BBQ BRISKET WITH COLESLAW AND CORNBREAD
Serves 6
I love BBQ. It’s part of the American way of life and I gained an appreciation for it as an art form after I attended a few BBQ competitions. It’s one of the most primitive forms of cooking—just a pit master, a fire, meat, and seasonings.
A great brisket has what is known as a smoke ring around it, and creating it requires a delicate balance of time, temperature, patience, and the pit master’s choice of secret seasonings. After the brisket is trimmed and the fat is no more than ¼ inch thick all the way around, we apply our seasonings and inject the brisket with a butter and seasoning mixture. We smoke the brisket, giving it a nice slow cook, until it’s tender and juicy. Then, we use the juice from carrots, red cabbage, and green cabbage to make three different shredded ices that we blend together to look like coleslaw. Then we take cornbread and make it into a beautiful puree. There you have it: barbecue brisket with coleslaw and cornbread.
At home I use a pellet smoker for this because it gives me consistent results. I can get dozens of types of wood and once I set a temperature it stays there. Some diehard pit masters prefer to stoke the fire with whole chunks of wood and babysit it the whole time. I would argue this leaves a little too much to chance, especially when cooking a brisket for 12 hours or more. But if you have a smoker you love at home, use it.
CORNBREAD:
200 grams cornmeal
100 grams masa harina
100 grams sugar
6 grams salt
3 grams baking powder
500 grams buttermilk
110 grams (2 large) eggs
75 grams unsalted butter, melted
CORNBREAD PUREE:
150 grams dried Cornbread
500 grams vegetable stock
25 grams freeze-dried corn kernels (see Sources, here)
2 grams salt
50 grams unsalted butter, melted
CARROT:
200 grams carrot juice
30 grams mustard vinegar (see Sources, here)
10 grams sugar
1 gram salt
2 sheets silver gelatin (see Sources, here)
RED CABBAGE:
200 grams red cabbage juice
1 gram salt
10 grams sugar
2 sheets silver gelatin (see Sources, here)
GREEN CABBAGE:
200 grams green cabbage juice
10 grams sugar
1 gram salt
2 sheets silver gelatin (see Sources, here)
SHREDDED COLESLAW:
Carrot
Red Cabbage
Green Cabbage
BRISKET RUB:
30 grams salt
20 grams light brown sugar
5 grams paprika
5 grams chili powder
5 grams garlic powder
5 grams onion powder
3 grams ground black pepper
2 grams cayenne pepper
BRISKET:
2260 grams (5 pounds) beef brisket
Brisket Rub
245 grams beef broth, seasoned to taste, for basting
CORNBREAD:
Preheat the oven to 300°F.
Grease the inside of an 18-by-13-inch sheet pan and line it with parchment paper. Reserve. Put the cornmeal, masa harina, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a medium bowl and blend with a whisk. In another mixing bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk until combined. Pour into the prepared sheet pan and spread evenly in the pan with a small offset spatula. Bake for 20 minutes, or until cooked through and a fork or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Remove from the oven. Let cool for 20 minutes. Turn the cornbread out of the sheet pan and break it into small pieces. Spread the pieces out on the same sheet pan. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 20 minutes, to dry out the bread.
CORNBREAD PUREE:
Put the dried cornbread, vegetable stock, freeze-dried corn, and salt in a blender. Puree on high for 1 minute, until completely smooth. Turn the setting to low and drizzle in the melted butter. Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve. Reserve in a covered saucepot until ready to serve.
CARROT:
Put half of the carrot juice, the mustard vinegar, sugar, and salt in a saucepot set over medium heat and bring to a boil. Soak the gelatin in the remaining carrot juice until it softens, about 5 minutes. Once the carrot juice reaches a simmer, add the bloomed gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve the gelatin. Pour the carrot mixture into a pint container and freeze overnight.
RED CABBAGE:
Put half of the red cabbage juice, the sugar, and salt in a small saucepot set over medium heat and bring to a boil. Soak the gelatin in the remaining red cabbage juice until it softens, about 5 minutes. Once the red cabbage juice reaches a simmer, add the bloomed gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve. Pour the red cabbage mixture into a pint container and freeze overnight.
GREEN CABBAGE:
Put half of the green cabbage juice, the sugar, and salt in a small saucepot set over medium heat and bring to a boil. Soak the gelatin in the remaining green cabbage juice until it softens, about 5 minutes. Once the green cabbage juice reaches a simmer, add the bloomed gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve. Pour the green cabbage mixture into a pint container and freeze overnight.
SHREDDED COLESLAW:
Pull the Carrot, Red Cabbage, and Green Cabbage out of the freezer. Turn them out of their containers. Wrap each gelatin in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to temper. Set up a food processor with a large grating attachment. Set up an insulated cooler or dewar and fill the container with liquid nitrogen. Grate the frozen block of Carrot in the food processor and immediately transfer to the liquid nitrogen; once frozen, it should resemble frozen strands of coleslaw. Repeat this process for the Red Cabbage and Green Cabbage. Once they are all frozen in shreds, mix them together in a chilled bowl and reserve in the freezer. Alternatively, you can grate each one separately into shreds, transfer to a chilled metal bowl, and refreeze immediately. Once all the shredded vegetable ices are solid again, scrape them apart with a fork to loosen them so they resemble granita ices, and reserve in the freezer until ready to plate.
BRISKET RUB:
Put the salt, brown sugar, paprika, chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper in a bowl and whisk to blend. Reserve in an airtight container at room temperature.
BRISKET:
Put the brisket on a cutting board and use a sharp paring knife to trim away any large pockets of fat. If there is a large fat cap on top of the meat, use a sharp boning knife to slice thin layers off the top until you have removed most of the fat. Spread the Brisket Rub all over the meat and rub it into the muscle with your fingers. Put the brisket on a tray, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 2 hours to let the rub penetrate the meat. Remove the meat from the tray and hot smoke it for 4 hours at 160°F. Put the seasoned beef broth in a spray bottle and spray the brisket every 30 minutes to baste it.
Remove the brisket from the smoker, spray with broth, and cover the top with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Turn the smoker up to 225°F and smoke for another 4 to 6 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 198°F. Remove the brisket from the smoker and put it in an insulated cooler for 2½ hours to rest and let the juices settle.
Remove the brisket from the cooler and slice into ¼-thick pieces, positioning your cuts against the grain of the muscle. Lay the slices out on a tray, cover with aluminum foil, and keep warm until ready to serve.
TO FINISH:
Put 30 grams of Cornbread Puree in the center of each plate. Top the Cornbread Puree with 5 slices of smoked Brisket (about 100 grams of meat). Put 20 grams of the Shredded Coleslaw in each of 6 frozen metal cups and place 1 cup alongside the Brisket on each plate. Serve immediately.
