Title: The Brisket
Chronicles: How to Barbecue, Braise, Smoke, and Cure the World’s
Most Epic Cut of Meat
Author: Steven Raichlen, America’s grill
master, who has authored a
library of books devoted
to barbecue.
I confess barbecue-type cookbooks don’t blow up my skirt. but a
book devoted to brisket – that’s Marilyn Monroe skirt’s over a
street grate exciting. I never felt that way about brisket until I
encountered burnt ends. Burnt ends are the crispy, flavor packed
bits from the point end of the brisket. I’ve been known to push
away my child’s hand to get the last one on the plate. Before you
can relish burnt ends you must have a brisket, and no one does
brisket like Raichlen.
The
Brisket Chronicles shares pages on preparing this cut of
meat along with rubs, sauces, jams and so much more including
sides. Brisket in ramen, Raichlen has it covered. The meat genius
even has recipes for Brisket tots – fried potato nuggets packed
with flavor and brisket!
Special thanks to Workman Publishing for providing two recipes
for our members to try now as well as three copies of this killer
book in our giveaway below.
Joe’s Kansas City-style brisket
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this recipe to your Bookshelf (click the blue +Bookshelf
button).
YIELD: Serves 10 to 12
METHOD: Barbecuing
PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOKING TIME: 8 to 10 hours, plus 1 to 2 hours for resting
HEAT SOURCE:Smoker (ideally, an offset barrel smoker)
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A large (13-by-9-inch) aluminum foil pan; wood
logs, chunks, or soaked, drained hardwood chips; a metal bowl or
aluminum foil pan (for the smoker); a digital instant-read
thermometer (preferably remote); spray bottle; heavy-duty aluminum
foil; an insulated cooler; a rimmed sheet pan; a deli-style meat
slicer or electric knife
WHAT ELSE: Most of the briskets in this section are cooked to an
internal temperature of around 205°F. This makes them
supernaturally moist and cut-with-the-side-of-a-fork tender-the
texture we associate with Texas barbecued brisket. Joe’s Kansas
City Bar-B-Que cooks the meat only to 185°F, which leaves it still
sufficiently firm to slice on a meat slicer. Joe’s also suggests
wrapping the brisket in foil partway through the cook. Imagine
that-the “Texas Crutch” (page 60) in Kansas City.
In a city as barbecue-obsessed as Kansas City, there are many
styles of brisket. None is quite as distinctive as the brisket at
Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que, founded by Jeff Stehney, head pit
master of the much-decorated Slaughterhouse Five championship
barbecue team and a 2017 inductee in the Barbecue Hall of Fame.
Stehney starts not with whole packers, as is the practice in Texas,
but with brisket flats. He gives them the usual rub and smoke
treatment, but what really sets them apart is the way they are
carved-into paper-thin slices on a deli-style meat slicer. This
gives you a sandwich with a shaved beef texture that may remind you
of Chicago’s Italian beef.
Ingredients
- 1 large brisket flat (6 to 7 pounds)
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup Slaughterhouse 2.0 Championship BBQ Rub (recipe
follows)
- 1 cup apple juice or apple cider, in a spray bottle, for
spritzing
- 12 hamburger buns, brushed with 3 tablespoons melted butter and
grilled or toasted (see What Else, page 72), for serving
- Your favorite sweet-smoky barbecue sauce (I’m partial to my
bottled Project Smoke Lemon Brown Sugar or Spicy Apple Barbecue
Sauce), or one of the sauces in chapter 10, for serving Sweet
pickle chips, for serving
1. Using a sharp knife, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat
at least ¼ inch thick (see page 14). Be careful not to over-trim.
It’s better to err on the side of too much fat than too little.
2. Place the brisket fat side up in the aluminum foil pan.
Sprinkle the rub to coat the brisket on all sides, rubbing it into
the meat with your fingertips.
3. Fire up your smoker following the manufacturer’s instructions
and heat to 250°F. Add the wood as specified by the manufacturer.
Place a metal bowl or aluminum foil pan with 1 quart of warm water
in the smoker-this creates a humid environment that will help the
smoke adhere to the meat and keep your brisket moist.
4. Place the brisket in its pan fat side down in the smoker.
Smoke the brisket for 1 hour, then turn it fat side up. Continue
cooking the brisket until the outside is darkly browned and the
internal temperature registers about 155°F on an instant-read
thermometer, 5 to 6 hours, rotating the brisket 180 degrees halfway
through so it cooks evenly. Spritz the brisket every hour with
apple juice. Refuel your cooker as needed, following the
manufacturer’s instructions.
5. Wrap the brisket tightly in heavy-duty aluminum foil,
crimping the edges to make a tight seal. Insert the probe of a
digital thermometer into the meat (it’s best to pierce the foil
only once). Return the wrapped brisket to the smoker and cook to an
internal temperature of 185°F, 2 to 3 hours more.
6. Transfer the wrapped brisket to an insulated cooler and let
it rest for 1 to 2 hours. (This allows the meat to relax and its
juices to redistribute.)
7. Unwrap the brisket, working over a rimmed sheet pan to
collect the juices. Slice the brisket paper-thin on a meat slicer
or transfer it to a welled cutting board and slice it with an
electric knife.
8. To serve, pile the sliced brisket onto the prepared buns.
Spoon on the reserved brisket juices. Add barbecue sauce and sweet
pickles.
Slaughterhouse 2.0 championship BBQ rub
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button).
Yield: Makes 1 1/4 cups
This barbecue rub is classic Kansas City, with sugar to make it
sweet and mustard, chili powder, and cayenne to turn up the
heat.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup kosher salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 tablespoons dry mustard powder, such as Colman’s
- 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
- 2 tablespoons granulated garlic
- 2 tablespoons granulated onion
- 2 tablespoons dried granulated lemon peel
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
- 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
Combine the salt, sugar, chili powder, dry mustard, paprika,
granulated garlic, onion, lemon peel, and black and white and
cayenne peppers in a bowl and stir to mix, breaking up any lumps
with your fingers. Slaughterhouse 2.0 Championship BBQ Rub will
keep, in a sealed container at room temperature away from heat and
light, for several weeks.
****
What if you want smoke flavor but
don’t have access to a grill or smoker or it’s too cold to shovel
out your grill after a blizzard? For those times, the Smoking
Gun comes to the rescue. When I attended the James Beard
dinner in 2018 one of our swag gifts was Breville’s the Smoking Gun.
It is ideal for anyone who wants to infuse a little smoke into a
dish without leaving the comfort of your kitchen.
This month marks EYB’s 10th
anniversary and the good folks at Breville is providing one of
these handy tools as a grand prize to one of our cookbook winners
in the giveaway below!
The publisher is offering three copies
of this book to EYB Members in the US and
Breville is offering one member the Smoking Gun. One of the entry options is to
answer the following question in the comments section of this blog
post.
Which recipe in the index would you try first?
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into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won’t be
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Once you log in and enter your member name you will be directed to
the next entry option – the blog comment. After that, there are
additional options that you can complete for more entries.
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notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the
publishers. If you are not already a Member,
you can join at no cost. The contest ends at
midnight on
October 4th, 2019.
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