John s Texas Barbequed Brisket

Transcription

1 John s Texas Barbequed Brisket Warning: If you are going to do it my way, you need to do it a couple days before you are going to serve it. There are as many ideas about Bar-B-Que, and how to do, it in Texas as there are BBQ cooks but they pretty much all agree that it s not about Sauce but (indirect or Cold )

2 Smoke. In other parts of the world, BBQ often means basting some kind of meat and cooking it outside. Sometimes in Texas, you will find BBQ cooks who will not even allow Sauce to be served with their BBQ. Trivia: There are also just about as many ideas about the origin of the word as there are how to do it. One version is that it came from Caribbean cannibals and the Spanish phrase De Barba a Cola meaning the whole animal (or person), from beard to tail, was roasted in a pit. I have never tried this and probably won t.

3 I collect all kinds of Wood, sticks and Herbs suitable for smoking meat (also Fish and Vegetables) but the most common type in Texas is Mesquite. It is regarded by ranchers and farmers as an unwanted weed. They clear and burn it so it s easy for us BBQ cooks to get as much as we want..for free. There are many other kinds of wood that are good for

4 smoking food and they all produce slightly different flavors. A few others are: Fruit trees like Apple and Cherry, Hickory (more commonly used in East Texas and the Deep South states) Oak, Walnut & Pecan (these have a darker stronger flavor), Maple, and sticks like dried Rosemary and Grapevine. In the far north (e.g. Canada & Alaska) and Europe, Alder is used for Seafood and has a slightly sweet flavor. If you use a fruit tree like Peach, don t use it still green. Let it dry for about 6 months to a year. There are some that you never want to use: Pine, Cedar, Fir, Cypress etc. because they have sap that will make the meat taste like turpentine.

5 I always start with Mesquite and sometimes add a little of something else for accent (e.g. Rosemary sticks)

6 BBQ in the Deep South states is Pork (sometimes used in Brunswick Stew). If you go to a BBQ Joint in Texas, you might find Beef Ribs, Sausage, Chicken, Ham and occasionally Pork Ribs but when a Texan thinks of BBQ, it is most commonly Beef

7 Brisket. It is a tough cut and takes a long time (12 to 24 hours) to cook..smoke Ingredients: 1. Wood for smoking (not in your pipe) 2. Beer.for drinking while you re cooking and for occasional dumping on the meat to keep it moist 3. Fruit Juice.Orange is most handy but I like others too e.g. Del Valle or Jumex in whatever flavor 4. Worcestershire Sauce 5. Other optional Vegetables or Meat like Ham, Sausage, Chicken.when I m going to go to all the trouble of smoking something for a long time, I often stick in some other stuff 6. Plenty of time..from 12 to 24 hours, depending on your altitude and the weight of the Meat. Pepper Sauce for various sides Suggested Sides:

8 1. Fried Okra 2. Greens 3. Potato Salad 4. Spinach 5. Pinto Beans 6. Cole Slaw 7. Cornbread 8. Macaroni & Cheese I tried doing this at high altitude (9000 ft.) a couple times and it s almost impossible. After three days, it was still not as tender as I want it to be. I ve done it at 5000 ft. (Albuquerque) and its doable but takes a lot longer than in most of Texas (average, sea level to 500 ft.) and I don t care how hot the fire, water will not boil at 10,000 ft.

9 Everybody has their own way of doing it. Commercial BBQ is done in quantity and usually just laid out on big grill racks in big smoke chambers. Some folks rap theirs in tinfoil and cook it in backyard smokers. I find it convenient to start with big Graniteware roasting pan like those used for Turkey. Lay the Brisket in fat side down.

10 Most folks just do the whole thing in the smoke house or smoker and that s how I used to do it. Keep the lid on the pan for this part. I experimented and a long time ago I started doing it in the oven initially (no Smoke yet).

11 in I put the oven on low heat (about 275 ) and since it needs to cook for a long time (3 to 4 hours depending on size..it will often tell you on the package) I go about doing other things.

12 As long as I am going to the trouble, I usually stick some other things in. today I have a Ham. It s precooked and sliced so it won t take long but I want to give it the smoky flavor. Sometimes I stick in a Turkey or Chicken or some Sausage or whatever I see in the freezer. None of these other things will need to cook anywhere near as long as the Brisket. Read the labels if they have

13 instructions or just use your own judgment about cooking times. While cooking, I m usually having a beer (or many if I don t have to drive anywhere) so the first thing I do is pour some on whatever is in the pan.

14 I will have been making Potato Salad, Cornbread, Greens, Fried Okra, Cole Slaw, Beans and other monkey business, so by this time the Brisket (after maybe 3 or 4 hours poke it with a fork to see if its

15 tender) will be about ready for the smoker. So now it will be time to start messing with the fire. It s ok to use a little paper and charcoal lighter to get the fire going since the meat won t go in for a little while yet and the paper and lighter odor will be burned off by then.

16 While the fire is getting started, I pour off most of the liquid that has accumulated in the pan and set it aside for later there will be a lot from the fat.

17 When the fire is going good,

18 let it die down a little and add some more wood. You can use a little of the Fat to encourage the fire. Don t ever put in a lot of wood because you don t want a real hot fire (it will dry the meat too much). You mostly just want Smoke. You can presoak the wood in water for a couple days and it will make

19 more Smoke. As I said before, this kind of smoking is done with indirect or Cold smoke. The fire chamber is set off to one side of the cooking chamber so what s cooking is not exposed to

20 direct heat. Sometimes I need to Smoke well into the night and if you do this beware of smiling opossums..they are not sincere. As soon as you go in the house they will try to steal whatever they can.

21 Then I flip the Brisket over in the pan so the fat side is up. The fat on top will protect it from the heat and keep it from drying out.

22 Then, as with the Ham or whatever, I dump

23 in some Beer. Leave everything you might be cooking today in the pans, slosh on some more beer, drink a swig or two and this time leave the lids off. This way, the smoke drifts over the top and will give only a light flavor. When the whole thing is left exposed in the smoker, the smoke flavor can be to strong for my taste.

24 I cook my Brisket longer than most people 3 to 5 hours in the oven and then up to another 10 to 20 hours in the smoker.very small fire. You have to keep checking on it and sloshing in a little more Beer as you go to keep it from drying out. Cooking it this long means that it will be too tender to slice and it will fall

25 apart. This is how I like it. My solution to this problem is it to wrap it in tinfoil.

26 And then freeze it. Then I let it thaw until it s still slightly frozen but still firm enough to be cut without falling apart. Most of the time I am only serving 4 to 6 guests so I cut it into large

27 chunks.

28 Then I rewrap and refreeze them for later. I m not going to go into making Sauce here and I haven t put any on my website yet. However, pour off all the liquid (drippings) from everything not necessarily all together. Use it as the base for a BBQ

29 Sauce. Strain it however you can. After it s strained, you can also occasionally dump a little in the pans (along with the Beer) to keep everything from drying out which I

30 do often.

31 The resulting fat makes a good fire starter. You can use it in your fireplace or you can use it to start your cooking fire and it won t

32 make any starter fluid smell. When I make sauce, I learned a long time ago from Sonny Bryan himself (before he died) that a key secrete is Worcestershire

33 Sauce.

34 I always use Fruit Juice in mine any kind. I especially like Del Valle and Jumex. In summer we live at our house in the Santa Fe National Forest. It s at 9000 ft. and I gave up trying to do Brisket there many years ago so I do some in Texas before we leave and freeze it. The folks in New Mexico don t see much Texas BBQ (some have never seen it) so they really enjoy it. Cheri is holding up a jar of my Pepper Sauce which is essential for Greens and a lot of Texas stuff.

35 I cook a lot of other things with Smoke and will eventually do a piece on it. Slice a nice pile and don t worry if some of it falls apart.

36 I like a few Mezzetta Tamed Jalapeños.

37 Pecan and Pumpkin pie are especially good for desert so serve a slice of each to everyone. Or if you don t have any you could serve Pumpkin Pie Ice Crème instead. The main thing is to constantly keep in mind during the whole process that a bird in the hand makes blowing the nose difficult.

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