How long to smoke a brisket

A whole packer takes about 53 to 62 minutes per pound at 225°F if you wrap it in foil once the bark is set, and about 71 to 89 minutes per pound if you leave it open. A 14 pound packer on that foil plan is about 12 hours 25 minutes to 14 hours 30 minutes of cook, then at least 2 hours of rest. The meat is done when the flat probes tender around 203°F. The table is here so you light the fire early enough to reach that feel before dinner.

Hours per pound

These rates match the brisket calculator. They are cook time only. Heat the pit for about 45 minutes before the meat goes on, and rest the brisket for at least 2 hours after it comes off. The first number is the fast end. Light the fire from the second number. A faster cook becomes a longer hold. It does not become an earlier dinner if the flat still needs to settle.

The base is Amazing Ribs' smoked brisket timetable: a 12 to 15 pound packer at 225°F is about 12 to 14 hours in foil at the stall, and about 16 to 20 hours left open. This site scales those windows from 13.5 pounds, the middle of that range. At 250°F the window is about an eighth shorter. At 275°F it is about a quarter shorter. That hotter step is the same planning assumption the calculator prints. It is the packer timetable, squeezed.

Cook	225°F	250°F	275°F
Whole packer, foil at the stall	53–62 min	47–54 min	40–47 min
Whole packer, left open	71–89 min	62–78 min	53–67 min

A flat and a point do not inherit that per-pound slogan. A 5 pound flat at 71 to 89 minutes a pound would be a short morning, and the flat window on this site is still most of a day. Use the total hours below for those cuts. Use the minutes above, or the calculator, for a whole packer.

Packer, flat, and point

Foil at the stall, after the bark is dark. Pink butcher paper is not this table. Paper usually adds about 1 to 2 hours compared with foil, so start earlier than the foil clock if that is the roll in your hand. The trim, the fire, and the slice are how to smoke a brisket.

Piece	225°F	250°F	275°F
12 lb packer	10 hr 40 min–12 hr 25 min	9 hr 20 min–10 hr 55 min	8 hr–9 hr 20 min
14 lb packer	12 hr 25 min–14 hr 30 min	10 hr 55 min–12 hr 40 min	9 hr 20 min–10 hr 55 min
16 lb packer	14 hr 15 min–16 hr 35 min	12 hr 25 min–14 hr 30 min	10 hr 40 min–12 hr 25 min
Flat, about 5–8 lb	10–12 hr	8 hr 45 min–10 hr 30 min	7 hr 30 min–9 hr
Point, about 4–6 lb	8–10 hr	7 hr–8 hr 45 min	6 hr–7 hr 30 min

Left open, same pieces:

Piece	225°F	250°F	275°F
12 lb packer	14 hr 15 min–17 hr 45 min	12 hr 25 min–15 hr 35 min	10 hr 40 min–13 hr 20 min
14 lb packer	16 hr 35 min–20 hr 45 min	14 hr 30 min–18 hr 10 min	12 hr 25 min–15 hr 35 min
16 lb packer	19 hr–23 hr 40 min	16 hr 35 min–20 hr 45 min	14 hr 15 min–17 hr 45 min
Flat, about 5–8 lb	12–14 hr	10 hr 30 min–12 hr 15 min	9 hr–10 hr 30 min
Point, about 4–6 lb	10–12 hr	8 hr 45 min–10 hr 30 min	7 hr 30 min–9 hr

The packer rows are the calculator. A 12 pound foil cook at 225°F is the 12 hour reference multiplied by 12 ÷ 13.5, then rounded to five minutes, which is why it reads 10 hours 40 minutes to 12 hours 25 minutes. The flat row is the window already used for a flat alone: about 10 to 12 hours in foil and 12 to 14 hours open at 225°F, then the same eighth and quarter taken off at 250°F and 275°F. A skinny 5 or 6 pound flat tends toward the fast end. A thick 8 pound flat tends toward the slow end.

The point row starts two hours under that flat window at 225°F, then takes the same hotter step. Two hours is the gap between the flat's foil window and the reference packer's foil window. A separated point is the thick cap, usually 4 to 6 pounds, so it is smaller than a packer and thicker than a flat. Treat the row as the time to light the fire. The probe still decides the end.

Outside these sizes, a heavier packer can run long and a very small flat can finish early. Type a whole packer into the calculator. For a flat or a point, stay with these rows. The calculator's formula treats 5 pounds like a small packer, and a flat is a different shape.

The stall

The center will sit still, usually around 150 to 170°F. On the packer timetable that pause shows up around 6 hours into a 225°F cook of the reference brisket, when the center is about 150 to 165°F. The calculator scales that mark with weight and with the hotter pit. On a 14 pound packer at 250°F the mark is about 5 hours 25 minutes after the meat goes on. Water leaving the surface takes heat with it, so the grate can be perfect and the graph still looks broken. The full why is the brisket stall.

A spritz adds water, which is the cooling that holds the stall in place. If the bark already looks like the brisket you meant to eat, leave the surface alone. Opening the vents to "push through" raises the pit while the meat is still evaporating, and the edges dry before the center moves. Check the grate before you decide the fire died.

Wrapping

Wrap when the crust is dark and the center has been sitting in the stall, usually around 160 to 170°F. The order is when to wrap brisket. Foil is the short column in the table. A tight packet stops the surface from cooling itself, so the stall ends and the temperature climbs. A loose tent leaks steam and does not buy those hours.

Pink butcher paper breathes. It moves the cook faster than a naked brisket and leaves a drier bark than foil. On this timetable it adds about 1 to 2 hours versus the foil column. If you start on the foil clock and wrap in paper, you run late. The comparison is butcher paper vs foil. The calculator's wrap switch is the foil window. Paper is the reason to light the fire earlier than that switch.

Leaving the packer open is the long column and the driest bark. You chose it when you lit the fire, including the stall that sits inside those hours.

Grade and the cut

USDA Choice is the packer this clock is written around. Prime has more marbling in the flat, which gives a long stall more fat to keep the lean side moist. It does not come with a shorter number of minutes per pound. Select is leaner. The same hours can leave that flat tight if you chase the clock and pull it before the probe slides. Amazing Ribs' method asks for Choice or better for that reason. If the label does not name a grade, buy a different packer when you can, and give the one you have the full rest either way.

Thickness moves the clock more than the sticker's grade. Two packers at 14 pounds can finish an hour or two apart if one is a tall lump and the other is flat and wide. The point on a whole packer is protected by the fat cap and often feels tender before the flat does. Probe the flat, in the thick lean meat, away from the fat seam. A probe in the point will tell you the cook is over while the flat is still tight.

A flat cooked alone has less fat beside it when the stall runs long, which is why its total time is shorter than a packer's and still long for its weight. A point cooked alone is the opposite shape: less meat than a packer, more thickness than a flat. Burnt ends are that point taken further, after it is already tender, and they are a second cook. This table stops when the point probes tender.

The smoker

The hours assume the grate, next to the meat, is the temperature in the column. On a kamado the thermometer in the lid sits up in the dome and usually reads hotter than the air around the brisket. If you trust that gauge, the meat goes on while the grate is still cool, and every row in the table slides later. Give the pit about 45 minutes to settle. Meat thermometers for smoking is how to pick the probe that has to stay honest for the whole cook. The grate and the meat together are on best meat thermometer for smoking.

A pellet grill holds a setpoint, so the table is closer to what you typed, as long as the hopper stays fed and the pellets are dry. An offset or a kettle asks you to watch the grate. A sagging fire looks exactly like a brisket that "always takes longer." Fix the fire before you add hours in your head. A crowded pit, with the flat shielded by another piece of meat, also pushes the slow end. Season with the brisket rub before any of that matters. Sugar stays off a packer because the cook is long enough for it to darken until the bark tastes bitter.

Weather

Cold air, wind, and an open lid all spend heat the timetable assumed you still had. A kamado in a gale works harder to hold 225°F. A pellet grill can sag too if the grill is uncovered and the auger is feeding a cold steel barrel. Rain on the lid is the same problem in a slower form. Build the day from the slow end of the column you chose, which already has slack for a stubborn flat. There is no extra hour to add for "it might be windy" that I can print as a rule. If the grate will not hold, the cook gets longer because the pit is cooler than the plan, and the fix is the fire.

Opening the lid every twenty minutes to look does the same thing a cold wind does. The bark also dries in fits. Look when you are ready to wrap, and when you are ready to probe for tenderness.

Resting

Rest at least 2 hours, and keep the center at or above 140°F. Two hours is the short end of a 2 to 4 hour hold. Slice when the center has come back toward about 150°F, while the juices have calmed down and the bark has firmed. A flat sliced while it is still roaring near 200°F gives those juices a path onto the board. The hold, the cooler, and the temperature to slice at are how long to rest brisket.

The cook columns on this page end when the brisket comes off the pit. A 14 pound foil cook at 250°F that finishes on the slow end needs those 2 hours on top of the 12 hours 40 minutes. If you only blocked out the cook, you slice into a hot flat while people are already sitting down.

An early finish is a longer hold. Keep it wrapped and hot. Slicing at noon for a 6 p.m. plate dries the flat on the board, and the rest you skipped was the part that makes the slice moist.

How to tell it's done

Pull when the flat is around 203°F and a probe slides through the thick lean meat like soft butter. Most packers give up somewhere in the low 200s. If the thermometer says 203°F and the probe still grabs, wait. If the probe slides at 198°F, pull it. Whole-muscle beef is safe at a much lower temperature with a rest, and brisket is still tight there. You get slices that fight the knife, which is a different dinner from the one these hours are for. The feel, and the places a probe lies, are brisket internal temp.

On a flat cooked alone, that same slide is the test, in the thickest part. On a point cooked alone, probe the center of the thick meat, not the edge that faced the fire. A wireless probe that dies inside foil is a signal problem. The steps are Meater not connecting. A wired probe does not care about the packet.

Dinner at six

Here is one day, worked backward, for a 14 pound packer at 250°F in foil. The cook window is 10 hours 55 minutes to 12 hours 40 minutes. The rest is 2 hours. The pit needs about 45 minutes before the meat goes on. The slow end plus the rest plus the warmup is 15 hours 25 minutes, which is the calculator's fire time for that plan.

Say dinner is 6:00 p.m.

When	What
2:35 a.m.	Light the pit.
3:20 a.m.	The grate is at 250°F and the packer goes on.
about 8:45 a.m.	The stall mark on this plan, about 5 hours 25 minutes in. Check the grate, then the color of the bark.
2:15 p.m.	The fast end of the cook. If the flat probes tender, it comes off and rests.
4:00 p.m.	The slow end. This is the finish the alarm was built for.
4:00–6:00 p.m.	The 2 hour rest, if it took the whole window.
6:00 p.m.	Slice. If it finished at 2:15, it has been holding above 140°F since then.

The same 14 pound packer left open at 225°F is a 16 hour 35 minute to 20 hour 45 minute cook. With the rest and the warmup, the slow end asks you to light the fire about 23 hours 30 minutes before dinner, which is 6:30 p.m. the evening before a 6:00 p.m. meal. That is the open column. You pick it when the bark is the point and the night is free.

A flat at 225°F, left open, is the 12 to 14 hour row. For a 6:00 p.m. dinner, the slow end plus 2 hours plus 45 minutes is 16 hours 45 minutes, so the fire starts around 1:15 a.m. and the flat goes on around 2:00 a.m. A point on the open 225°F row is 10 to 12 hours of cook, so the same dinner starts later in the morning. Write the row down before you trim. The steps once the lid is up are how to smoke a brisket, with the brisket rub on the meat and a probe you trust from the thermometer notes.