Brisket rub

This brisket rub is half a cup of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, half a cup of coarse black pepper, and two tablespoons of granulated garlic. That's the whole formula, and it's enough for one packer. Sugar stays out because a long cook gives it hours to darken, and by the time the flat is tender the bark can taste bitter.

Recipe

Brisket rub

About 1 cup, enough for one 12 to 15 pound packer. Prep 10 minutes.

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Ingredients

Ingredient	Volume	Weight
Diamond Crystal kosher salt	1/2 cup	68 g
Coarse black pepper	1/2 cup	55 g
Granulated garlic	2 tablespoons	18 g

Steps

1. Stir the salt, pepper, and granulated garlic until the mix looks even. There is no sugar in this rub.
2. Trim the packer and pat the surface dry. Wet meat makes the rub clump.
3. Coat every side you can reach, including the edges. You want an even layer, not drifts of pepper in the folds.
4. Cook when the pit is stable. The rub does not need an overnight cure, though a few hours in the fridge dries the surface.

If you only have Morton kosher salt, use 1/3 cup (about 73 g) in place of the Diamond Crystal. Do not add brown sugar as a main ingredient on a packer.

Why each ingredient

Salt is the seasoning. It dissolves into the surface, so you taste it in the slice and not only as a crust. Diamond Crystal is flaky, which is why half a cup is only about 68 grams. Morton kosher is a tighter crystal, so the same half cup would be a much saltier rub. Use about a third of a cup of Morton, roughly 73 grams, and the salt matches the Diamond Crystal measure.

Coarse pepper is the bark you can see. Fine table pepper disappears into the fat and can taste hot in a dusty way, because so much of it packs into a small spoon. A coarse grind stays visible. Half a cup, about 55 grams, against the salt is the balance people mean by a Texas-style bark: peppery, and still something you can eat slice after slice.

Granulated garlic is two tablespoons, about 18 grams, so you can smell it without a raw garlic bite. Powder clumps the moment it hits moisture from the fridge. Fresh garlic burns across a long cook and leaves bitter bits in the bark. Granulated sits between those two, which is why it's the one in the jar.

How to apply it

Trim the hard fat and the thin, gray edge of the flat. Leave enough fat cap to protect the meat, then pat dry. Sprinkle from a height so the rub falls evenly, and press it on. The folds where the point meets the flat hide bare spots, so look there.

A binder is optional. If the surface is damp from the fridge, the salt sticks on its own. A swipe of mustard mostly disappears, so use it only if you like the habit. An even coat is enough for a 12 to 15 pound packer. A thick paste just falls off on the grate and makes the bark patchy. Leftover rub keeps, which is the next section.

Storage

Keep the mix in a jar with a lid, away from the stove. Salt and pepper keep for a long time. Garlic loses its smell over a few months, so label the jar with the month you mixed it and make a new batch when it smells flat. Store it in a dry cupboard. Humidity over the pit turns the garlic into a brick you have to smash before the next cook.

Variations

A teaspoon of onion powder is fine if you want it, and a pinch of cayenne is fine if you like a little heat. A cup of brown sugar is a different rub. It belongs on ribs, where the cook is short enough for the sugar to brown and then come off the heat. The pork version, with paprika and one tablespoon of brown sugar, is the pork butt rub.

Put the probe in after the rub, not before, so you are not dragging seasoning into the hole. The Meater Pro review covers where that probe sits. The cook around this jar is how to smoke a brisket.