A Gift From Texas to the World

 My cousin Joe is a native Texan and a single dad (just got engaged yesterday!!!).  Here you will learn about Brisket.  Remember it is a different piece of meat as well as a different animal, so there are some big differences.  Joe also shows good use of mixed smoke here.  I must confess I am a single smoke guy.  So here is his offering for your enjoyment.  Remember BBQ is an art form not the way to cook a quick supper.  So take the time and you will be rewarded.

 

 

Brisket, My Way

my cousin Bill has asked for a "Texan's" input on brisket for this blog....now, regardless of where you are from, your home state IS something that can be overcome, just as a public education can, in the making of a proper brisket....to fully appreciate the meat a bit of its history must be understood

(here I disagree.  The shoulder is a worse cut.  It is just as tough but in a brisket the grains of the muscle run in one direction as it is one muscle.  The shoulder is a bunch of cris crossing muscles.  WIth brisket if you slice thinly against the grain, just like a fajita [or skirt steak to the uninformed] it can be a tender mouthful.  With a shoulder there is no way to cut it where it will all be tender because the muscles are going every which way.)

brisket is actually one of the worst, if not THE worst, cut of beef....in its natural state it is very tough, stringy and not at all edible....so in the days of the old south when cut up for the family the brisket cut was given to the slaves as it was not considered worth consumption...these slaves were from all parts, Africa, the Caribbean, some had been in the deep south, some had immersed themselves with local indians and some had even been with the French settlers of the south along the Mississippi.....why is all of this important to know? well, each culture has added a bit of spice, a style of cooking and curing

by this time the slaves had already been getting inferior cuts of meat and knew that the best way to make them edible was with flavor and low heat slow cooking....time marches on, as it is wont to do, and we come to the post Civil War era...these former slaves, now freedmen were still getting the brisket cuts although now they were starting to open up their own lunch shops in fallen down deserted houses or even a stand on the side of the road.....even in the deep south at this time a crowd of any color drew looky loos and gawkers and eventually the tender juicy meat made its way into the cities and more populated areas where because of its flavor and ability to fall apart with a fork it became extremely popular

(We also differ a bit here I like a special smoker as I can hot or cold smoke.  The offset grill setup while great is good for hot smoking only unless you want to pipe smoke from the chimney included off to a seperate box which I do.)

today anyone with a back porch and the ability to press an ignite button fancies themselves a grill master....many take short cuts and claim their 5 pound brisket cooked on gas in 6 hours is just as good as the rest and this is simply not true....smoking a brisket remains an art form today just as it has for the last 200 years

there are several ways to season a brisket, you can use the injection method, a dry rub, you can season your wood in a brine and allow the smoke to do all the work, or you can simply allow the meat to flavor itself with a bit of help from the smoke

regardless of the size of the brisket you must first allow the meat to come to room temperature....doing so will ensure that it will cook evenly all the way through...starting out with a cold center will have the outer portion cooking much faster and will result in dry meat....once you have your brisket seasoned you are going to want to wrap it in foil....you can either twist one end into a "vent" or not again that is personal preference, i chose to do so for about half the cook time....make sure when you wrap you keep the fatty side up...this will allow the fat to drip down through the meat flavoring it and keeping it nice and moist

(Talk to your butcher to see if you can get a brisket without the fat trimmed.  a fatty brisket is near impossible to find in my area.  If you havn't figured it out yet, Texas is different.)

my pit set up is a weber offset smoker, this keeps the heat indirect and makes adjusting the heat much easier as i dont have to move the meat to get to the fire....i begin with a bed of coals getting them nice and hot before dropping on a few logs of apple wood....on a 13 pound brisket i will smoke it for 26 hours (2 hours per pound).....the first 18 hours or so will be done with the apple as it is much milder and wont over power the meat

(Not just for smoking the desire to fiddle with meat on the grill has ruined many a good piece of meat)
once your brisket is on the pit DO NOT MOVE IT!!!!....the only time you should be opening your pit is to open the firebox to either add wood or coals, or to vent off too much heat....now the last 8 hours or so i use pecan, it is a bit stronger than the apple but by now the meat has sealed up a bit and wont take on too much of the pecan so as to be overpowered by it.....the last half hour you will want to remove the foil....this last half hour of cook time allows the meat to firm up just enough to seal in some of the juices and be more manageable with a knife....you are now ready to enjoy the best meat youll ever have dripping in your mouth

a good way to ensure you do not dry out your meat is to get a small can (one that wont put off fumes when it gets hot like a coke or beer can) and fill it with either plain water, beer, or some type of marinade...i set mine near but not in the fire, this causes the pit to fill with humidity and keep the meat super moist

in review:

you will need 1 brisket (with a full side of fat coverage, do NOT buy it with the fat removed as it will dry out!!)
wrap in a layer of foil, fat side up to allow it to drip down
1.5 to 2 hours of cook time per pound (if youre like me and cook big, youll need an alarm clock or co-pilot to get you through fire maintenance in the small hours of the morning)
your smoker to be at 130-150 degrees F
unless you are already comfortable with your smoker you will want to temp check every half hour to hour
(good rule of thumb, each log or scoop of coal adds about 50 degrees and will take about a half an hour to show up on your thermometer
so make sure youre staying ahead of temp drops.....AND REMEMBER TO ADJUST ACCORDINGLY PER SEASON ie winter or summer)
and depending on how big your brisket is, youll need a proper amount of hungry people to enjoy it!

do NOT be scared to experiment! try a flavor, try a type of wood, try anything you like! we didnt get to where we are today by being timid around the grill!!!