texas barbecue brisket - part 2

I learnt by mistakes of most things all my life, and making brisket is no exception. Fortunately for me I am an introvert. When confronted with a challenge I turn to myself to seek answers, as well as to read between the lines from those I respect and trust. This is my 3rd or 4th attempts in making smoked brisket. Do not trust the hypes on the internet, especially from those self-professed pit masters. They would lead you to believe it take decades of experience to make a edible brisket. With a lot of things there are more disinformation and "the dead leading the dead phenomena abound. When I first set out to make the authentic Texas barbecue brisket I thought it is some mystical thing that you can only learnt from the famed masters. Not until I turned inward and to read from those I trust and respect. Think out of the box is the password of this game.

I have been wondering about the cost of a piece of whole brisket from Costco, selling for around $4.99 -$5.25 a pound. Something just does not jibe for me mathematically with my experience of tasting the supposedly real things in Texas and Louisianan. The process of turning a piece of raw brisket into a plate of delectable smoked brisket is quite interesting and you can only experience if you pay the due to experience the process yourself first hand. The raw brisket at circa $4.99 per pound will cost more than your comparable NY stripe stake if not more when it lands on your plate, not to bother to count the labor and the charcoal or wood that you used, and don't forget your time.

Only very recently that Costco here in Oregon begin selling untrimmed beef briskets. They look totally formidable for the amount of fat on them. The bonus is they are USDA Prime and for circa 35% cheaper. I decided to give it a try taking advantage of the warm days. Buying a whole untrimmed brisket is very intimidating as you see nothing but fat. Being my first time, I had no idea how much fat there is.

I bought a cook book by Donald Link quite a while ago and it has a recipe on how to make smoked brisket. It is extremely simple. Instead of tending to a wood smoker all day, you smoke the brisket just long enough to impart the smokiness onto the meat (which takes less than an hour), and then doing the rest of the cooking in the conventional oven in the kitchen.

I trimmed off the excessive fat (this is the bottom side) but left about 3/8" of fat on top; by weighting the fat that I trimmed off, that is how I arrived at buying untrimmed brisket is about 35% cheaper

I let the dry rub season the brisket in the fridge for at least 24 hours. I took it out of the fridge 5 hours or so to let it reach the room temperature when I am ready to smoke it.

I cut the brisket into two pieces as my oven is too small to fit one whole piece

What I also found not to over salt the vertical faces of the brisket. Doing so will make the end cuts extremely salty.

I let it roast in the oven for about 7 hours at around 200F. The result is the most succulent piece of brisket that melts in the mouth. Most of the fat also is rendered out, and you get to recover the juice in the baking pan.

this is the thick end piece

here is another meal served with Chinese broccoli; and served with "house blended" extra sharp mustard

Yes. To me this batch of brisket that I made beats that I drove into Texas to try. Unlike the dried meat mine is succulent and melts in the mouth. You would think you will go to hell tonight as every bite is as sinful as the Vatican. Here I didn't bother to serve with any vegetable as it is a futile effort if you think that will make you feel better. Think fatty blue fin tuner from that the best sushi chef in Japan.

you don't need to be a seasoned brisket eater to tell this brisket is dry and tough, and not that great

Inspired by the taste of a small bottle of extra hot German mustard from Düsseldorf I decided to enhance a bottle of Trader Joe's Dijon mustard by blending it with some dried oriental hot mustard and the tiny amount of sugar. I did it by taste to obtain a balanced profile and I really like the result. I cannot stand the typical US big brand mustard.

Lowensenf extra hot mustard