Chapter 10
Somewhere between the brisket kettle corn served at Loro restaurant and the brisket chocolate chip cookies dished up at the LeRoy and Lewis food truck, Austin’s barbecue scene went loco. Brisket now turns up not just on meat plates and sandwiches, but in dishes where you’d never expect it. True, the smoky, spicy succulence of Texas’s favorite barbecued meat makes everything taste better. But dessert? Yes, even dessert. This chapter looks at some of the more offbeat uses for brisket—actual dishes served by respected pit masters in one of the most brisket-obsessed states in the Union.
In the following pages, you’ll also find formulas for barbecue rubs and sauces. Brisket butter? What else would you slather on grilled bread? Brisket broth? You’ll find it here, too.
DALMATIAN RUB
YIELD: Makes 1 cup
PREP TIME: 5 minutes
WHAT ELSE: I make my Dalmatian rub with coarse sea salt and cracked black peppercorns, with a handful of hot red pepper flakes for heat.
Dalmatian rub is the name given to that simple mixture of salt and pepper used by pit masters across Texas. (Black and white, the coloring of a Dalmatian—get it?) Elegant in its simplicity, it’s in no way simpleminded, because depending on the salt (kosher or sea, coarse or fine) and the pepper grind (cracked, coarsely ground, 16 mesh, or finer), the resulting brisket will have a very different bark and taste. And that’s before you add additional flavorings, such as sesame seeds or hot red pepper flakes (the latter making it a newspaper rub—black and white and “read” all over). Here’s the basic formula. Tweak it to suit your taste.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup salt (coarse, fine, kosher, sea, smoked, and so on)
½ cup black pepper (cracked, coarse, fine, and so on)
Optional flavorings (add any one or two of the following)
¼ cup hot red pepper flakes
¼ cup sesame seeds (white, toasted white, or black)
2 to 4 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Combine the ingredients in a bowl and mix with your fingers.
Dalmatian Rub will keep, in a sealed jar away from heat or light, for several weeks.
RAICHLEN’S RUB
(AKA YOUR BASIC BARBECUE RUB OR 4/4 RUB)
YIELD: Makes 1 cup
PREP TIME: 5 minutes
This is it, folks. The only barbecue rub you’ll ever need—both basic and universal. I call it a 4/4 rub because it requires only 4 basic ingredients in equal proportions: salt, pepper, paprika, and brown sugar. And Raichlen’s Rub because it’s my go-to seasoning at home. This simple rub is infinitely customizable: Use smoked salt in place of sea salt, or maple sugar instead of brown sugar. Pump up the smoke flavor with pimentón (Spanish smoked paprika). You get the idea. Sometimes I round out the flavor with a touch of granulated garlic, onion, and celery seed.
INGREDIENTS
¼ cup salt (coarse, fine, kosher, sea, smoked, and so on)
¼ cup pepper (cracked, coarse, fine, black, white, green, rainbow, and so on)
¼ cup paprika (sweet, hot, or pimentón)
¼ cup sugar (dark brown, light brown, maple, granulated, or Sucanat—granulated sugarcane juice)
Optional flavorings (add any or all of the following)
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon celery seed
Combine the ingredients in a bowl and mix, breaking up any lumps in the sugar with your fingers.
Raichlen’s Rub will keep, in a sealed jar away from heat or light, for several weeks.
CHIPOTLE MOLASSES BARBECUE SAUCE
YIELD: Makes 3 cups
METHOD: Simmering
PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOKING TIME: 15 minutes
HEAT SOURCE: Stove or grill side burner
WHAT ELSE: I don’t normally recommend canned ingredients, but canned chipotles in adobo have a lot more flavor than dried. Two good brands are La Morena and San Marcos.
Smoke and fire are what make brisket barbecue, and they’re about to ignite a barbecue sauce to go with it. The smoke here comes from chipotles—Mexican smoked jalapeños. The fire comes from the chiles, plus sriracha and horseradish mustard. There’s one unexpected ingredient here—sambuca—an Italian liqueur (similar to French pastis and Greek ouzo) that adds an unexpected anise-y sweetness.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups ketchup
¼ cup sriracha, plus extra as needed
¼ cup rye whiskey
¼ cup brown sugar, plus extra as needed
3 tablespoons horseradish mustard or Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon sambuca
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 canned chipotle chile in adobo, minced, plus 1 teaspoon sauce (or to taste)
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. Combine the ketchup, ¼ cup Sriracha, whiskey, ¼ cup brown sugar, mustard, molasses, Worcestershire sauce, sambuca, soy sauce, minced chipotle and sauce, granulated garlic, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and gently simmer the sauce, uncovered, until thick and richly flavored, 10 to 15 minutes. The sauce should be pourable—if it’s too thick, whisk in a little water.
2. Correct the seasoning, adding salt, pepper, sriracha, or sugar as desired—the sauce should be highly seasoned. Let the sauce cool to room temperature before serving.
Chipotle Molasses Barbecue Sauce will keep, in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for at least 1 week.
ASIAN BEER BARBECUE SAUCE
YIELD: Makes 2 cups
METHOD: Simmering
PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOKING TIME: 15 minutes
HEAT SOURCE: Stove or grill side burner
WHAT ELSE: You’ll want an imported Asian beer for this barbecue sauce. Chinese Tsingtao, Thai Singha, and Japanese Asahi or Sapporo come to mind. Mirin is sweet rice wine. If it’s unavailable, use more sake and add a little more sugar. Sambal oelek is Indonesian chile paste and is also known as chile-garlic paste. Look for it in the Asian food section of your supermarket—one widely available brand is Huy Fong—or substitute sriracha.
A lot of beer gets served with barbecued brisket. So why not repurpose some of that beer in a barbecue sauce? Beer adds a malty richness and hoppy tang to a sauce that takes its smoky sweetness from Chinese hoisin sauce, available in the Asian food section of most supermarkets. Serve with any of the Asian-style briskets in this book.
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon toasted (dark) sesame oil
2 scallions, trimmed, white and green parts thinly sliced
4 teaspoons peeled, minced fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 cup Asian beer (see What Else)
1 cup hoisin sauce
¼ cup sake or rice wine
3 tablespoons mirin (sweet rice wine)
2 tablespoons sambal oelek (see What Else) or sriracha
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar, plus extra as needed
Lots of freshly ground black pepper
Sea salt (optional)
1. Heat 2 tablespoons of the sesame oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the scallions, ginger, and garlic, and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 3 minutes.
2. Stir in the beer and bring to a boil. Briskly boil the beer until reduced by half, 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the hoisin sauce, sake, mirin, sambal oelek, 2 tablespoons rice vinegar, and brown sugar and gradually bring to a boil.
4. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the sauce until thick and richly flavored, 10 to 15 minutes, whisking from time to time.
5. Remove from the heat and stir in the remaining sesame oil and rice vinegar. The sauce should be pourable—if it’s too thick, whisk in a little water. Correct the seasoning, adding a ton of black pepper and salt or sugar as needed—the sauce should be highly seasoned. Let the sauce cool to room temperature before serving.
Asian Beer Barbecue Sauce will keep, in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for at least 1 week.
REDEYE BARBECUE SAUCE
YIELD: Makes 2 cups
METHOD: Simmering
PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOKING TIME: 15 minutes
HEAT SOURCE: Stove or grill side burner
Perhaps it’s the long hours spent tending brisket. Or the wee-hours wake-up calls to fire up the pit. Strong coffee and barbecued brisket have been longstanding companions for nocturnal smoke sessions. Joe Carroll, for example, adds espresso to the barbecue sauce at Fette Sau in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. You’re about to do the same in this not-too-sweet Redeye Barbecue Sauce fortified with smoky bacon.
INGREDIENTS
2 tablespoons butter
1 strip artisanal bacon, such as Nueske’s, thinly sliced crosswise
1 small onion, peeled and minced
1 jalapeño, stemmed, seeded, and minced (for spicier sauce, leave the seeds in)
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
¾ cup brewed espresso or strong brewed coffee
¾ cup ketchup
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons brown sugar, plus extra as needed
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1. Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the bacon, onion, jalapeño, garlic, and cilantro and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, 3 to 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the espresso, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, mustard, molasses, and brown sugar and gradually bring to a boil.
3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer the sauce, whisking occasionally, until thick and richly flavored, 10 to 15 minutes. The sauce should be pourable—if it’s too thick, whisk in a little water.
4. Correct the seasoning, adding sugar, salt, and/or pepper to taste—the sauce should be highly seasoned, with just a touch of sweetness. Let the sauce cool to room temperature before serving.
Redeye Barbecue Sauce will keep, in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for at least 3 days.
COFFEE BEER MOP SAUCE
YIELD: Makes about 4 cups, enough to mop 2 packer briskets
METHOD: Simmering
PREP TIME: 5 minutes
COOKING TIME: 10 minutes
HEAT SOURCE: Stove or grill side burner
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A barbecue mop or basting brush
WHAT ELSE: As the name suggests, mop sauces are traditionally applied with a barbecue mop. (For large quantities, you could use a full-size new cotton floor mop.) I’m partial to my Signature Series barbecue mop, which has a removable head for easy cleaning. You could certainly use a basting brush, but it won’t look as cool as a mop.
A mop sauce is very different from a barbecue sauce. The former gets applied to the brisket during cooking. Consequently, a mop sauce is thinner than a barbecue sauce and much less sweet (excess sugar would burn during the long smoke). This one—loosely inspired by Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Texas (read more about Snow’s octogenarian pit mistress Tootsie Tomanetz)—merges the earthiness of coffee and beer with the piquancy of vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Butter and beef broth provide additional richness. Unlike barbecue sauce, a mop sauce doesn’t taste particularly pleasing by itself. What it does is lay on an essential base layer of flavor and help keep the brisket moist during smoking. Apply it to any of the barbecued brisket recipes found here (start mopping after 1 hour of cooking).
INGREDIENTS
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 small onion, peeled and diced
2 cups Basic Brisket Broth or beef broth or stock (homemade or low-sodium)
¼ cup Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup strong brewed coffee
¼ cup dark or light beer
¼ cup distilled white vinegar
¼ cup your favorite mustard (I like Dijon)
Your favorite barbecue rub (see here)
1. Melt the butter in a medium-size saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until fragrant but not brown, 3 minutes.
2. Stir in the brisket broth, Worcestershire sauce, coffee, beer, vinegar, mustard, and 1 tablespoon barbecue rub or to taste, and simmer, whisking to mix, for 5 minutes.
Use Coffee Beer Mop Sauce within 1 hour of making it (there is no need to refrigerate it).
BUTTER BOURBON INJECTOR SAUCE
YIELD: Makes 1 cup, enough to inject 1 packer brisket
METHOD: Simmering
PREP TIME: 5 minutes
COOKING TIME: 5 minutes
HEAT SOURCE: Stove or grill side burner
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A saucepan
WHAT ELSE: Use a barbecue injector (it looks like an oversize hypodermic needle) to shoot this sauce deep into the brisket. When adding rubs or spices to injector sauces, strain through a fine-mesh strainer so the seasonings don’t clog the holes in the needle.
Injector sauces turn up on the competition circuit, where teams use them to add moistness and flavor to the lean brisket flat. (The flat is the preferred cut for competition on account of its handsome lean, even slices.) This one uses brisket broth to reinforce the beef flavor, with melted butter added for richness and bourbon for kick.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
½ cup Basic Brisket Broth or beef broth or stock (preferably homemade or low-sodium)
1 tablespoon bourbon, Cognac, or Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt and finely ground black pepper
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the broth, bourbon, and salt and pepper to taste. (Whisk until the salt crystals dissolve.)
2. Let the injector sauce cool to room temperature before injecting the meat.
Use Butter Bourbon Injector Sauce within 1 hour of making it (there is no need to refrigerate it).
Note: To load an injector, depress the plunger, lower the needle into the pan (tip the pan to create a deeper pool), then slowly raise the plunger. Insert the needle deep in the brisket to inject it. Inject the brisket several times through the same hole, angling the needle in different directions, so as to make as few holes in the meat as possible.
BRISKET WHISPERER—TOOTSIE TOMANETZ
Norma Frances “Tootsie” Tomanetz starts her workday at 2 a.m. For the next ten hours or so, the pit mistress of Snow’s BBQ in Lexington, Texas, loads meat into pits, shovels burning oak embers into fireboxes, and generally moves at a pace that would exhaust someone a quarter of her age. (She recently celebrated her eighty-third birthday.) That’s after working Monday through Friday as a groundskeeper at the nearby Giddings High School. When asked the secret of great barbecue, her weathered face cracks a smile. “There is no secret. It just takes patience and hard work.”
Experience helps, too, and Tootsie has logged more than fifty years putting wood smoke to meat. It started at the City Meat Market in Lexington, which Tootsie ran with her husband, “White,” from 1976 to 1996. “We didn’t have boxed meat [butchered, portioned, and packaged at the packing house] back then. We worked with hanging beef, doing the butchering ourselves,” she recalls. Whatever was left unsold at the end of the week—be it sirloin or shoulder clod—became barbecue on Saturday morning.
Surprisingly, one meat she didn’t cook in her youth was brisket. “It was scrap meat we’d grind into hamburgers,” she says. “We didn’t fool with it.” The brisket moment arrived with the advent of boxed beef. When Snow’s opened in 2003, they sold six to eight briskets on a typical Saturday. Today, they go through ninety briskets in a single morning to serve the 300 to 400 people who flock to Snow’s from all over Texas and beyond.
When it comes to cooking brisket, Tootsie and Snow’s proprietor, Kerry Bexley, do things a little differently. For starters, they use the Select grade, not costlier Choice or Prime beef. They buy their briskets trimmed down to 7-pound slabs (no additional trimming is required after cooking). They season solely with table salt and 16-mesh (coarsely ground) black pepper. They smoke the brisket over post oak in a pair of oversize stick burners (offset barrel smokers) that Kerry welded himself.
Like many Hill Country barbecue joints, Snow’s wraps the brisket two-thirds of the way through the cook (at 160°F internal temperature), but they wrap the meat not in the usual pink butcher paper but in aluminum foil. This makes the brisket so tender and moist, it requires an electric knife to slice it.
For Tootsie, what’s most important in barbecue is fire management. “Every fire is different and every piece of wood burns differently,” she says. “A lot depends on the weather, the humidity, and the dew point. And God decides that.”
BASIC BRISKET BROTH
YIELD: Makes 8 to 10 cups
METHOD: Simmering
PREP TIME: 15 minutes
COOKING TIME: 2½ to 3 hours
HEAT SOURCE: Stove
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A stockpot; a fine-mesh strainer
WHAT ELSE: This brisket broth is infinitely customizable depending on its final destination. A ramen broth will be fortified with kombu (dried kelp) and hon dashi (smoky dried bonito). Vietnamese pho broth boasts ginger and lemongrass. The broth for Ropa Vieja comes scented with tomatoes, oregano, and cumin.
Boiling may not be the first technique most Americans think of to cook brisket. But travel the world’s brisket belt and you find boiled brisket among Ashkenazi Jews, Vietnamese soup lovers, and ramen fanatics in Japan. You’ll need a good beef broth for many other dishes in this book, such as the German/Austrian Bierfleische (beer-braised brisket) and the Wine Country Brisket. So it behooves you to know how to make brisket broth from scratch. Fortunately, it’s easy, it stores well in the freezer, and it beats store-bought beef broth hollow. Added benefit: You wind up with a handsome slab of boiled brisket, which you can use in Vaca Frita or chill, cut across the grain into paper-thin slices (this works best on a deli-style meat slicer—otherwise use a very sharp knife), and serve with a big-flavored dipping sauce like the ones found here.
INGREDIENTS
A 2-pound section of brisket flat
1 dried bay leaf
1 medium onion, peeled and quartered
1 whole clove
1 carrot, trimmed, peeled, and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 celery rib, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed with the side of a knife
2 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley or cilantro
1. Place the brisket in a large pot. Pin the bay leaf to one of the onion quarters with the clove and add it to the pot with the remaining onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and parsley. Add 3 quarts of water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Using a ladle, skim off any scum that rises to the surface.
2. Reduce the heat and gently simmer, skimming the liquid often, until the brisket is very tender, 2½ to 3 hours. Conscientious skimming and gentle simmering is the secret to a clean, clear broth. Add water as needed to keep the brisket and vegetables covered.
3. Transfer the brisket to a cutting board or baking dish and let it cool completely, then wrap it in plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator to chill.
4. Strain the broth through a fine-mesh strainer into a large bowl, pressing the vegetables with the back of a wooden spoon to extract the juices. You should wind up with around 2 quarts.
Basic Brisket Broth will keep, in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for at least 3 days, or in the freezer for several months.
THREE DIPPING SAUCES
FOR CHILLED SLICED BRISKET
Making the broth found here gives you a tasty slab of boiled brisket. It’s great for thinly slicing and serving with one of the following boldly flavorful dipping sauces.
Horseradish Sauce
Yield: Makes 1 cup
INGREDIENTS
⅓ cup prepared horseradish or freshly grated horseradish root (use a Microplane or the fine holes on a box grater)
⅓ cup mayonnaise (preferably Hellmann’s or Best Foods)
¼ cup sour cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Combine the horseradish, mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, lemon zest, and salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk to mix.
Horseradish Sauce will keep, in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for at least 3 days.
Dragon Sauce
Yield: Makes 1 cup
INGREDIENTS
⅔ cup mayonnaise (preferably Hellmann’s or Best Foods)
3 tablespoons sambal oelek (see What Else) or sriracha (or to taste)
2 teaspoons Asian fish sauce or soy sauce (optional)
3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro
½ teaspoon freshly grated lime zest
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
Combine the mayonnaise, sambal oelek, fish sauce, cilantro, lime zest, and lime juice in a bowl and whisk to mix.
Dragon Sauce will keep, in a sealed container in the refrigerator, for at least 3 days.
Chinese Chile Sauce
Yield: Makes 1 cup
INGREDIENTS
¼ cup chile oil or vegetable oil
¼ cup toasted (dark) sesame oil
¼ cup rice vinegar
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
2 scallions, trimmed, white and green parts thinly sliced crosswise
1 serrano or jalapeño chile, thinly sliced crosswise (optional)
Combine the chile oil, sesame oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame seeds, scallions, and chiles, if using, in a bowl and whisk to mix.
Chinese Chile Sauce tastes best within a few hours of being made.
BRISKET BUTTER
Yield: Makes ¾ to 1 cup (depending on the amount of brisket trimmings)
METHOD: Barbecuing/smoking
PREP TIME: 5 minutes
COOKING TIME: 3 to 4 hours
HEAT SOURCE: Smoker or charcoal grill
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: Wood logs, chunks, or soaked, drained hardwood chips; a large aluminum foil pan (about 13 by 9 inches); a fine-mesh strainer
When I was growing up, the gold currency (culinary gold currency, that is) in our family was schmaltz—rendered chicken fat. You cooked it with onion for extra flavor, and my aunts and uncles fought over who got the gribenes, or crispy bits. Well, here’s the barbecue equivalent—brisket butter, rendered from the fatty brisket trimmings in a foil pan at the same time you cook the brisket. That gives you smoky brisket butter, which is even more precious than schmaltz.
So what do you do with your brisket butter? Slather it on cornbread or sandwich rolls. Use it to make the Yorkshire pudding. Fry eggs in it. For unforgettable steaks, place a dollop of brisket butter atop a freshly grilled T-bone or rib eye. And don’t forget to brush it on grilled corn.
INGREDIENTS
Sea salt
2 to 3 pounds trimmed brisket fat (reserved from trimming a whole packer brisket; see Note)
1 small onion, peeled and quartered (optional)
1. 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.
2. Lightly salt the brisket fat and place the pieces along with the onion (if using) in a large foil pan. Smoke the brisket trimmings until the fat renders, 3 to 4 hours, or as needed.
3. Strain the fat through a fine-mesh sieve into a heatproof bowl. Cool to room temperature, then transfer to a clean jar.
Brisket Butter will keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator for at least 1 week, and can be frozen for several months. Scoop out what you need with a spoon and pop an extra dose of Lipitor.
Note: For even more spectacular brisket butter, collect the fat from a Wagyu brisket.
KETTLE CORN
WITH CRISPY BRISKET
YIELD: Serves 4 (can be multiplied as desired)
METHOD: Sautéing
PREP TIME: 10 minutes
COOKING TIME: 1 to 2 minutes for reheating the brisket
HEAT SOURCE: Stove or a grill side burner
WHAT ELSE: Franklin laces his kettle corn with bits of dehydrated brisket. For the sake of simplicity, I’ve rejiggered the recipe, using burnt ends. Togarashi is a blend of Japanese peppers, sesame seeds, and nori among other seasonings. Look for it at Asian markets or online, or make it from scratch following the recipe here.
He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. Brisket kettle corn? If there’s one person who has put brisket on the world barbecue map, it’s Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin (see here). At this point, he can pretty much put brisket wherever he pleases. His latest venture is Loro, self-described “Asian smokehouse”—run in partnership with Tyson Cole of Austin’s renowned Uchi restaurant. Of course, they serve brisket (smoked in J&R Oyler pits)—dressed up Asian-style with Thai herbs and chile gastrique. You’ll also find Thai green curry sausage, Malaysian chicken, and even crispy Sichuan tofu. But my favorite dish is a bar snack—candied kettle corn tossed with smoky brisket bits and peppery togarashi. It’s sweet, salty, spicy, crunchy, and utterly irresistible.
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon butter or vegetable oil
1½ cups finely diced barbecued brisket or burnt ends (see here)
6 cups homemade or store-bought kettle corn, such as Angie’s BOOMCHICKAPOP, or even Cracker Jack
1 tablespoon togarashi (see What Else)
Sea salt to taste
1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the brisket and sauté until hot and crisp, 2 minutes.
2. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the kettle corn, togarashi, and salt to combine. Serve at once.
BRISKET WHISPERER—AARON FRANKLIN
If there’s one man who’s responsible for the world brisket renaissance, it is Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin. Dressed in his habitual T-shirt, shorts, and black sneakers, he may not look like a James Beard Award–winning chef (the first pit master accorded such an honor). But no one knows more about brisket or cooks it better than this musician turned carpenter turned pit master.
By now the story of how Aaron and Stacy Franklin got their start has acquired mythical status. Aaron grew up in Bryan, Texas, where his father ran a restaurant called Ben’s Bar-Be-Que. (“I spent most of the time chopping onions and lemons for the sauce,” he recalls.) He also did a stint at Louie Mueller Barbecue in Taylor, Texas.
One day, a friend who owned an abandoned Texaco gas station urged Franklin to open a barbecue joint. So Franklin, 31 at the time, bought a turquoise-blue Aristocrat trailer to use as a kitchen and built a pit from an old propane tank. (He still builds all his pits himself at his welding shop in Austin.) His wife, Stacy, kept her day job to pay the bills.
Word of Franklin’s barbecue spread like Texas brush fires, and so did the waiting lines. A year later, the couple signed a lease on its current digs, a turquoise cinderblock building on 11th Street. Today, Franklin serves 500 people a day (more on weekends), and they still close in the early afternoon when the meat runs out. His empire has grown to include a bestselling cookbook, a public television show, and a new restaurant—a self-styled “Asian Smokehouse” called Loro. Next year, Franklin will start selling custom-designed barbecue pits; the waiting list for those extends several years in the future.
I asked Aaron why brisket inspires such reverence and has such a mystique. “Because it takes so darn much work to get it right,” he says. “Ribs cook in a few hours. Pork shoulder is virtually impossible to screw up. But brisket—you’re looking at a 15-hour cook. You have to wake up early or stay up all night. It requires constant attention and supervision and there are no shortcuts. People know what you had to go through to get it right.”
In a field where pit masters guard their recipes like tech companies their algorithms, Franklin is an open book. (The brisket recipe in his Franklin Barbecue: A Meat Smoking Manifesto runs eleven pages.) His trim reduces a 15-pound brisket to 5 pounds of servable meat. He wraps his brisket in pink butcher paper when it reaches an internal temperature of 160°F. He cooks his briskets to between 203° and 208°F but goes by feel to check doneness. “Lift it up from the center. If it’s supple enough to bend, the brisket is cooked.
“Brisket works on so many different timelines. One timeline to render the fat. Another to cook the flat. A third to cook the point. Your job is to make sure they converge,” Franklin says.
Bottom line? “The more labor you put into the process, the greater the potential for quality,” Franklin says. Amen!
BRISKET CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
YIELD: Makes 20 cookies
METHOD: Baking
PREP TIME: 15 minutes, plus several hours to chill the dough
COOKING TIME: About 15 minutes
HEAT SOURCE: Oven, stove
YOU’LL ALSO NEED: A large bowl; an electric mixer (stand or hand); a sifter; a rimmed sheet pan; parchment paper or a silicone baking mat
WHAT ELSE: If you’re reading this book, you’ve probably barbecued a few briskets. In fact, you probably have some left over in your refrigerator or freezer right now. (If you don’t, you should.) If you’re lucky enough to have some extra burnt ends on hand, use them in place of the ¾ cup chopped brisket in the topping. Cut them into ½-inch chunks, brown them in butter and sugar as described in step 7, and top the cookies with them.
Well, here’s a dish I never expected to put in a book on brisket: dessert. Specifically, brisket chocolate chip cookies. Until, that is, I met Evan LeRoy, co-proprietor of a barbecue food truck called LeRoy and Lewis in Austin. The bearded, soft-spoken chef specializes in “new wave” barbecue, which means you’ll find the likes of macaroni and cheese–stuffed quail and beet barbecue sauce served with textbook Hill Country brisket. Of course, I did a double take at the sight of brisket chocolate chip cookies. You’re supposed to. But they’re really no stranger than the ubiquitous bacon brownies—and in both cases, the smoky saltiness of the meat has an uncanny way of both accentuating and moderating the sweetness of the cookie. It’s almost impossible these days to find a dessert not finished with salt in some way. So why not add it in the form of brisket? At first glance, the brown clump atop each cookie looks like a piece of dark chocolate. It’s actually brisket glazed with butter and brown sugar. Pass me another.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup packed dark brown sugar
¾ cup sugar
1 tablespoon bourbon
2 large eggs (preferably farm-fresh and organic)
2¼ cups unbleached white all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon sea salt or table salt
2½ cups semisweet chocolate chips
2½ cups finely chopped barbecued brisket (see here)
For the topping
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1. Combine the butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl and cream together with a handheld electric mixer at medium speed until smooth, light, and fluffy, about 3 minutes, periodically scraping down the side of the bowl with a spatula. (Alternatively, use a stand mixer.) Beat in the bourbon, followed by the eggs, one by one.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt over the butter mixture and fold in with a spatula to mix. Fold in the chocolate chips and 1¾ cups of the brisket.
3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm but still pliable, at least 4 hours or overnight.
4. When ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 375°F.
5. Line a rimmed sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat (this prevents sticking and facilitates cleanup). Divide the dough into 20 equal-size balls, about 2 ounces each, and arrange them on the prepared sheet pan, 3 inches apart. Gently flatten the balls with the palm of your hand.
6. Bake the cookies, rotating the pan halfway through, until the dough has spread and the tops are browned, about 14 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, make the topping: Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in the sugar and heat until bubbling. Stir in the remaining ¾ cup chopped brisket and cook until the sugar mixture thickens and coats the meat, 2 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.
8. Remove the cookies from the oven and immediately place a spoonful of sugar-coated meat in the center of each. Let cool to room temperature. Use a thin-bladed metal spatula to loosen the cookies from the parchment paper and serve.
In the unlikely event you have any cookies left over, store them in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Let them come to room temperature before serving.