Jul 20, 2012
From Barbecue Secrets DELUXE! Now also available as an e-book! Buy it now from the iTunes store.
The King of Barbecue: Beef Brisket
Makes
10–16 servings, depending on the size of the brisket and guest
appetites
This
sinewy, fatty cut of beef may not be something you see often in the
supermarket’s meat section, but it’s one of the most flavorful
meats, and it’s the classic barbecue choice in Texas. The bigger
the brisket, the juicier the end product. Smaller cuts can end up
dry. Cooking a brisket requires a long-term commitment. Plan to do
this on a day when you can stay around the house doing yard work or
watching sports on TV. The process I’ve described here is as close
as possible to what we do in competition. The end result is
succulent, fork-tender slices of meat that need no accompaniment,
but if you insist, serve them with a little dipping sauce, some
coleslaw, beans, and pickled onions. The charred, fatty crust of
the brisket can be cut off and roughly chopped to make “burnt
ends,” which are superb either in a bun or thrown into some baked
beans to give them an extra jolt of smoky, fatty flavor.
1 whole
brisket, 10–14 pounds | 4.5 to 6 kg,
with a
nice white fat cap
3
quarts | 3 L apple juice
1 cup |
250 mL prepared mustard
1 Tbsp
| 15 mL granulated garlic
11/2
cups | 375 mL Championship Barbecue Rub or
Texas–Style
Rub 2 cups | 500 mL apple juice mixed with bourbon and
maple
syrup in a spray bottle
2 cups
| 500 mL Ron’s Rich, Deeply Satisfying
Dipping
Sauce or your favorite barbecue sauce
For
large cuts like pork butts and briskets, the rule of thumb is to
cook them 11/2 hours per lb | 500 g. That means a 10 lb | 4.5 kg
brisket will take 15 hours to cook, so you really need to start
cooking it the night before you’re going to serve it. Your timing
doesn’t have to be exact, so you shouldn’t have to get up at 3 in
the morning to put on the roast. (I usually put a big brisket on
just before going to bed, at about midnight). Sealed in foil and
wrapped in a blanket (or in a 160˚F | 70˚C oven), a cooked brisket
can sit for a few hours before you serve it.
Take your thawed brisket out of the refrigerator and let it sit for
an hour or two, so it starts to come up to room temperature.
Prepare your smoker for barbecuing, bringing the temperature to
200–220˚F | 95–100˚C. Make sure you line your water pan with a
double layer of extra-wide foil and fill the pan with apple juice.
Use as much charcoal or hardwood as your smoker or pit will hold. A
good water smoker will hold close to 15 lb | 7 kg of charcoal,
which will burn for almost 24 hours. (You should know your smoker
well before you attempt to cook a brisket.)
There should be a nice fat cap on the brisket. Trim the excess fat
off it with a sharp knife so you’re left with a layer about 1/8 to
1/4 inch | 3 to 5 mm thick.
Coat the brisket with regular ballpark mustard. Sprinkle both sides
with a light coating of granulated garlic. Coat both sides of the
brisket with a heavy sprinkling of barbecue rub so that it is
evenly coated.
Let the brisket rest for about half an hour, until the rub starts
to get moist and tacky—the salt in the rub pulls some of the juices
out of the roast, and this helps to make a nice crust. Put the
brisket, fat side up, into your smoker and place some hickory or
mesquite chunks on top of the coals. Cook the brisket for 11/2
hours per lb | 500 g.
The internal temperature of the brisket should rise very gradually
throughout the cooking time, reaching a final temperature of about
180˚F | 82˚C. If you’re going to use a meat thermometer, keep it in
the roast—don’t use one that you poke into the meat every time you
use it, because it will cause the juices to run out. Halfway
through the cooking time (first thing in the morning), turn the
brisket, spraying it on both sides with the apple juice/bourbon
mixture. At this point, be sure to add some more hardwood chunks
and top up the water pan with hot water. Also, make sure you have
plenty of coals left, and replenish them if you’re running
low.
Three-quarters of the way through the cooking time, turn the
brisket and spray it again. About two hours before you take
it out of the smoker, turn it and give it a good coating of
barbecue sauce on both sides. Cook the sauce-coated brisket for
about another half hour, just enough so the sauce starts to set.
Give the brisket one more coating of glaze, take it off the cooking
grate, and wrap it in a double layer of foil (the extra-wide works
best). Put the wrapped brisket back to cook for 1 more
hour.
Remove the brisket and let it rest for at least an hour. In
competition, our briskets often rest for as many as 3 or 4
hours.
Take the brisket out of the foil and slice it, perpendicular to the
grain, in about 1/8- to 1/4-inch | 3 to 6 mm slices. Serve it just
like that, on a plate, with a little barbecue sauce on the side for
dipping.
Barbecue Secrets
For some reason, freezing
helps to tenderize a brisket. I always freeze mine and then thaw it
in the refrigerator for at least two days before cooking. Once it’s
thawed, store it in the refrigerator.
When a
brisket is done, it looks like a meteorite—so dark and crusty that
you can’t see the grain of the meat. Barbecue competitors mark the
brisket before cooking it to make carving easy. Before you start
preparing the brisket for cooking, cut off
a 3- or
4-oz | 125- or 150 g chunk of meat from the flat end of the
brisket, perpendicular to the grain of the meat. This marks the
roast so you know where to start carving slices.
Championship Barbecue Rub, a.k.a. Bob’s Rub
Makes about 3 cups | 750 mL
The
Butt Shredders call this Bob’s Rub, and it’s what we use in
competition. Bob Lyon, the granddaddy of barbecue in the Pacific
Northwest, shared this at the barbecue workshop that
first
introduced
me to the joys of real barbecue and prompted me to become a
barbecue competitor. It follows a rule of thumb that’s worth
remembering: A third, a third, a third. Which means one-third
sugar, one-third seasoned salts, and one-third dry herbs and
spices.
1 cup | 250 mL white sugar
1/4 cup | 50 mL celery salt
1/4 cup | 50 mL garlic salt
1/4 cup | 50 mL onion salt
1/4 cup | 50 mL seasoning salt (I like Lawrey’s)
1/3 cup | 75 mL chili powder (use a commercial blend, or if you want an edge, try a combination of real ground chiles like ancho, poblano, New Mexico or guajillo)
1/3 cup | 75 mL black pepper
1/3 cup | 75 mL paprika
Add as much heat as you want to this basic rub, using cayenne pepper, hot paprika, or ground chipotles. Then add 2 or 3 signature spices to suit whatever you’re cooking or your personal taste, like powdered thyme, oregano, cumin, sage, powdered ginger, etc. Add only 1 to 3 tsp | 5 to 15 mL of each signature seasoning so as not to overpower the rub.
Texas-style Rub
Makes about 2 cups | 500 mL
Everyone has a friend of a friend of a friend who knows someone in Texas with a great rub recipe. This one came to me through occasional Butt Shredder and barbecue enthusiast Ian “Big Daddy” Baird. The cayenne gives it a nice burn. Use it as an all-purpose rub, but it really makes brisket sing.
3/4 cup | 175 mL paprika
1/4 cup | 50 mL kosher salt
1/4 cup | 50 mL sugar
1/4 cup | 50 mL ground black pepper
1/4 cup | 50 mL chile powder
2 Tbsp | 25 mL garlic powder
2 Tbsp | 25 mL onion powder
1 Tbsp | 15 mL cayenne, or to taste
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix them together well.
Planked Leg of Lamb with Red Wine Reduction
Makes
4–6 servings
Yes,
you can plank a whole leg of lamb. And, surprisingly, cedar works
very nicely, although any of the hardwoods, particularly apple or
cherry, are also excellent. Serve this lamb with grilled
vegetables, which you can do next to the meat during the last hour
of cooking.
1
cooking plank, soaked overnight or for at least 1 hour
one 6
lb | 2.7 kg bone-in leg of lamb
kosher
salt and freshly ground black pepper
extra
virgin olive oil
16
cloves garlic
1 Tbsp
| 15 mL mustard powder
12
sprigs fresh thyme
one 750
mL bottle Cabernet Sauvignon or other red wine
1 cup |
250 mL chicken stock
3 large
shallots, finely chopped
Season
the lamb with salt and pepper and drizzle some olive oil on it,
using your hands to evenly coat the leg in the oil. Push 4 of the
garlic cloves through a garlic press and spread the garlic evenly
over the lamb. Dust the leg with the mustard powder and massage it
into the flesh. Lightly crush the rest of the garlic cloves with
the flat side of a knife.
Preheat the grill on medium-high for 5–10 minutes, or until the
chamber temperature rises above 500°F | 260°C. Rinse the soaked
plank and place it on the cooking grate. Cover the grill and heat
the plank for 4–5 minutes, or until it starts to throw off a bit of
smoke and crackles lightly. Reduce the heat to
medium-low.
On the plank, make a bed of the crushed garlic and half of the
thyme sprigs. Place the lamb leg on top, fat side up, and place the
rest of the thyme sprigs along the top of the roast, patting them
so they stick to the meat. Cook the leg for about 11⁄2 hours, or
until the lamb has an internal temperature of 125°F | 52°C at the
thickest part of the roast.
While the lamb is roasting, pour the wine and chicken stock into a
heavy saucepan and add the shallots. Bring the mixture to a medium
boil and reduce it until you have about a cupful of syrupy sauce.
Set it aside and keep it warm.
When the lamb reaches the target internal temperature, take it off
the grill and tent it loosely with foil. Let it rest for 30–45
minutes. Carve the lamb at the table and pass the sauce
around.
Photo
copyright John Sinal Photography. Used with permission. All rights
reserved.