brisket galore - part 1

It was only very recently that I begun testing my hands on preparing brisket. Brisket is one of the thing that there is no point to try making a small quantity. To do it right you should get an entire piece of brisket or not bother at all.

When I first starting to try making brisket, I purchased them pre-trimmed, and only about a half piece. They were quite expansive, many times what a brisket specialty eatery/restaurant would pay for theirs' by weight. Later on I would manage to find the supply of complete untrimmed brisket at very reasonable price. Better yet they are USDA Prime grade. I was initially very intimidated by the size of a untrimmed brisket, not knowing what to expect. It would turn out doing your own trimming cannot be easier, if you have a long enough trimming knife. Now this is the only way I would buy my brisket.

this is how much excess fat that I trimmed off - the amount I trimmed off depends on my plans to prepare the piece of brisket

this time I decided to prepare the brisket in two ways; one half in Texas barbecue style (with just salt and pepper) and the other half to be braised for making Asian soup noodles with sliced brisket

dry-rubbing the salt and pepper onto the brisket to be smoked

I left the brisket in the refrigerator overnight to let the salt works into the meat

this is the braised half brisket which I would divided into smaller portions for storage

this is one of many meals of soup noodles with braised beef brisket

I try to make sauerkraut

the batch of sauerkraut would all turn moldy so was a total waste and failure

here is the smoked brisket - I also divided it up with some stored in vacuum bags

brisket served with Chinese broccoli and coarsely mashed potato

smoked brisket with sea scallops and Napa cabbage

assembling another dish of smoked brisket and sea scallops

pan charred onion for making beef bone broth - to be used for soup noodles served with braised brisket

I discover this great stockpots at Ikea; normally I find Ikea cookwares unacceptable but this is one of the rare black swans; I bought 2 each of the two sizes they have

here is another batch of beef bone broth made with a mixture of shoulder bones and leg bones; I used too much leg bones so there is too much marrow fat that needs to be skimmed off

smoked brisket served with spicy Gulf shrimps and cuttlefish, and Chinese broccoli