What to inject a brisket with? Tips & tricks.
What to inject a brisket with? The short answer.
Normally you inject a brisket in order to add more moisture and flavor to your finished meat. Hence, you will want to inject your brisket with a thin but flavorful liquid marinade. Luckily, there are quite a few commercially available options and pretty much countless DIY solutions to finding a brisket injection. In general, a brisket injection consists of a beef broth/stock base with additional ingredients for flavor and tenderness. I discuss more DIY and purchased options later in this post.
In general, a brisket injection consists of a beef broth/stock base with additional ingredients for flavor and tenderness.
What kinds of things should I inject a brisket with?
- Beef or vegetable based broths
- Injecting a brisket with beef broth or stock or vegetable broth is probably the most basic step you could take in injecting brisket. The broth adds flavor and moisture to the brisket by cooking into the meat. Broths also make a good injection base when adding other flavors or mixes.
- Fats, oils, and butters
- When you inject a brisket with something fatty, it tends to render into the meat during the cook. So adding fats, oils, or butters will help you carry any fat soluble flavors into the meat and add flavor from the butter or oil as well. Most of the time melted table butter or olive oil will be a good choice; some use Parkay brand margarine because the squeeze tube is convenient.
- Spices, seasonings, and sugars
- Please don’t try to inject your brisket with an injector full of dry seasonings. But adding seasonings to a good broth and butter base will add flavor and give you a chance to add your unique touch to the mix. Try salt, black pepper, cumin, paprika, brown sugar, agave nectar, honey, or whatever else you have around. Be wary, some flavors like celery seed are good in small portions but can completely ruin the flavor if overused.
- Injection mixes
- Injection mixes are basically pre-mixed spices that you add to your injection base. They’re usually dry spice mixes and many good flavors are available online and locally. Just measure out how much pre-mix is needed and shake it up in your shaker bottle (BB Try-Tip video shown below).
- Condiments and juices
- Condiments and juices can be added for both flavor and moisture. Some condiments, like vinegar, can even help tenderize your brisket slightly. Use these either with or in place of broth, making sure injection is thin enough for your injector. Try vinegar, mustard, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce, etc.
Creating an on-the-fly brisket injection.
Really you could inject a brisket with just about any flavor or seasoning or whatever that you wanted to. Anywhere from plain old beef broth to full on chunks of herbs and garlic or even fruit bits. But moving forward, there are a few basic considerations we will take into account to try to avoid issues.
Some basic tips and tricks to inject a brisket.
- You’ll be injecting your brisket with a meat injector which is basically a giant syringe. Hence, you should avoid using chunks large enough to clog the injector.
- Whatever you inject into your brisket will likely stay there. So avoid using any crunchy or pokey seeds that might ruin the texture of your brisket.
- Fats, oils, and butters make for good injection ingredients but can often be solid at room temperature. Make sure your injection mix is warm enough to maintain a thin consistency.
- Start with a beef or vegetable broth base, then add ingredients as you see fit.
- If you don’t have broth or seasonings for ingredients, you can use a marinade or seasoning mix packet such as gravy or taco seasoning.
- Thoroughly mixing your injection mix can take a lot of time if you use a fork or something. Try using a supplement shaker bottle to make quick and easy work of mixing.