Brisket

I know I said Labor Day was my last BBQ excursion of the season, but since I'm recently unemployed, I have some free time during the day. What better excuse to cook up some brisket?

Brisket is the chest muscle of the cow. It's tough and dry if cooked improperly. But if cooked low and slow with a little bit of effort, it is one of the things that defines true BBQ. Since I live in MA, finding a whole brisket is pretty rare, which is why I'm cooking with just the flat cut. I was lucky enough to find one with a nice layer of fat on top, which will keep this fucker nice and moist. The benefits of using just the flat cut is that it's easier to slice (since it only has 1 grain), and it will take half as long as a whole brisket (which can sometimes take 24+ hours). On the down side, a whole brisket has a nice layer of fat between the point and flat, which keeps everything juicier.

I don't like to use sugar on beef, so I made a quick rub consisting of 3 parts kosher salt to 1 part each of black pepper and garlic powder.

For good measure, I dusted a little habanero powder on top. I try to avoid using generic "chili powder" blends, since it often has extra salt and other crap, when all I want is the ground chiles.

I'm using my usual hardwood lump charcoal and oak logs as my main fuel source, and beer-soaked hickory chunks for flavor. My drip pan is filled with water, a cup or so of Pepsi, and about a half cup of Southern Comfort. This will add a little flavor to the meat, while keeping the cooking environment nice and moist. I don't plan on opening the lid on my smoker for at least 6 hours. I'll keep an eye on my temperature inside the cooking chamber, adding fuel and playing with the dampers to keep it in the 200-225 range. Ever hour I'll add 4-6 chunks of hickory.

Here we are 6 hours in, and it's looking great. I tried to rotate it, and it almost fell apart on me.

As you can see, we're not quite up to temp.

45 minutes later, and we're at a healthy 192 degrees (sorry, no pic). We're going to wrap it in some heavy duty foil to seal in all those wonderful juices.

We're then going to place it into a foil pan, and cover THAT with foil, then place everything into a cooler (note for retards: don't put ice in the cooler) for another 3 hours (just in time for supper). The brisket will continue to get even more tender and juicy as it cooks with this residual heat.

Here it is, in all it's glory - take note of the sexy smoke ring...





I decided to make a Texas-style "doctored" sauce to go along with this. I took the drippings left in the foil from the brisket......and mixed it with half a bottle of beer.This went into a saucepan over medium heat.To this, I added 1 cup of one of my favorite commercial BBQ sauces, Sweet Baby Ray's
Then, 3/4 cup of apple cider vinegarFinally, 1 TBSP of the rub we used on the brisketLet it all simmer and get more delicious.

I tried to keep it classic with my sides: white bread, dill pickles, and our sauce. Some places like to use saltines as well, but I didn't have any. This seems kind of weird, but if you think about it, the bland bread and cracker, and the vinegary pickles and BBQ sauce cut through the richness of the beef.

Commence Drooling...