 225°F to 250°F.
A simple calculation many tend to use when estimating how long a brisket can cook in the oven, is essentially one hour of cook time for 1 pound of brisket meat.
And for higher temperature cooks, expect that calculation to start decreasing in time per pound.
In other words, the higher temperature you cook a brisket in the oven, the lower amount of time you’ll actually need to cook the brisket.
The fat will render down a lot quicker as well as the connected tissue inside the meat.
Do you cook brisket covered or uncovered?
If you’re considering wrapping or unwrapping your brisket, you will have to understand the effects that wrapping actually has.
More specifically, wrapping a brisket will often times make the brisket cook a lot quicker, with the added effect of potentially destroy any kind of work you have thus far created.
Wrapping a brisket destroys your bark or can slightly diminish it, but will allow you to cook through the brisket quicker and push through the stall overall.
Not wrapping a brisket while it is placed in the oven will actually help to create and form more of a bark flavor profile.
In other words, not wrapping your brisket will help to preserve the bark or crust that makes up the entirety of your brisket.
Just be aware that not wrapping your brisket may prolong the cooking process.
How do you keep brisket from drying out in the oven?
Keep your brisket from drying out in the oven by not over cooking it.
It can be a common mistake for newer people cooking brisket in an oven to entirely overcook the thing.
Usually it is because the internal temperature was not monitored, and the ambient temperature it was frankly too high to begin with.
All you need to do to keep it from over cooking and drying out is to pull it at the right temperature internally and make sure that the brisket is probe tender once it hits around 200°F.
Another very important aspect to not drying out a brisket is simply letting it rest appropriately.
Since we’re talking about cooking a brisket in the oven, consider leaving the brisket exactly where it is and simply turning off the oven.
This will let any carry over heat to finish cooking through the brisket and eventually just let the brisket rest and take advantage of the well insulated properties of the oven itself.
It becomes absolutely critical at this stage of the cook.
So you want all the moisture and connective tissues to not be very hot inside and let them come down and internal temperature.
If you do not let the brisket rest despite pulling it at the right time internal temperature and when it is probe, it will still be very dry.
Should I wrap my brisket in foil in the oven?
If you wrap the brisket in foil you will certainly decrease the amount of time you actually need to be cooking it.
Despite this, just be aware that if you are in a time crunch and decide to wrap the brisket in foil, you run a chance of ruining any bark you have.
The after product of the brisket will then also taste very pot roasty if that is your thing.
Letting the brisket rest after cooking in the oven
As mentioned before, resting the brisket after cooking it in the oven is one of the most important parts of the entire cooking process.
Resting a brisket simply allows all the fat moisture and connective tissue to come to a screeching halt.
When you let it rest, there will be no risk of a dry brisket, because you won’t have to worry about the moisture evaporating as soon as you slice into it.
When you let it rest completely, you will want the internal temperature to be anywhere from 150°F to 165°F.
How long to let it rest
Finally, you should estimate a rest time for any brisket you cook in the oven to be anywhere between 5 to 6 hours.
This is from the time that the brisket probes tender and the internal temperature reaches 200°F.
At that point, you will want to turn the oven off and most likely just leave the brisket inside of the oven.
There is no need to employ any fancy wrapping techniques or placement methods when the brisket is already in the oven. Just let it sit there for 5 to 6 hours and enjoy slicing into it after that time.
Final Thoughts
Cooking brisket in the oven can be accomplished within 12 to 16 hours of cook time.
The average temperature that many tend to cook the brisket at is anywhere between 225°F and 350°F.
Slice and enjoy!