Chapter 2
To many Americans, virtually all Texans, and no small number of Raichlen readers and viewers, brisket means one thing: barbecue. Thick slabs of beef slow-smoked over oak or hickory until the exterior is as dark as espresso, as smoky as a fire pit, and as salty-peppery as a pork crackling channeling beef jerky. So, it’s only fitting that the first recipe chapter of this book focuses on barbecued brisket. In the following pages, you’ll learn how to barbecue every imaginable cut, from massive packers to fat-laced points, from bacon-wrapped brisket flats to insanely rich Wagyu briskets. You’ll master the Texas Hill Country and Kansas City styles, not to mention Jamaican jerk brisket and burnt ends. I’ll even show you how to direct grill brisket (I’m not kidding) like they do it in Korea.
THE BIG KAHUNA BARBECUED PACKER BRISKET
YIELD: Serves 12 to 14 (with leftovers)
METHOD: Barbecuing
PREP TIME: 15 minutes
COOKING TIME: Could be as short as 10 hours or as long as 14 hours, depending on the size of your brisket, the efficiency of your smoker, and even the weather. Plus 1 to 2 hours for resting.
HEAT SOURCE: Smoker or charcoal grill
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A rimmed sheet pan; a perforated, foil-wrapped cardboard smoking platform (optional; see here); wood logs, chunks, or soaked, drained hardwood chips; a metal bowl or aluminum foil pan; pink butcher paper (unlined); insulated gloves; a digital instant-read thermometer (preferably remote); an insulated cooler; a welled cutting board
WHAT ELSE: Tradition calls for a stick burner (an offset barrel smoker—the home version of the monster pits used by Texas pros). But you can cook a respectable brisket in a water smoker, barrel smoker, ceramic cooker, charcoal grill, pellet grill, or an electric smoker. Sorry, gas grillers: You’ll need to buy a smoker or charcoal grill for this one. If by some misalignment of the fates your brisket has come out tough, slice it paper-thin so you shorten the meat fibers.
Admit it: Here’s why you bought this book—to learn how to barbecue a real deal Texas-style brisket. Well, here’s the big kahuna: fourteen pounds of pure proteinaceous awesomeness. The brisket that makes reputations—and fortunes. I speak, of course, of a full packer brisket (so named because that’s how it’s shipped from the packing house), seasoned with nothing more than salt and pepper and maybe some hot red pepper flakes, then slow-smoked Texas Hill Country–style for the better part of a day or night. The sort of glorious slab of meat—all smoke, spice, and rich, fatty beef—you line up for at Franklin Barbecue in Austin (see here), or at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas. But can you really cook a Hill Country brisket at home? I’m pleased to say you can, and it’s not even all that difficult. It does require the right cut of meat—a full brisket with both point and flat (see here)—and a smoker, cooker, or grill capable of maintaining a low, even cooking temperature for a 10- to 14-hour stretch. Above all, it requires patience. Follow the 11 Steps to Barbecued Brisket Nirvana and this recipe and you’ll turn out a brisket that would do a Texan proud every time.
You will have worked long and hard to prepare the perfect brisket—I suggest serving it unadorned so you can appreciate the complex interplay of salt, spice, smoke, meat, and fat. Texas tradition calls for a loaf of spongy factory-made white bread. Or up the ante and serve it with garlicky Lone Star Toast. A lot of ink has been spilled about which sauce—if any—you should serve with brisket. Personally, I’m a no-sauce guy—I like to let meat and smoke speak for themselves. But if you like sauce, you’ll find several options in chapter 10.
INGREDIENTS
1 large packer brisket (12 to 14 pounds)
Coarse sea salt
Cracked black peppercorns or freshly ground black peppercorns
Hot red pepper flakes (optional)
Sliced white bread or Lone Star Toast, for serving (optional)
1. Using a sharp knife, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat at least ¼ inch thick (see here). 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 on a rimmed sheet pan and generously season the top, bottom, and sides with salt, black pepper, and, if you like your brisket spicy, hot red pepper flakes. Some people combine these ingredients ahead in a rub.
3. If using a cardboard platform (see You’ll Also Need), arrange the brisket fat side up on top of it. The platform is optional, but it keeps the bottom of the brisket from drying out and burning.
4. Fire up your smoker, cooker, or grill 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.
5. Transfer the brisket (on its cardboard platform, if using) to the smoker. If using an offset smoker, position the thicker end of the brisket toward the firebox. Cook the brisket until the outside is darkly browned and the internal temperature registers around 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, about 8 hours. If the end of the flat starts to dry out or burn, cover it with an aluminum foil cap (see here). Refuel your cooker as needed, following the manufacturer’s instructions.
6. Remove the brisket from the smoker and tightly wrap it in butcher paper (see here). Return it to the cooker.
7. Continue cooking the brisket until the internal temperature reaches 205°F and the meat is very tender when tested (see here), another 2 to 4 hours, or as needed.
8. Place the wrapped brisket in an insulated cooler and let it rest for 1 to 2 hours. (This allows the meat to relax and the juices to redistribute.)
9. Unwrap the brisket and transfer it to a welled cutting board. Pour any juices that accumulated in the butcher paper into a bowl.
10. Trim off any large lumps of fat. Cut the brisket in half widthwise (long side to long side) to obtain a flat section and a point section; set the point section aside. Make a diagonal cut to remove the thinnest corner of the flat, which will likely be tougher and drier than the rest of the brisket. (Dice it and serve as burnt ends—see see here.) Slice the brisket across the grain into ¼-inch-thick slices or as desired (see here).
11. Transfer the sliced brisket to a platter. Add any juices from the cutting board to the reserved juices in the bowl, spoon them over the sliced brisket. Serve the brisket by itself or with bread and/or sauce on the side. (You know where I stand on the matter.)
Anatomy of a perfectly barbecued brisket: 1. the bark; 2. the smoke ring; 3. the flat section; 4. the point section
BACON-SMOKED BRISKET FLAT
YIELD: Serves 6 to 8
METHOD: Barbecuing
PREP TIME: 15 minutes
COOKING TIME: 6 to 8 hours, plus 1 to 2 hours for resting
HEAT SOURCE: Smoker or charcoal grill
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; tongs; a digital instant-read thermometer (preferably remote); an insulated cooler (optional); a welled cutting board
WHAT ELSE: Yes, you can cook a lean brisket flat without drying it out like beef jerky. Draping the top with bacon serves a dual purpose: The bacon keeps the top from drying out, and the melting bacon fat humidifies the lean meat on the bottom.
True barbecued brisket fanatics have ambivalent feelings about brisket flats. On the plus side, flats are widely available and they cook in a manageable 6 to 8 hours. They’re easy to slice, rewarding you with lean, clean, even, smoky slices of beef. On the minus side, they lack the intramuscular marbling and intermuscular fat of a whole packer brisket or brisket point, and their tough, stringy meat fibers have a tendency to dry out. Well, flats are what you’re most likely to find at your local supermarket, so it behooves you to know how to cook one. The secret: Cook the flat in a foil pan (to shield the bottom) draped in bacon (to protect and baste the top). Follow the techniques outlined here and your brisket flat will always be tender and moist.
INGREDIENTS
1 brisket flat (4 to 5 pounds)
Coarse sea salt
Cracked black peppercorns or freshly ground black peppercorns
Hot red pepper flakes (optional)
16 thick-cut strips artisanal bacon, such as Nueske’s
1. Place the brisket in an aluminum foil pan and generously season the top, bottom, and sides with salt, black pepper, and, if you like your brisket spicy, hot red pepper flakes. Finish with the lean (fatless) side up.
2. Set up your smoker, cooker, or grill 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.
3. Place the brisket (still lean side up) in its pan in the smoker. Smoke for 1 hour. (This gets smoke into the lean side of the meat.)
4. Using tongs, invert the brisket so the fat side is up. Neatly drape the top with half of the bacon strips. Cook the brisket until the bacon on top is darkly browned, 2 to 3 hours. Remove the bacon, dice, and eat it as a reward for your patience.
5. Lay the remaining uncooked bacon strips atop the brisket. Continue cooking until these new bacon strips are darkly browned and the internal temperature of the brisket registers 205°F on an instant-read thermometer. There should be a nice pool of bacon and brisket fat in the bottom of the pan. This will take another 3 to 4 hours, for a total of 6 to 8 hours in all. Refuel your cooker as needed, following the manufacturer’s instructions. Note: There is no need to wrap the brisket in butcher paper or aluminum foil—the foil pan covers the bottom; the bacon strips cover the top.
6. You can eat the brisket immediately, but it will be moister and more tender if you rest it, covered with aluminum foil in an insulated cooler for 1 to 2 hours. (This allows the meat to relax and the juices to redistribute.)
7. To serve, uncover the brisket and transfer it to a welled cutting board. Remove the bacon or slice it along with the brisket. Slice the brisket across the grain into ¼-inch-thick slices, or as desired (see here). Spoon any juices from the cutting board on top and serve with any condiments or accompaniments you like.
BRISKET SOUS VIDE
Suppose there was a cooking method that guaranteed a perfectly cooked, textbook-tender brisket every time. A brisket with a savory bark and pronounced scent of wood smoke. All this without the customary 12 to 14 hours of babysitting a smoker.
It would sound like the answer to every brisket lover’s prayer.
Well, there is such a method—firmly established in the fine-dining realm of molecular cuisine—and it’s gaining a foothold in the barbecue world: sous vide.
Sous vide (literally “under vacuum”) involves poaching food in a vacuum-sealed plastic pouch for a period that can last 72 hours. The bag seals in flavor and moisture. The low temperature (typically 140°F) makes it virtually impossible to overcook the brisket.
The basic sous vide setup consists of a vacuum sealer for the pouch and an immersion circulator (a water tank with a heating element) to do the cooking. Once the province of restaurant kitchens, sous vide machines are now available for home use. Two popular brands are Sous Vide Professional and Anova.
Sous vide produces moist, tender meat, but it doesn’t resemble barbecue until you give the meat a wood smoke flavor and crust. To do the former, you unwrap the brisket and smoke it with oak, hickory, or other favorite wood in your smoker. Because the brisket is cooked already, you can accomplish this in 2 to 3 hours.
To lay on a crust (bark), you then direct grill the brisket briefly over medium-high heat (6 to 8 minutes per side will do it), or indirect grill it at 300°F for 1½ to 2 hours.
Sounds easy and failproof, right? So why doesn’t everyone cook brisket sous vide? In a nutshell, because it’s too easy and too failproof. Yes, sous vide brisket is tender—you might say supernaturally tender. But a truly great brisket isn’t uniformly tender. It’s supposed to offer a contrast of tender parts and less tender parts—in other words, it’s supposed to retain some chew.
Similarly, you taste smoke in sous vide brisket, but not the deep, lingering smoke flavor you get in traditional barbecue.
Cooking brisket involves struggle—man against meat, as it were. Struggle in rendering the fat, converting the collagen into gelatin, in caramelizing, even in controlled-burning the animal proteins into a crust. In a very real sense, that struggle comes through in the taste.
And that’s why, in my opinion, sous vide brisket will never trump the real McCoy.
BARBECUED WAGYU BRISKET POINT
YIELD: Serves 6 to 8
METHOD: Barbecuing
PREP TIME: 15 minutes
COOKING TIME: 6 to 8 hours, plus 1 to 2 hours for resting (optional)
HEAT SOURCE: Smoker or charcoal grill
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A rimmed sheet pan; perforated, foil-wrapped cardboard smoking platform (optional; see here); 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); heatproof gloves; pink butcher paper (unlined); an insulated cooler (optional); a welled cutting board; a Microplane or box grater (optional)
WHAT ELSE: Brisket points are rarely sold at supermarkets. You’ll need to special-order one from your butcher or buy one online (one good source is misterbrisket.com).
Want to make your life easier? Smoke a Wagyu brisket point. The point (aka the deckle) refers to the fattier of the two muscles—the pectoralis superficialis—that comprise a brisket. A Wagyu brisket point is simply one of the most luscious, luxurious cuts money can buy. Wagyu is that stocky, gentle breed of steer originally from Japan, of course, whose meat comes generously marbled with buttery, sweet white fat. (More on Wagyu here.) The drawback? A Wagyu brisket can set you back $180. Happily, even a USDA Choice or Prime Angus brisket point delivers the luscious mouthfeel and moistness that makes this part of the brisket the morsel I instinctively reach for first. Points are easier to cook than whole briskets and are always richly rewarding to eat.
INGREDIENTS
1 brisket point, preferably Wagyu (3½ to 4 pounds)
Coarse sea salt
Cracked black peppercorns or freshly ground black peppercorns
Hot red pepper flakes (optional)
1 piece (3 inches) fresh horseradish root, peeled (optional)
1. Using a sharp knife, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat at least ¼ inch thick (see here). Be careful not to over-trim. It’s better to err on the side of too much fat than too little.
2. Place the point on a rimmed sheet pan and generously season the top, bottom, and sides with salt, black pepper, and, if you like your brisket spicy, hot red pepper flakes.
3. If using a cardboard platform (see You’ll Also Need), arrange the brisket fat side up on top of it. This is optional, but it keeps the bottom of the brisket from drying out and burning.
4. Fire up your smoker, cooker, or grill 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.
5. Place the point (on its cardboard platform, if using) fat side up in the smoker. If using an offset smoker, place the thicker end toward the firebox. Cook until the outside is darkly browned and the internal temperature registers 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, 5 to 6 hours, or as needed. Refuel your cooker as needed, following the manufacturer’s instructions, to obtain a clean steady stream of smoke.
6. Remove the brisket from the smoker and tightly wrap it in butcher paper (see here). Return it to the cooker.
7. Continue cooking the point until the internal temperature reaches about 205°F and the meat is very tender when tested (see here), another 1 to 2 hours.
8. You can certainly eat the point now, but for an even moister, more tender point, rest the wrapped brisket in an insulated cooler for 1 to 2 hours. (This allows the meat to relax and the juices to redistribute.)
9. To serve, unwrap the brisket point and transfer it to a welled cutting board. Pour any juices that accumulated in the butcher paper into a bowl. Slice the brisket across the grain into ¼-inch-thick slices (see here). Arrange the sliced brisket on a platter and add any juices from the cutting board to the reserved juices in the bowl. Spoon the cooking juices over the brisket slices, then finely or coarsely grate fresh horseradish, if desired, over the top using a Microplane or a box grater.
Wagyu brisket: The marbling looks like lace.
FETTE SAU’S COFFEE-RUBBED BRISKET
WITH CIDER BEER BARBECUE SAUCE
YIELD: Serves 12 to 14
METHOD: Barbecuing
PREP TIME: 15 minutes, plus 10 minutes for the sauce
COOKING TIME: 10 to 14 hours, plus 1 to 2 hours for resting
HEAT SOURCE: Smoker or charcoal grill
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A rimmed sheet pan; a perforated, foil-wrapped cardboard smoking platform (optional; see here.); wood logs, chunks, or soaked, drained hardwood chips; metal bowl or aluminum foil pan; spray bottle (optional); pink butcher paper (unlined); heatproof gloves; a digital instant-read thermometer (preferably remote); an insulated cooler; a welled cutting board
WHAT ELSE: “Brisket is the most difficult meat to get just right,” writes Joe Carroll in his illuminating book Feeding the Fire. “There is a narrow window between the time when this tough, lean cut turns moist and tender and when it starts to dry out.” Joe cooks his brisket at a slightly lower temperature than I do—between 210° and 225°F—and he uses the most compelling doneness test of all: “Tear off a piece and taste it.” Like most serious barbecue guys, Carroll serves his brisket naked (sans sauce), making the latter available on the side for people who want it. His Cider Beer Barbecue Sauce offsets the inevitable sweetness of ketchup with Worcestershire sauce, beer, and hard cider. If you choose to make it, you can pull the sauce together while the meat rests.
Think of America’s great barbecue regions: Kansas City. Memphis. Texas. North Carolina. Brooklyn. Brooklyn? Yes, New York City’s most populous borough now boasts some of the best barbecue around (think Hometown Bar-B-Que, Arrogant Swine, Fletcher’s Brooklyn Barbecue, and so on). And it all started when Joe Carroll opened Fette Sau in a run-down garage in Williamsburg in 2007. The musicologist-turned-restaurateur turned heads with his pitch-perfect brisket, pork shoulders, ribs, and pastrami. In this age of salt-and-pepper minimalism (the preferred seasoning in Texas Hill Country), Carroll seasons his meat with a complex amalgam of cinnamon, cumin, garlic, and ground espresso beans. If this were winespeak, I’d tell you to look for spice and coffee notes overlaid with the perfume of wood smoke. Since it’s brisket, I’ll simply tell you to fire up your smoker and get ready for some of the awesomest barbecued meat east of the Mississippi.
INGREDIENTS
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup ground espresso coffee beans (medium grind)
½ cup kosher salt
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons granulated garlic
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 packer brisket (12 to 14 pounds)
1 cup hard cider or apple cider, in a spray bottle, for spritzing (optional)
Cider Beer Barbecue Sauce, for serving (recipe follows; optional)
1. Make the rub: Place the sugar, coffee, salt, pepper, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, and cayenne in a mixing bowl and mix well, breaking up any lumps in the sugar with your fingers. You’ll need ½ to ¾ cup of rub for this recipe—enough to coat the brisket. (Store the remainder in a sealed jar away from heat and light. It will keep for several weeks.)
2. Using a sharp knife, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat at least ¼ inch thick (see here). Be careful not to over-trim. It’s better to err on the side of too much fat than too little.
3. Place the brisket on a rimmed sheet pan. Sprinkle the rub on all sides, massaging it into the meat with your fingertips. If using a cardboard platform (see here), arrange the brisket fat side up on top of it. This is optional, but it keeps the bottom of the brisket from drying out and burning.
4. Fire up your smoker, cooker, or grill 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.
5. Place the brisket (on its cardboard platform, if using) fat side up in the smoker. If using an offset smoker, position the thicker end toward the firebox. Cook the brisket until the outside is darkly browned and the internal temperature registers about 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, about 8 hours. (If using the cider, spray the brisket after 1 hour and then every hour thereafter.) Refuel your cooker as needed following the manufacturer’s instructions.
6. Remove the brisket from the smoker and tightly wrap it in butcher paper (see here). Return it to the cooker.
7. Continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches about 205°F and the meat is very tender when tested (see here), another 2 to 4 hours, or as needed.
8. Place the wrapped brisket in an insulated cooler and let it rest for 1 to 2 hours. (This allows the meat to relax and its juices to redistribute.)
9. To serve, unwrap the brisket and transfer it to a welled cutting board. Pour 3 to 4 tablespoons of the meat juices that accumulated in the butcher paper into the barbecue sauce, if using, and whisk to mix (reserve the remaining juices in a bowl). Slice the brisket across the grain into ¼-inch-thick slices (see here). Serve with the juices spooned over and the Cider Beer Barbecue Sauce on the side, if desired.
Yield: Makes about 2½ cups
Joe starts with the basic tomato-based barbecue sauce, balancing the brown sugar sweetness with hard cider and beer and enriching the sauce with brisket drippings at the end. Gather the latter in your smoker’s drip pan and from the meat juices that accumulate in the butcher paper when you unwrap the brisket for slicing.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups ketchup
⅓ cup hard cider
⅓ cup dark beer
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (preferably Lea & Perrins)
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, or to taste
2 tablespoons brown sugar (light or dark), or to taste
2 teaspoons dry mustard powder, such as Colman’s
1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus extra as needed
½ teaspoon garlic powder
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus extra as needed
3 to 4 tablespoons brisket juices and drippings (or melted butter)
1. Combine the ketchup, cider, beer, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, brown sugar, dry mustard, salt, garlic powder, and pepper in a large, heavy saucepan. Gradually bring to a boil, whisking to mix, over medium-high heat.
2. Reduce the heat to low and gently simmer the sauce, uncovered and whisking occasionally, until it is mahogany-colored and concentrated, 20 to 30 minutes. (Yes, I know this is longer than you normally simmer barbecue sauce, but you need the prolonged cooking to caramelize the ingredients properly.)
3. Just before serving, whisk in the brisket juices and drippings. Correct the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste.
Cider Beer Barbecue Sauce will keep, in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for at least a week.
CAMP BRISKET
They came from as far away as California, Miami, and Ontario, Canada. They debated the fine points of smoke rings, stalls, collagen conversion, and reverse-flow smoke engineering like medieval theologians arguing the number of angels that fit on the head of a pin. When the professor wheeled out an enormous hanging steer carcass, the sixty men and women assembled at the Rosenthal Meat Science and Technology Center did not recoil with horror but licked their chops in anticipation.
Welcome to Camp Brisket, a two-day seminar and crash course on the Lone Star State’s gift to the world of barbecue, staged by Foodways Texas and Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
“Our goal is to explore the culture, science, business, and practical culinary how-tos of the best barbecue in the world—Texas brisket,” explains Distinguished Professor of Meat Science Dr. Jeffrey Savell. Dean and head counselor of Camp Brisket, Savell lectured on the anatomy of beef, the chemistry of smoke, and the physics of cooking to an audience enraptured only slightly more by the prospect of sampling the brisket.
The faculty includes some of the biggest names in Texas barbecue, from Kerry Bexley and Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Texas (ranked the state’s top barbecue spot by Texas Monthly magazine), to the irrepressible Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin.
So what does one actually learn at Camp Brisket? The short list of topics at the session I attended included the following:
• Brisket anatomy
• Brisket grades (Select, Choice, Prime, Wagyu, and so on)
• Brisket trimming and carving (demonstrated by Aaron Franklin)
• The difference between restaurant brisket and competition brisket (see here)
• Wood selection and fire management
• Smoking techniques, from top-down burns to reverse-flow smoking
• The origin of the term barbecue pit (the first Texas barbecue was cooked over ember-filled trenches—hence the word pit)
Equally fascinating were the blind taste tests designed to challenge our preconceived notions. In one such test, we sampled Select, Choice, Prime, and Wagyu briskets—all seasoned and cooked the same way. Surprisingly, the Select received the highest rating.
In another blind test, we compared the smoke flavor of popular woods, such as hickory, pecan, oak, smoking pellets, and mesquite. Not surprisingly, mesquite delivered the strongest smoke flavor. What was surprising is how little the flavor varied from wood to wood.
The last panel discussion—Life as a Pit Master—was aimed at the not inconsiderable number of participants who nurse fantasies of leaving their day jobs as lawyers and IT experts (the two professions most highly represented in the audience) to open barbecue restaurants of their own.
But lest anyone take themselves too seriously, Wayne Mueller of the legendary Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas, summed it up this way: “My dad [Louie Mueller] wasn’t interested in becoming a barbecue celebrity. He was just trying to keep the lights on.”
About the only downside to Camp Brisket is the difficulty of getting in. Demand for the program far exceeds the sixty slots, necessitating a lottery for admission. To participate, first become a member of Texas Foodways (foodwaystexas.com) and sign up for their newsletter. (It’s a worthy organization, and you’ll learn a lot about Texas food culture.) In July, you’ll receive instructions for submitting an application. Winners are chosen randomly (but a multiplier is assigned to your application if you’ve been a member for more than one year) and are notified in August.
Dr. Jeffrey Savell gives a lesson in brisket anatomy.
JOE’S KANSAS CITY–STYLE BRISKET
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” (see here) 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)
½ to ¾ 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), 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 here). 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.
Cut Kansas City–style brisket into paper-thin slices on a meat slicer.
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
Yield: Makes 1¼ 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
¼ cup kosher salt
¼ 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.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES—and TWO BRISKETS
These days world-class barbecued brisket can be found across the United States (and across Planet Barbecue), but two American cities are inextricably associated with this epic meat: Austin, Texas, and Kansas City. A recent trip to both revealed some striking differences. (My observations are based on visits to Franklin Barbecue, La Barbecue, and Stiles Switch BBQ in Austin and Q39, Slap’s, and Joe’s in Kansas City.)
|
Austin |
Kansas City |
|
• The cut: Whole packer brisket. • The seasonings: Generally, salt and pepper. • The fuel: Oak is the preferred wood, with mesquite and apple also used. • Internal temperature: Cooked to 205°F (approximately), which makes the brisket tender enough to cut with the side of a fork. • Slicing and serving: Sliced by hand (see here). A normal portion includes both point (the fatty part) and flat (the lean part). • Condiments: Sauce is available, but often ignored. |
• The cut: Kansas Citians take a divide-and-conquer approach, cooking the flat and point separately. The former they serve thinly sliced on a meat slicer. The point gets diced, barbecued, and often sauced to sell separately as burnt ends. • The seasonings: You’re more likely to find a full-scale barbecue rub than simple salt and pepper. • The fuel: Varies from establishment to establishment, with hickory and oak in preponderance. • Internal temperature: This is one of the biggest differences between KC and Austin barbecue. Pit masters here cook to about 185°F, which leaves the brisket firm enough to cut on a meat slicer. (Texas-style brisket would fall apart.) • Slicing and serving: Another big difference. Again, slicing is done on a meat slicer, with slices just shy of ⅛ inch thick. This makes KC-style brisket a little firmer than its Texas counterpart, but well suited to piling on a sandwich. • Condiments: Kansas City barbecue sauce is thick, sweet, and smoky, and the locals don’t hesitate to pour it on. |
How brisket is done at Franklin Barbecue
JASON DADY’S EAST-WEST BRISKET
YIELD: Serves 12 to 14
METHOD: Barbecuing
PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOKING TIME: 10 to 14 hours, plus 1 to 2 hours for resting
HEAT SOURCE: Smoker or charcoal grill
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A rimmed sheet pan; wood logs, chunks, or soaked, drained hardwood chips; a metal bowl or aluminum foil pan (for the smoker); heatproof gloves; pink butcher paper (unlined); a digital instant-read thermometer (preferably remote); an insulated cooler; a welled cutting board
WHAT ELSE: Jason cooks his brisket using a unique three-step process: a 12-hour cook, followed by a 12-hour rest, followed by a higher-temperature cook to crisp up the bark. I’ve streamlined the recipe so you can cook it in a single smoke session. You’ll need one ingredient that may be unfamiliar: gochujang. This rust-colored chile paste endows your brisket with a spicy, umami-rich base. You can find it in the ethnic food aisle of many supermarkets or online.
Where else but in America would a self-described “good old-fashioned corn-fed boy from Nebraska” become a fine dining chef and then a Texas barbecue mogul? Meet Jason Dady, who with his brother, Jake, runs a pair of world-class barbecue joints—Two Bros. BBQ Market and B&D Ice House in San Antonio—not to mention Italian restaurants, a fish shack, and a steakhouse. Jason uses a pungent paprika-fennel-cumin rub at Two Bros. At B&D he slathers the brisket with gochujang (Korean chile paste; see What Else) much the way a Kansas City pit master might use ballpark-style mustard or pickle juice. The following recipe borrows the best of both restaurants—the gochujang slather from B&D and the Two Bros. spice rub. The result is a brisket with uncommonly savory bark, intense flavor, and wood smoke in abundance.
INGREDIENTS
1 packer brisket (12 to 14 pounds)
1 cup gochujang (Korean chile paste), or as needed
½ to ¾ cup Two Bros. Spice Rub (recipe follows)
1. Using a sharp knife, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat at least ¼ inch thick (see here). 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 on a rimmed sheet pan. Brush or slather it on all sides with the gochujang and refrigerate it, uncovered, to marinate for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, 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. Sprinkle the spice rub over the meat and rub it in with your fingertips to coat it on all sides. Remove the brisket from the sheet pan and place it, fat side up in the smoker. If using an offset smoker, position the thicker end of the brisket toward the firebox. Cook the brisket until the outside is darkly browned and the internal temperature registers 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, about 8 hours.
5. Remove the brisket from the smoker and tightly wrap it in butcher paper (see here). Return it to the cooker.
6. Continue cooking until the internal temperature reaches 205°F and the meat is darkly browned and very tender when tested (see here), another 2 to 4 hours, or as needed.
7. Place the wrapped brisket in an insulated cooler and let it rest for 1 to 2 hours. (This allows the meat to relax and its juices to redistribute.)
8. To serve, unwrap the brisket and transfer it to a welled cutting board. Pour any juices that accumulated in the butcher paper into a bowl. Slice the brisket across the grain into ¼-inch-thick slices or as desired (see here). Arrange the sliced brisket on a platter. Add any juices from the cutting board to the reserved juices in the bowl, spoon them over the sliced brisket, and serve.
HOW TO RECOGNIZE A PERFECT BRISKET
You know it when you see it, and you know it when you taste it, but what do the pros do when they judge a brisket?
Well, not surprisingly, they use all of their senses.
Sight: A world-class brisket will have a dark, almost black bark (crust). The juices and fat will squirt when you cut into it. In cross section, you should see a well-defined crimson smoke ring extending ⅛ to ⅜ inch inward from the surface into the meat. In a cross section of the point, the seam fat will be translucent and mostly rendered.
Smell: Your brisket will smell smoky and beefy, with the thrilling scents of black pepper and caramelized meat proteins.
Sound: No, brisket doesn’t really speak to you out loud (although many pit masters whisper to theirs). But there are a number of pleasing sounds associated with its preparation: the thunk of the ax as it splits logs; the crackle of the fire; the clang of the heavy metal smoker door; the sizzle of the briskets in the smoke chamber; the crinkle of the butcher paper as you unwrap the meat; the hiss of the knife or clatter of the cleaver on the cutting board as you slice the brisket. And of course, the moans of pleasure as you eat it.
Touch: A properly barbecued brisket will jiggle when you press it. Pick up a slice: It should be tender enough to pull apart with your fingers—but not so soft that it falls apart. Take a bite: The meat should be tender, but should retain a little chew.
Taste: Ah, I’ve saved the best part for last. Your first impression comes from the bark: smoky, salty, peppery, gritty with spice, and slick with fat. The meat will taste beefy and smoky (though not necessarily in that order)—satisfyingly meaty and luscious with rendered brisket fat.
Two Bros. Spice Rub
Yield: Makes about 1½ cups
The Two Bros. spice rub offers an orchestral range of flavors—sweet fennel seeds, smoky pimentón, fragrant coriander, and pungent pepper. Roasting the spices adds a subtle smokiness. This recipe makes more rub than you need for one brisket, but you’ll be happy you have leftovers.
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 tablespoons fennel seeds
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
6 tablespoons sweet paprika
6 tablespoons brown sugar
⅓ cup kosher salt
¼ cup pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika)
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1. Heat a small, dry skillet over medium-high heat. Add the peppercorns, fennel seeds, and cumin seeds and roast until fragrant and toasted, 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Immediately transfer the peppercorns and seeds to a bowl to cool, then grind them to a powder in a spice mill. Pour the powder into a small bowl or jar, and stir in the paprika, brown sugar, salt, pimentón, and ground coriander to combine.
Two Bros. Spice Rub will keep, in a sealed container away from heat and light, for several weeks.
COMPETITION BRISKET VS. RESTAURANT BRISKET—AND HOW THEY DIFFER
You know great brisket when you taste it. What you may not know is that what makes brisket great differs dramatically depending on whether you eat it at a restaurant or at a barbecue competition, like the Jack Daniel’s World Championship or the American Royal World Series of Barbecue in Kansas City.
According to Australian-born, Austin, Texas–based (how’s that for a pedigree?) barbecue authority Jess Pryles, competition briskets are as primped and fussed over as “contestants in a Toddlers & Tiaras beauty pageant.” The mission is simple—to combat palate fatigue and stand out among the dozens, sometimes hundreds, of samples a judge must taste in a single sitting.
Teams routinely start with expensive Wagyu or Prime brisket (see here), injecting the meat with bouillon or melted butter to make it juicier (see here). The preferred cut is a lean brisket flat, which yields neat rectangular slices that are pleasing to look at. Competition briskets tend to be seasoned with complicated rubs and often MSG (to pump up the flavor) and finished with a sweet glaze or barbecue sauce. (American taste buds seem hardwired to respond favorably to sweetness.) Wrapping in foil is common to make the meat hyper-tender. In short, explains Pryles, competition briskets are highly processed and highly manipulated. And this style is self-propagating as new contestants try to emulate brisket that has won in the past.
Restaurant briskets are just the opposite. The good places serve the whole brisket—fatty point and lean flat together—often from cheaper cuts, like Choice or Choice Plus. (Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Texas, uses Select.) Remember, restaurants exist to make money and every cost savings counts. The seasonings are simple—solely salt and pepper in most places—to keep the emphasis on the meat and the wood smoke. Sauce, when it’s available, is almost always served on the side.
Pryles compiled the following chart to show the differences between competition and restaurant briskets.
Championship brisket: picture-perfect bark and a pronounced smoke ring
|
Characteristics |
Competition brisket |
Restaurant brisket |
|
Approach |
Highly manipulated |
Done as simply as possible |
|
The meat grade |
Often Wagyu or Prime |
Often Choice Plus, Choice, or Select |
|
The cut |
Usually the lean flat (the slices look better) with fat trimmed to a minimum |
Whole brisket with plenty of fat |
|
The wrap |
Often in foil to steam the brisket and make it more tender |
Often in butcher paper or not at all |
|
The seasonings |
Complex rubs, often with MSG |
Salt and pepper only |
|
Nitrites |
Sometimes applied to the surface of the meat to add a smoke ring |
Never |
|
Injector sauces |
Bouillon, broth, or melted butter |
Rare |
|
Butter or margarine |
Brushed on the brisket for extra richness |
Rare |
|
Barbecue sauce or finishing sauce |
Often brushed on as a glaze |
Served on the side or not at all |
|
The philosophy |
Cooked to win by standing out in a crowd |
Cooked to taste good |
|
The taste |
Pot roasty |
Smoky |
Bottom line: Competition-style briskets may win big, but I know which brisket I’d rather find on my plate.
ASIAN-FLAVOR BRISKET
IN THE STYLE OF KYU
YIELD: Serves 12 to 14
METHOD: Barbecuing
PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOKING TIME: 10 to 14 hours, plus 2 hours for resting
HEAT SOURCE: Smoker
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A Microplane or box grater; a rimmed sheet pan; a perforated, foil-wrapped cardboard smoking platform (optional, see here); wood logs, chunks, or soaked, drained hardwood chips; a metal bowl or aluminum foil pan (for the smoker); heatproof gloves; pink butcher paper (unlined); a digital instant-read thermometer (preferably remote); an insulated cooler; a welled cutting board
WHAT ELSE: Kyu chef Michael Lewis seasons his brisket with a Japanese spice blend called togarashi. The principal flavorings are peppercorns, dried chiles, citrus zest, sesame seeds, and nori seaweed. Make it from scratch following the recipe here, or source it online or at a Japanese market (for this recipe you’ll need ½ to ¾ cup).
To toast sesame seeds (and other seeds and nuts), place them in a dry heavy skillet over medium-high heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and lightly browned, a few minutes. Transfer them to a bowl and let cool.
I’ve eaten a lot of brisket over the years and around the world. But I’ve never been served Texas-style barbecued brisket with chopsticks. Not until I dined at Kyu restaurant in the Wynwood Arts District in my hometown, Miami. “We’re an Asian restaurant with a wood-burning smoker,” says chef-owner Michael Lewis. “Why can’t we serve American barbecue in the style of Korea, Thailand, or Vietnam?” Why not, indeed? Lewis seasons the meat with sesame oil and a Japanese spice rub. He smokes it for 14 hours in the best Texas tradition. But come time for serving, he pulls a page from the Asian playbook. If you look closely, you’ll see that your thick slab of brisket has actually been cut into bite-size slivers you can pick up with chopsticks. Instead of Wonder Bread for making sandwiches, Kyu uses crisp lettuce leaves for wrapping the brisket Asian style. This Pan-Asian dish comes with Vietnamese pickles, Japanese wasabi paste, and a sweet-and-sour Korean barbecue sauce. In a nod to Miami’s Caribbean roots, a shot glass of hot sauce next to the brisket derives its firepower from house-fermented Scotch bonnets. In short, you get the smoky awesomeness of Texas barbecued brisket with a kaleidoscope of flavorings from Asia. “I think any food tastes better eaten with chopsticks,” says Lewis. “There’s better airflow with chopsticks, and the more you’re breathing, the more you’re tasting.” Amen to that.
INGREDIENTS
For the togarashi rub
1 sheet (8 by 8 inches) nori seaweed (optional)
1 heaping tablespoon freshly grated citrus zest (ideally a mix of lemon, lime, orange, and/or grapefruit, grated on a Microplane or the fine holes of a box grater)
3 tablespoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons black sesame seeds (or toasted white sesame seeds)
2 tablespoons freshly cracked black pepper
1½ teaspoons cayenne pepper
For the brisket
1 packer brisket (12 to 14 pounds)
2 tablespoons toasted (dark) sesame oil
Condiments for serving
3 heads butter lettuce, separated into individual leaves, washed, and spun dry
1 bunch fresh cilantro, washed, shaken dry, and stemmed
3 tablespoons Maldon salt
3 tablespoons freshly cracked black peppercorns
Wasabi paste (see Note)
Any or all of the following sauces:
Simple Asian-Flavor Barbecue Sauce (recipe follows)
Your favorite Scotch bonnet–based hot sauce (such as Matouk’s from Trinidad)
1. Make the rub: If using nori seaweed, toast the sheet on a hot grill or over a lit burner on your stove (holding it with tongs 2 inches above the flames) until crinkly and crisp, 10 seconds per side. Let it cool for a couple of minutes on a plate, then crumble it into a small mixing bowl. Add the citrus zest, salt, sesame seeds, and black and cayenne peppers, and mix together with your fingers. Set aside.
2. Using a sharp knife, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat at least ¼ inch thick (see here). Be careful not to over-trim. It’s better to err on the side of too much fat than too little.
3. Place the brisket on a rimmed sheet pan. Brush the brisket on all sides with the sesame oil, then season it all over with the togarashi mixture, rubbing the spices into the meat with your fingertips. If using a cardboard platform (see You’ll Also Need), arrange the brisket fat side up on top of it. This is optional, but it keeps the bottom of the brisket from drying out and burning.
4. Meanwhile, 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.
5. Place the brisket (on its cardboard platform, if using) fat side up in the smoker. If using an offset smoker, position the thicker end of the brisket toward the firebox. Cook the brisket until the outside is darkly browned and the internal temperature registers 200° to 205°F on an instant-read thermometer, 10 to 12 hours, or as needed. Refuel your cooker as needed, following the manufacturer’s instructions.
6. Remove the brisket from the smoker and tightly wrap it in butcher paper (see here). Place the wrapped brisket in an insulated cooler. Let it rest for 2 hours. (Note: Lewis does his wrapping at the end, not two-thirds of the way through the cook in the style of Aaron Franklin; see here.)
7. Unwrap the brisket and transfer it to a welled cutting board. Pour any juices that accumulated in the butcher paper into a bowl. Slice the brisket across the grain into ¼-inch-thick slices. Stack the slices three at a time and cut the stacks widthwise into ½-inch-wide slivers. Transfer the brisket slivers to a platter. Pour the reserved juices over the meat.
8. Assemble the condiments: Arrange the lettuce leaves and cilantro in bowls or on a plate. Place the salt, pepper, wasabi paste, and Vietnamese slaw in individual small bowls. Set out the barbecue sauces and hot sauce in bowls or shot glasses.
9. To eat, place a few pieces of brisket on a lettuce leaf. Add your condiments and sauces of choice and pop the bundle into your mouth. The proper eating implement? Chopsticks, of course.
Note: To make wasabi paste, combine 2 tablespoons wasabi powder with 2 tablespoons warm water in a small bowl, and stir to form a paste. Let stand to thicken, 5 minutes, before using.
SIMPLE ASIAN-FLAVOR BARBECUE SAUCE
Yield: Makes 2 cups
This lightning-quick condiment is what I call a “doctor sauce”—you start with commercial barbecue sauce and doctor it with Asian flavorings such as sesame oil and soy sauce. The sesame seeds provide a pleasing nuttiness and crunch.
INGREDIENTS
1½ cups of your favorite sweet American barbecue sauce (such as Project Smoke Lemon Brown Sugar Barbecue Sauce or KC Masterpiece) or any of the sauces in this book
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons toasted (dark) sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice vinegar or cider vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted white sesame seeds or black sesame seeds (see What Else)
Combine the ingredients in a bowl and whisk to mix.
Simple Asian-Flavor Barbecue Sauce will keep, in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for several weeks.
JAMAICAN JERK BRISKET
YIELD: Serves 12 to 14
METHOD: Barbecuing
PREP TIME: 30 minutes, plus marinating for 6 hours to overnight
COOKING TIME: 10 to 14 hours, plus 1 to 2 hours for resting
HEAT SOURCE: Smoker or charcoal grill
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: Pimento wood chunks or chips (or your favorite hardwood), the latter soaked for 30 minutes, then drained; a metal bowl or aluminum foil pan (for the smoker); pink butcher paper (unlined); heatproof gloves; a digital instant-read thermometer (preferably remote); an insulated cooler; a welled cutting board
WHAT ELSE: Sure, you can make the jerk seasoning from scratch, and I tell you how to do it on the facing page. But you need a lot of ingredients—some of them esoteric—and there are many excellent ready-made jerk seasonings at your local supermarket. Some good brands are Walkerswood, Island Spice, and Grace. All will work well for this brisket. To be strictly authentic, you’d smoke the brisket with pimento (allspice) wood, available from PimentoWood.com. Alternatively, toss a handful of allspice berries on the coals with the wood chips.
To serve this on rolls, split them open and spread the cut sides with room-temperature butter, about 1 tablespoon per roll. Grill the rolls, cut side down, over medium-high heat (or cook in a skillet) until lightly toasted, 1 to 2 minutes.
Let’s start with the obvious. Jerk brisket isn’t really Jamaican. The local meat of choice there is whole hog—ingeniously boned and butterflied so no section is more than 3 to 4 inches thick. That’s because the traditional way to cook jerk in Jamaica is not in a stick burner or closed smoker but by direct grilling on a pimento (allspice) wood grate over smoky pimento wood embers. (The heat is low and the process takes the better part of a day, so you’re still cooking low and slow.) But jerk seasoning—that ferociously fiery blend of Scotch bonnet chiles, allspice, nutmeg, soy sauce, salt, garlic, rum, and other seasonings—works wonders with the beefy richness of brisket. And Jamaicans prize the flavor of wood smoke as much as any Texan. I give you an electrifying jerk brisket that will definitely make you sit up and take notice. In Jamaica, jerk is served with cornmeal fritters called festivals (you’ll find a great recipe for these in my book The Barbecue! Bible). The closest equivalent in the United States would be hush puppies. Alternatively, you can pile the brisket slices on buttered, grilled brioche rolls or hamburger buns.
INGREDIENTS
1 packer brisket (12 to 14 pounds)
3 cups jerk seasoning, homemade (recipe follows) or your favorite commercial brand
5 pimento leaves or bay leaves
2 tablespoons allspice berries (preferably Jamaican)
Buttered toasted brioche rolls or hamburger buns (see What Else, optional), for serving
1. Using a sharp knife, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat at least ¼ inch thick (see here). Be careful not to over-trim. It’s better to err on the side of too much fat than too little. Make a series of ½-inch-deep cuts on all sides of the meat using the tip of a paring knife, twisting the blade to widen the holes. (This helps with the absorption of the jerk seasoning.)
2. Using a rubber spatula, slather the brisket with jerk seasoning on all sides. Force it into the holes you made with the paring knife. Marinate, covered, in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight—the longer it marinates, the richer the flavor.
3. Fire up your smoker, cooker, or grill following the manufacturer’s instructions and heat to 250°F. Add the wood as specified by the manufacturer. If using a water smoker, add the pimento leaves and allspice berries to the water pan. Otherwise, place these flavorings in a metal bowl or aluminum foil pan with 1 quart warm water and place the bowl in the smoker.
4. Scrape the excess jerk marinade off the brisket with a spatula. Place the brisket fat side up in the smoker. If using an offset smoker, position the thicker end toward the firebox. Cook the brisket until the outside is darkly browned and the internal temperature registers about 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, about 8 hours. Refuel your cooker as needed, following the manufacturer’s instructions.
5. Remove the brisket from the smoker and tightly wrap it in butcher paper (see here). Return it to the cooker.
6. Continue cooking until the internal temperature is around 205°F and the meat is very tender when tested (see here), another 2 to 4 hours, or as needed.
7. Place the wrapped jerk brisket in an insulated cooler and let it rest for 1 to 2 hours. (This allows the meat to relax and its juices to redistribute.)
8. Unwrap the brisket and transfer it to a welled cutting board. Pour any juices that accumulated in the butcher paper into a bowl. Slice the brisket across the grain into ¼-inch-thick slices. Layer the slices onto the toasted rolls, if desired. Add any juices from the cutting board to the juices in the bowl, spoon them over the meat, and serve.
JERK SEASONING
Yield: Makes 3 cups
Jamaican jerk seasoning is an incendiary amalgam of Scotch bonnet chiles (or you can use their more readily available cousins, habaneros), alliums, allspice, and rum, with an overall flavor profile that’s sweet, salty, spicy, and pugnacious with chile hellfire. For milder jerk seasoning, I seed the chiles.
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons allspice berries (preferably Jamaican)
3 tablespoons whole black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick, broken into pieces, or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 dried pimento leaves or bay leaves, crumbled
4 to 6 Scotch bonnet or habanero chiles (or to taste), stemmed and seeded (for authentic and really fiery jerk seasoning, leave the seeds in)
4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
2 bunches scallions, trimmed, white and green parts roughly chopped
A 2-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 tablespoons fresh thyme leaves (strip them off the branches) or 2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 tablespoons sea salt, plus extra as needed
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
½ cup soy sauce
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup distilled white vinegar
½ cup dark rum
⅓ cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1. Place the allspice berries, peppercorns, cinnamon, nutmeg, and pimento leaves in a spice mill and grind to a fine powder. You may need to work in several batches.
2. Transfer the ground spices to a food processor fitted with a chopping blade. Add the Scotch bonnets, garlic, scallions, ginger, thyme, salt, and sugar and finely chop. Gradually work in the soy sauce, oil, vinegar, rum, and lime juice. Process to a loose paste. Add salt to taste; the jerk seasoning should be quite salty.
Jerk Seasoning will keep, in a sealed jar in the refrigerator, for several weeks. (Place a sheet of plastic wrap between the mouth of the jar and the lid to prevent the latter from corroding.)
TUFFY STONE’S BURNT ENDs
YIELD: Serves 6 to 8 as a starter, or 4 as a main course (makes about 48 burnt ends)
METHOD: Barbecuing
PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOKING TIME: 6 to 7 hours for the brisket, plus 1 hour for resting, and 30 minutes for the burnt ends
HEAT SOURCE: Smoker or charcoal grill
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: Three 13-by-9-inch aluminum foil pans; wood logs, chunks, or soaked, drained hardwood chips; heavy-duty aluminum foil; an insulated cooler
WHAT ELSE: The recipe is a little involved, but you can make the rub and sauce ahead of time.
In recent years, burnt ends have morphed from simple brisket trimmings into a freestanding starter or even main course in their own right, consisting of bite-size cubes of barbecued brisket point or flat re-smoked with sweet barbecue sauce. And no one makes them better than French-trained chef turned BBQ Pitmasters reality TV star Tuffy Stone. Founder of the Cool Smoke barbecue team, Tuffy is one of the winningest competition barbecuers on the planet, with more than forty grand championships and five world championships to his credit. Tuffy’s burnt ends are a triumph of the new-style burnt end, fusing the perfect ratio of smoke to spice and meat to sweet into a morsel you can eat in a single bite. Think of them as brisket candy, and don’t think of firing up your smoker without trying them.
INGREDIENTS
For the rub
½ cup turbinado sugar (such as Sugar in the Raw)
⅓ cup kosher salt
¼ cup chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
4 teaspoons cracked black peppercorns
4 teaspoons granulated onion
4 teaspoons granulated garlic
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
For the brisket
1 brisket point (4 to 5 pounds)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, or more as needed
1 cup apple juice, in a spray bottle for spritzing
1 tablespoon granulated onion
Cool Smoke Barbecue Sauce (recipe follows), for coating and serving
1. Make the rub: Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir, breaking up any lumps in the sugar with your fingers. (Note: This makes more rub than you’ll need for the burnt ends. Store any excess in a sealed jar away from heat and light—it will keep for several weeks.)
2. Using a sharp knife, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat at least ¼ inch thick (see here). Be careful not to over-trim. It’s better to err on the side of too much fat than too little.
3. Brush the brisket on all sides with olive oil to coat it evenly. Place the brisket in an aluminum foil drip pan and season it on all sides with the rub—you’ll need ½ to ¾ cup.
4. Fire up your smoker, cooker, or grill following the manufacturer’s instructions and heat to 275° to 300°F. Add the wood as specified by the manufacturer.
5. Place the brisket point in its pan, fat side up, in the smoker. Cook for 1 hour, then spray the brisket with apple juice to moisten it. Continue smoking until darkly browned, 3 hours, spraying the brisket with apple juice every 30 minutes.
6. Lay 2 overlapping sheets of heavy-duty aluminum foil on your work surface. Crimp them together to form a seal—the resulting sheet should be about 2 feet wide. Place the brisket point on top, sprinkle it with the granulated onion, and spray it generously with apple juice. Tightly wrap the brisket in the foil, pleating the seams to make a tight seal. Return the wrapped brisket point, fat side up, to the cooker.
7. Continue cooking until the brisket is very tender and the internal temperature registers 205°F on an instant-read thermometer, 2 to 3 hours more.
8. Place the wrapped brisket point in an insulated cooler and let it rest for 1 hour. (This allows the meat to relax and its juices to redistribute.)
9. Unwrap the brisket point and transfer it to a welled cutting board. Using a sharp knife, cut the meat into 1-inch cubes. Transfer the pieces in a single layer to a couple of aluminum foil drip pans. Pour 1 cup of the sauce (or as needed) over the brisket, gently tossing to coat the cubes.
10. Place the pans in the smoker and cook until the brisket cubes are sizzling and caramelized, 30 minutes or so. Serve the burnt ends hot off the smoker, with the remaining sauce on the side.
COOL SMOKE BARBECUE SAUCE
Yield: Makes about 2 cups
Sweet, spicy, and smoky, this sauce by Tuffy’s Cool Smoke barbecue team is everything you want a barbecue sauce for brisket to be.
INGREDIENTS
1½ cups ketchup
½ cup dark brown sugar
⅓ cup distilled white vinegar
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1½ tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Combine the ketchup, brown sugar, white vinegar, molasses, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, pimentón, chili powder, cumin, granulated onion, and granulated garlic in a medium-size saucepan with ⅓ cup water and whisk to mix. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat and gently simmer, whisking often, until the sauce is thick and richly flavored, 10 to 15 minutes. If the sauce thickens too much, add a few tablespoons of water. Correct the seasoning, adding salt and pepper to taste: The sauce should be highly seasoned.
Cool Smoke Barbecue Sauce can be prepared ahead of time. It will keep, in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for several weeks.
WILL THE REAL BURNT ENDs PLEASE STAND UP?
In the beginning, burnt ends were burnt edges: charred, crusty, smoked brisket trimmings deemed too calcified or misshapen to serve customers paying good money for a plate of barbecue. They were brisket scraps, really—smoky and salty, with nary a drop of barbecue sauce, sweet or otherwise. And you still find them at a few Texas barbecue joints, like Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas.
But in the last ten years, burnt ends have morphed into a sort of meat candy comprised of cubes of cooked brisket slathered with sweet barbecue sauce. All too often, there’s nothing “burnt” or edgy about them. Some places now serve “burnt ends” made from sausage or spareribs. Really.
History credits the landmark Kansas City barbecue joint, Arthur Bryant’s, with the invention of burnt ends—a way to reward customers who waited long enough to be at the head of the line when the restaurant opened. (Ever notice how you always wait in a line at a good barbecue joint?)
Here’s how Calvin Trillin reminisced about them in his mythical celebration of Kansas City cuisine, Alice, Let’s Eat:
I dream of those burned edges. Sometimes, when I’m in some awful overpriced restaurant in some strange town—all of my restaurant-finding techniques having failed, so that I’m left to choke down something that costs $7 and tastes like a medium-rare sponge—a blank look comes over my face: I have just realized that at that very moment someone in Kansas City is being given those burned edges free.
The problem with burnt ends is that there just aren’t enough of them. For once you trim a smoked brisket, there’s a lot more meat to go around than scraps.
To meet the demand for a delicacy that was once a by-product, Kansas City restaurants started dicing cooked brisket points and dousing them with barbecue sauce. The good places returned them to the pit to cook the sauce into the meat and caramelize it. The not-so-good places poured sweet barbecue sauce over the brisket and served it like French fries smothered with ketchup.
Personally, I’m not a big fan of sauce-slathered burnt ends. I believe a proper brisket and its ends deserve to be eaten on its own without sauce. But many people do like sweet-sauced burnt ends. Here, you’ll find one of the best—spice-stung, sauce-slathered burnt ends from one of the winningest competition barbecuers and host of the BBQ Pitmasters TV show, Tuffy Stone.
As far as I’m concerned, “real” burnt ends are smoky, salty scraps cut from the burned edges of a well-barbecued brisket—sauce need not apply.
BRISKET “STEAKS”
WITH SHALLOT SAGE BUTTER
YIELD: Serves 4
METHOD: Direct grilling
PREP TIME: 5 minutes
COOKING TIME: 4 to 8 minutes
HEAT SOURCE: Grill
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A Microplane or other fine-hole grater
WHAT ELSE: I take a savory approach to these steaks, basting them with Shallot Sage Butter and grating fresh horseradish root on top. (It’s amazing how fiery fresh horseradish invigorates the smoky meat.) Alternatively, you could take the sweet route, seasoning the steaks with barbecue rub instead of salt and pepper, and slathering them with your favorite sweet barbecue sauce in place of the butter.
The brisket “steak” takes me back to my Barbecue University days at the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. A chef there had the genius idea to cook thick slabs of barbecued brisket on a screaming hot grill, just as you would a New York strip. This gave the brisket a sizzling, crusty exterior that lay midway between traditional barbecued brisket and steak, with a handsome smoky crosshatch of grill marks. (It’s also a great way to repurpose leftover barbecued brisket.) To this, add a shallot sage butter and a dusting of fiery fresh horseradish and you may just barbecue your next brisket solely to turn it into steak. Note: If you like your steaks lean, cut them from the flat. If you like them richer and fattier, cut them from the point. You’ve probably guessed by now that I like the latter.
INGREDIENTS
Vegetable oil, for oiling the grill grate
2 pounds barbecued brisket (about 4 pounds uncooked; see here), cut across the grain into 1¼-inch-thick slices
Coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Shallot Sage Butter (recipe follows)
A 2-inch chunk of fresh horseradish root, peeled
1. Set up your grill for direct grilling (see here) and heat to high. Brush or scrape the grill grate clean and oil it well.
2. Season the brisket slices on both sides with salt and pepper. Brush the slices on both sides with half the Shallot Sage Butter; set the remaining butter aside.
3. Arrange the brisket slices on the grill running diagonal to the bars of the grate. Grill until browned on the bottom, 2 to 4 minutes, giving each slice a quarter turn halfway through to lay on a crosshatch of grill marks.
4. Gently flip the brisket slices and grill the other side the same way, 2 to 4 minutes more.
5. Serve the brisket steaks hot off the grill, with the remaining Shallot Sage Butter spooned over them and the fresh horseradish grated on top with a Microplane or other fine-hole grater.
SHALLOT SAGE BUTTER
Yield: Makes ½ cup
Shallot Sage Butter brings a Mediterranean note to a smoked meat with deep American roots. Allium lovers can substitute garlic for the shallots.
INGREDIENTS
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 to 3 large shallots, peeled and minced (½ cup)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves (plus an optional handful of whole leaves; see What Else)
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots and sage and cook until just beginning to brown, 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and keep at room temperature until ready to use. Reheat the butter gently if it solidifies.
What Else: For an extra hit of flavor and an irresistible crackly crunch, I like to add a handful of fried whole sage leaves to the steaks along with this butter. To make them, fry the fresh leaves in olive oil over medium-high heat for a few seconds until crisp. Drain on paper towels until ready to use.
To direct grill on a charcoal grill, mound the lit coals towards the back, raking them into a single layer of embers in the center of the grill, leaving the front third of the grill coal-free. This gives you a hot zone for searing (in the back), a medium zone for cooking (in the center), and a coal-free safety zone in the front for keeping food warm or for dodging flareups. On a gas grill, set the rear burner (or burner on one side) on high, the center burner on medium, and leave the front burner (or burner on the other side) off. In either case, control the heat by moving the food closer to or farther away from the hot zone.
BRISKET IN A HURRY
When it comes to cooking brisket, three words have been the credo of the barbecue community for decades: “low and slow.”
In other words, cook it at a low temperature and slowly—for a long time—to render the brisket fat and convert the tough collagen to tender gelatin.
So when Texas Monthly’s barbecue editor, Daniel Vaughn, broke the news of the “hot and fast” method proposed by Roland Lindsey, pit master–owner of Bodacious Bar-B-Q in Longview, Texas (incidentally, the first place I experienced Texas barbecue), the blogosphere erupted with understandable emotion.
If you could really cook a respectable brisket in 3 to 4 hours, why have so many of us endured predawn wake-up calls or overnight smoke sessions?
Well, the controversy reached Barbecue University recently (“BBQ U” is the three-day class I teach each year at the Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado), so we decided to put it to the test. Steve Nestor, a student from the Boston area, posed the question; naturally, we drafted him to try it.
In a nutshell, the hot-and-fast method calls for cooking a full packer brisket at 400°F instead of the traditional 250°F. The supposed secret is to rest the wrapped brisket in an insulated cooler for at least 2 hours to allow the meat to relax.
We used a Weber kettle grill set up for indirect grilling. (Most smokers don’t get that hot.) We fueled it with natural lump charcoal and added cherry chunks to generate wood smoke. We wrapped the brisket in unlined butcher paper at 165°F and continued cooking it to an internal temperature of 205°F. The total cooking time was just north of 4 hours.
I confess: I was dubious. The internal temperature may have been right, but the brisket sure didn’t feel right. It flunked the “bend” test and lacked the “jiggle” I associate with a properly cooked brisket (see here).
We rested it in an insulated cooler for the prescribed 2 hours. Much to my surprise, the meat softened considerably during that time, and when we cut into it, we tasted not a top-tier brisket, but a respectable second flight.
The flat was a bit tougher than a low-and-slow brisket, but it would be okay thinly sliced on a sandwich.
The point was moist and succulent. You could see the white intramuscular fat (which in a low-and-slow cook would melt out), but the mouthfeel was luscious, the way a brisket point should be.
Both parts had a well-defined smoke ring and pronounced smoke flavor.
Bottom line: You wouldn’t mistake a hot-and-fast brisket for meat smoked low and slow the traditional way. But if you’re crunched for time, the hurried-up version is certainly better than nothing.
KOREAN GRILLED BRISKET
YIELD: Serves 6 to 8
METHOD: Direct grilling
PREP TIME: 15 minutes, plus several hours or overnight to freeze the brisket
COOKING TIME: Minutes rather than hours!
HEAT SOURCE: Ideally, a hibachi, or a charcoal or gas grill
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: An electric meat slicer or food processor fitted with a slicing disk (this works best on a processor with a fixed-blade slicing disk); small tongs (full-size tongs would be cumbersome to handle such small, thin slices of meat); chopsticks
WHAT ELSE: The easiest way to slice the meat for this extraordinary brisket is on an electric meat slicer. Serious carnivores may own one already. I’ve come up with a work-around using a food processor with a sturdy slicing blade. In a pinch, you could try hand slicing with a very sharp chef’s knife or santoku, in which case, freeze the brisket until it is partially frozen, not hard as a rock. Note: Many Asian markets sell pre-sliced brisket in the frozen foods section—especially if you live in an area with a large Korean community.
Make the Chile Jam, Wasabi Soy Dipping Sauce, and Korean Cucumber Salad a few hours before you intend to cook and serve the brisket.
Brisket is enjoyed the world over, and exploring how it varies from food culture to food culture has been one of the great thrills of writing this book. But there’s one virtually universal article of faith: Brisket requires long, slow cooking with moist, gentle heat to make it tender and palatable. Consequently, you cook brisket in a smoker or at a low heat in the oven, in a steamer, slow cooker, stew pot, or soup pot. The one place you’d never cook it is directly over high heat on a grill. Or so I believed until I visited Kang Ho Dong Baekjeong restaurant in the heart of New York’s Koreatown. Here, chef Mike Sim slices frozen brisket points across the grain on a meat slicer. The slices come so paper-thin that the meat cooks in a matter of seconds. It simply doesn’t have the time or heft to get tough. You could think of this direct grilled brisket as steak on steroids, with a rich, meaty, beefy flavor every bit as intense as slow-cooked brisket, but as easy to chew as New York strip. The brisket itself comes unseasoned. The fireworks come from an eye-popping selection of sauces and condiments collectively known as banchan (see here). Like so much Korean grilled meat, you eat grilled brisket wrapped in lettuce leaves, taco-style. Think of it as barbecue health food.
INGREDIENTS
2 pounds brisket point or cross section of point and flat together
1 head green leaf lettuce, such as butter lettuce or romaine, separated into leaves, washed, and spun dry
Condiments (any or all of the following)
Coarse sea salt
Toasted (dark) sesame oil
Wasabi Soy Dipping Sauce (recipe follows)
Chile Jam (Ssamjang) or gochujang (Korean chile paste—see What Else)
1. Using a sharp knife, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat at least ½ inch thick (see here); you’ll need more fat than usual here because you’ll be direct grilling the brisket (see here) and you want to keep it moist. Save a few pieces of that fat in the refrigerator for greasing the grill grate.
2. If you have an electric meat slicer, wrap the whole brisket point in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer. If you plan to use a food processor, cut the brisket point along the grain into chunks just narrow enough to fit in the processor feed tube. (Take note of which way the grain of the meat—the meat fibers—runs: When it comes time for slicing, it’s very important to cut it across the grain.) Wrap the chunks in plastic wrap and freeze until solid, several hours or overnight.
3. If you have an electric meat slicer, unwrap the brisket and use the slicer to cut the frozen brisket across the grain into paper-thin slices. As they come off the slicer, they’ll naturally curl. Arrange the slices on a platter. If using a food processor, install the thin slicing blade. Place the unwrapped, frozen brisket chunks in the feed tube (the grain of the meat should run vertical and parallel to the feed tube). Turn on the processor and slice the meat. (The slices won’t be quite as pretty as those made on a meat slicer, but you will get the requisite thinness.) Arrange the slices on a platter.
4. Transfer the sliced brisket on its platter to the freezer and keep it there until ready to grill. (The brisket can be sliced and frozen several hours ahead.)
5. Just prior to grilling, heat your grill to high. Brush or scrape the grill grate clean. Grease the grate with reserved chunks of brisket fat. Place the sea salt in a small bowl and the sesame oil in another. (Or if you like sesame sea salt, place the salt in a small bowl and gently pour the sesame oil over it so the salt remains in a pile in the center.) Set out the remaining condiments in bowls.
6. When the grill is hot, arrange the brisket slices on the grate and grill until browned on both sides, 30 seconds per side, or until cooked to taste. For even more fun, place the hibachi in the center of the table (outdoors only) and have each guest grill his or her own meat.
7. Enjoy immediately, using chopsticks to dip a grilled brisket slice in salt, sesame oil, or Wasabi Soy Dipping Sauce, then place it on a lettuce leaf (spread with Chile Jam for even more flavor, if you like). Add some cucumber salad. From there, just roll it up and pop it into your mouth. It’s simply one of the most amazing brisket dishes on Planet Barbecue.
WASABI SOY DIPPING SAUCE
Yield: Makes about 3 cups
A variation on this sauce turns up wherever Koreans grill meat. Soy sauce makes it salty; sugar makes it sweet; rice vinegar gives it sharpness; sliced serranos crank up the heat. Some versions include diced Asian pear; others, scallions or onions. The wasabi lends a Japanese note—an innovation I’ve seen only at Baekjeong. As you dip the pieces of brisket in the sauce, the meat juices make it all the more flavorful.
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons wasabi powder
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons warm water
½ cup sugar
1 cup soy sauce
½ cup rice vinegar
2 serrano chiles, stemmed and sliced crosswise paper-thin
½ medium onion, cut into ¼-inch dice
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro or mint
1. Combine the wasabi powder and 2 tablespoons warm water in a small bowl and stir with chopsticks to form a paste. Let stand to thicken, 5 minutes.
2. Place the sugar and remaining ½ cup warm water in a mixing bowl and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Whisk in the soy sauce and rice vinegar and let the mixture cool to room temperature. Stir in the chiles, onion, and cilantro or mint.
3. To serve, ladle the dipping sauce into as many small bowls as you have eaters. Spread a dab of wasabi paste onto the edge of each bowl, so that each person can add as much wasabi as he or she desires.
Wasabi Soy Dipping Sauce can be made a few hours ahead of time (store it in a sealed container in the refrigerator), but it tastes best served the same day.
Yield: Makes 1 cup
Ssamjang is another indispensable Korean barbecue condiment. The name literally means “wrap paste,” and the idea is that you spread some of this spicy, salty, garlicky, mildly fiery paste on the lettuce leaves used to wrap and eat the grilled brisket. This recipe probably makes more than you’ll need at a single grill session—it will keep for several weeks in the refrigerator and it’s infectiously delicious.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup miso (preferably Korean; see Note)
½ cup gochujang (Korean chile paste—see What Else)
1 tablespoon toasted (dark) sesame oil
1 clove garlic, minced
Combine the miso, gochujang, sesame oil, and garlic in a mixing bowl and stir or whisk to mix. If the mixture seems too thick, add a tablespoon or two of cold water to thin it.
Chile Jam will keep, in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for several weeks.
Note: I like to use Korean doenjang, a miso-like fermented soybean paste that’s typically available at Korean food markets. If you can’t find it, red or white Japanese-style miso will work just fine.
Thinly slice the frozen brisket in a food processor fitted with a slicing blade.
Direct grill the paper-thin brisket slices on a hibachi.
“Brisket is one of the most esteemed beef cuts in Korea,” says Mike Sim, executive chef of the popular Baekjeong restaurant in New York’s Koreatown. “We cook it on the grill.” (Notice he said “grill”—more on that in a minute.) “We simmer it in stews and braise it with gochujang. We boil it to make broth, which we ladle over cold sliced brisket and glass noodles to make the most refreshing dish you can imagine for summer.”
But Korean brisket achieves its apotheosis in the one place you’d never expect to find this tough cut of steer: on a grill. The secret involves a freezer, a meat slicer, and a fine white powder called meat glue.
Baekjeong is the sort of restaurant where Korean expats come to feel at home and where Americans come to feel Korean. The brainchild of Korean television wrestling star Kang Ho Dong, this popular chain has outlets in New York, Los Angeles, and, of course, across East Asia.
I’ve come here on an icy afternoon to get a crash course on Korean brisket surgery. Chef Sim produces a huge slab of beef that Texas barbecue buffs would recognize as a packer brisket. He trims off some of the fat—just a little—then cuts the brisket into four quadrants. He sprinkles them with transglutaminase (meat glue) and piles a lean quadrant atop a fatty quadrant. He swaddles the resulting hunk in a large sheet of plastic wrap, twisting the edges to create a roll that looks vaguely like a brisket bologna. The roll goes in the freezer until it’s as hard as a log—indispensable for slicing it thin enough to grill.
The second prerequisite is a meat slicer, which Mike switches on the moment brisket is ordered. Off come paper-thin round slices of gorgeously marbled, shockingly red meat veined with fat and with a thick patch of fat in the center. As the brisket thaws, it curls into handsome rolls that make me think of beef cannelloni shells.
Meanwhile, one of Baekjeong’s servers has lit the circular gas grill in the center of my stainless steel–topped table. Holding a piece of brisket fat with tongs, he greases the grate—an inverted metal plate honeycombed with slits to let the fire through—then lays the thin shavings of beef on top. In 30 seconds they’re cooked (a little longer if you like them browned crisp).
If this were Texas, you’d eat the brisket slapped on a slice of white bread. This being Korea (or at least Koreatown), you eat the meat taco-style, with lettuce leaves standing in for the tortillas. There are four possible condiments: sea salt for the purist; sea salt with a slick of sesame oil, which adds a nice nutty counterpoint to the meat; a sweet-tart-salty dipping sauce spiked with onion and chile slices; and a salty, garlicky paste made with Korean miso and gochujang.
You might think you’re done, but you’ve just scratched the surface, because you can also load your brisket lettuce bundle with banchan—a plentiful array of pickles, salads, and condiments. In short, it’s brisket as a gustatory musical and you get to customize the chorus line.
But what’s most amazing of all is the cooking method: This is one of the only brisket dishes in the world that you grill like steak.