A Taste of Summer (Sorry Vegans)

Today we’re going to talk about meat, delicious spicy meat and fire. I realize this is a bit of a departure from the norm here, but a Death Knight’s gotta eat right? And of course as some of my close friends know – I love to cook. I’ve worked in the food industry at varying levels for the majority of my life. That said, I truly enjoy cooking for friends and family. Summer is a special time here in the South. Summer means BBQ. And for me, few things can compare to BBQ Brisket.

The Right Tool for the Job
There’s a few things you should know before you buy a brisket, first it’s absolutely essential you have a proper smoker. Because of the nature of this cut of meat, Brisket requires “low and slow” cooking. That means indirect heat for hours on end. I got mine at Wal Mart for about $90 ( link ), properly maintained these can last you for years. You can also (if you or someone you know is of the DIY persuarion) build your own smoker. This involves a lot of technical know how and access to both materials and proper equipment (an arc welder among other things).

In any case, the one linked above is an inexpensive option ideal for getting started. And for anyone who just wants to smoke something once in a while in the backyard.

Now, there’s all manor of wood combinations you can tinker with while working out your flavor, myself I tend to lean toward charcoal + hickory for beef and apple or cherry for pork. Even so, straight charcoal will provide excellent flavor for you as well. Loading a smoker is actually pretty simple, the tinder box is on the side, this is where you add your flammable material. As mentioned earlier, this cooks via indirect heat and tends toward lower temperatures (200-300 degrees).

When cooking a brisket, you’ll be grilling the thing for roughly 8-10 hours depending on size and fat content. That sounds like a long time, and it is. But you can spend 99% of that time away doing whatever keeps you from opening the lid of the smoker in temptation. The reason that we cook it like this is because this particular cut of meat includes lots of collagen fibers that make up the significant connective tissue in the cut, which turns to gelatin and lubricates the muscle fibers. This process results in a more tender brisket, but it takes time to work.

Getting Down to Business
I tend toward “split” briskets, these are smaller (and cheaper) and do the trick, unless I’m having a lot of people over, in which case I go all out. Even the smaller one should feed up to eight people with ease.

The Rub
At this point rub or marinate your meat before smoking, myself I use five different rubs depending on the situation. Below is my spicy beef rub that I find especially suited to brisket.

1 tbsp Allspice
1 tbsp Cumin
1 tbsp Paprika
1 tbsp Granulated Garlic *
1 tbsp Granulated Onion *
1 tbsp Chili Powder
1 tbsp Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Kosher Salt (or Sea Salt)
1 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1 tsp Black Pepper

Note: A sugar shaker makes a perfect container for future use.
* Ideally you want to go with the granulated which can be a little tricky to find depending on location. I’ve been told that you can substitute Salt or Powder varieties for the Granulated, however fair warning this adds a healthy dose of salt to the mix which can unbalance the flavor if you’re not very careful. (Thanks Livingprince for the heads up.)

You’ll note that there’s a thinner end to the brisket, and there should be some fat (even on the trimmed variety) on one side of the meat. Once the fire has died down in the tinder box it’s time to position the meat, you want to set the thick side toward the heat initially (we will be turning the narrow side toward the heat during the final hour of cooking) and you want to position the the fat side up always, this ensures that the rendered fat seeps into the meet tenderizing as you cook.

The hardest part from here is keeping people from opening the lid of the smoker, opening the lid means you lose heat (and smoke), which means you’ve got to wait longer for the meat to be done. Since we’re cooking so long, you’ll want to check the tinder box about once every hour, make sure you have plenty of coals to keep it going and check the temperature gauge on the lid to make sure it’s not dropping or going too hot. Ideally you want to stay somewhere between 200 and 250 degrees. In the final hour, you want to rotate the meat so that the narrow end is pointing toward the heat source. A pair of tongs is recommended, but be very careful. Remember that liquid gelatin I mentioned earlier? If you’ve done your job the meat will be positively saturated in it and the spices that were added earlier, and you don’t want either in your eye… which is quite possible if you’re not careful.

So, after about eight to ten hours you should have 165-170°F internal temperature on the meat before you take it out of the smoker, let rest for approximately 30 minutes before serving (never underestimate super heated meat juices, no matter how good it smells). Serve sliced on a bun with BBQ sauce (sorry, you can’t have that recipe) or on a plate with veggies. It’s a helluva way to spend a few beers on a lazy summer day. Enjoy.