Texas Style Beef Brisket

This past weekend, my best friend Patrick came up with his wife and daughter from South Carolina. While a North Carolina native, Patrick spent three years living right on the US / Mexican border in Laredo, TX. While there, he ate more Mexican food than he could ever possibly wish, and learned what a Mexican license plate looked like. Beyond the border patrol, the tumbleweeds, and the scathing Texas heat, Patrick did learn a little something about meat. That meat dear readers is Texas Beef Brisket, a hunk of semi-tough cow coming from the front, which, when smoked properly becomes and juicy and tender as any meat around.

Are you getting Hungry Yet?

Just a preface here – there are multiple styles of Texas Brisket. This includes the way it is cooked – over direct heat or in an indirect heat configuration, the seasoning and sauce used, and the type of wood used (most people think mesquite when thinking Texas Brisket). Despite this wide array, we are going to focus in on one particular style – something you may be less familiar with – Oak Smoking!

I was intrigued at the idea when Patrick told me he was bringing me some Oak for smoking the brisket. I’ve done brisket before, and I’ve used mesquite and it turned out quite well. To be honest, I’ve never cooked with Oak, though I have had Oak Brisket at Rudy’s Country Store and BAR-B-Q in Laredo.

The process began Friday night, after procuring the meat. The cut I had was a USDA Choice Angus Beef Brisket right around 5 lbs. I pulled the meat out and set it on the counter. I injected it with probably 6-8 ounces of Swanson beef broth. The broth began to slowly push out through some of the “cracks” in the muscle and it created a nice juicy sheen on the meat.

I spread all the overflowed broth over the brisket and then had Alicia my wonderful fiancé sprinkle my brisket rub on as I patted it into the cut. After a thorough rubbing in, the cut was ready to sit. I placed it back in the box to refrigerate overnight – for about 12 hours. This gives the rub a chance to work its way in a little bit, and the broth to penetrate additional areas inside the brisket.

I started the charcoal chimney a few minutes after 9am on Saturday. I set up the firebox for the minion method, and right at 10am, the coals were on, the smoker had normalized and I was able to throw the brisket on. The temperature never really moved from 225 because of my quick open and close, and the smoking had begun! We actually had some errands to run, so we headed out, returned around 11:30, the smoker was holding strong, so we headed to lunch to meet Patrick and Sarah.

We returned from lunch around 2pm, and the smoker was just starting to drop. It was at this point around 185 degrees – lower than I would normally like it to fall, but not too bad for not having been touched for four hours. I quickly grabbed some hot coals to start a new chimney. At this point, we also had the oak now, so we quickly split a couple of pieces to throw on to get the temp back up. With some careful damper modulation, the temp was quickly back up to 225 and holding until we could get the next chimney in.

Once the next chimney was on, it was basically smooth sailing. We’d pop out and check on the temperatures every hour or so, with basically nothing going on for us to do. What we did do in the meantime however was split the oak into chunks just small enough to fit into my minion box. Not having an axe at my house, Patrick had brought a little hatchet – but oak, dear friends, is a very hard wood, and a small hatchet was proving less useful than you might imagine.

So, the idea that quickly came to mind was to bury the hatchet – no pun there – and then drive it into the logs with my Wilton Sledgehammer. This worked amazingly well, better than an axe in fact because we were able to more accurately slice the size pieces of wood we wanted.

Once the wood was chopped – the process became something like this. Once the smoker would begin to taper off ever so slightly, we would prepare a new chimney, and while waiting for it to be ready, we would put in oak to stoke the temperature, keep it in our ideal range, and smoke the heck out of our brisket! We also would occasionally throw in some oak in between for two purposes; add flavor to our brisket, and watch the smoke roll out of the chimney with great satisfaction like small children. We were careful to not over smoke however.

Smoke Ring - The pink part!

At around 4pm we set the bad boy up with the Texas Crutch. The internal temperature was just a little shy of 180 degrees and truthfully, we were heading to Wedge Brewery for a couple cold ones in the mean time.

After some of the most delicious beer in Asheville, cart style Mexican snacks for all, and peanut shelling galore, we headed back to finish off the smoke. At this point, I wanted to make one final push on the temperature, so I tossed in a couple more oak logs and one final chimney of charcoal.

At right around 7:15, or 9 hours and 15 minutes after the brisket made its way onto the smoker initially, it was pulled off to let rest for about 30 minutes. I put it in the oven, still tightly wrapped in foil. I chose the oven because it was crappy outside, and with the oven off, it’s still a really great insulator.

Finally, the moment we had all been waiting for – the brisket came out of the oven and onto the carving board. Being careful to carve against the grain, I sliced in. The brisket had an INCREDIBLE smoke ring on it. I carved about 2/3 of the meat up, and we ate it on sandwiches, or on the side, with the Western NC style BBQ sauce – spicy or not depending on your taste. It's not Texas, but it's good!

Sliced Brisket Ready for Serving

Patrick actually had his sandwich double stacked with brisket, covered in sauce, with a handy helping of pickle slices on the bottom. This is how he ate them in Texas, so on my second sammy (I know, piggy, wint wint) I ate it that way as well. I will say, it was pretty good like this, though being from NC it just still doesn’t feel 100% kosher to have pickles mixed with any type of smoked meat. Maybe if we keep cooking brisket I’ll adopt it as my own.

Verdict of the day: Texas Crutch plus beef broth injections – my newest adjustments – made a huge difference, and this was the best brisket I’ve done yet, and one of the, if not the best briskets I’ve ever had. The other big difference: oak. The oak is hearty and imparts a distinct smokiness without being too heavy. For the amount we had in the smoker, it certainly was a “lighter” offering of smoke than other woods might have. I’ll definitely use it again, and may try mixing it with other woods.

I also want to give a shout out to meathead. I’ve learned a lot from reading his page on Beef Brisket, so if you’d like to learn more, I’d suggest you go check it out. His page is less narrative and more technical than mine and will give you some great info at Meathead's Texas Brisket Thanks for the read, come back soon!

Smoke Versus Fire

INTRODUCTION
The age old debate is in grilling is gas versus charcoal. While there are benefits and detriments to each method of cooking a cut of meat, large or small, I want to focus specifically on smoking meat with charcoal versus grilling meat with gas. Some of the comparison will bring to light deficiencies in charcoal and gas generally, but this is a specific comparison of smoking with charcoal and grilling with gas.

The reason for this is that you can modify this comparison any number of ways. You can smoke with gas, or grill with charcoal. Personally, I think if you are grilling items like hamburgers or chicken, charcoal should be reserved for portable situations, like tailgating. Likewise, I am a firm believer that if you are smoking something it should be with charcoal (or wood if you have the equipment) and that gas or electrics cheapen the process.

Below you will find an overview of each, and some detail on their application. I will close with my final thought on the comparison.

CHARCOAL SMOKER
The charcoal smoker is in some ways an evolution of cooking since the beginning of time. Charcoal is just a simple way to have a controlled wood fire, and putting it in a smoker helps you obtain a safe environment, and (semi) stable cooking temperatures. Smoking with charcoal is a great way to enjoy an entire afternoon or day outside with your dinner, watching it progress over time.

The Benefits
As previously alluded to, charcoal smoking is particularly good at cooking large cuts of meat. These include things like pork shoulders, beef briskets, beef and pork loins, whole chickens and turkeys, pork and beef ribs, and really, anything else that is over 5lbs and could benefit from sitting in a smoke filled chamber for 4-12 hours.

The reason that this piece of equipment is so well suited to these types of cuts is because of its ability to cook at a low temperature over time, and the ability to force a smoke flavor onto the food. Sitting somewhere between 200-250 degrees (I prefer 225, but opinions vary) you can hold that temperature and smoke the meet to the point that it is so tender it falls apart at the touch of a fork for some things. For most cuts, you should be able to get a nice crisp outside, a smoke ring (I'll be doing a post on this soon) and a mind-blowing, juicy inside.

The Detriments
The downsides to charcoal smoking are almost as numerous as the upsides, depending on how you look at it. First of all, charcoal is not cheap. You could easily spend $20 on charcoal that you would use in a day with a fully loaded smoker and 12+ hours of smoking. By comparison, you could spend about $20 for a propane tank exchange, and it would last you for dozens of grilling sessions. Also, charcoal is dirty; you have to clean up the ash and you have to wait for it to cool down before you can do that. There may also be problems depending on your setup and duration of a smoke with ash interfering with oxygen flow to your coals. Finally, you have to wait for charcoal to be ready, which depending on your setup could take anywhere between 20 minutes to an hour.

GAS GRILL
The gas grill is also an amazing innovation. The idea that without ever striking a matchbook or flicking a stick lighter, you can have a burning hot grill in 10 minutes is quite appealing. Whether it is a piped in natural gas unit, a sub-$100 unit from the hardware store, or a massive expensive ceramic lined unit, the general mechanics are the same. Gas grills are best suited to quick fires for hot items, and easy cooks during the week.

The Benefits
Gas grills are perfect for smaller cuts of meat, as well as items sensitive to charcoal or wood smoke. Gas grills are great for quick fire items, like beef steak (cook with the cover OPEN please) or more medium fire items like chicken breasts, drums or wings. It's also very good at fish like salmon, also shrimp, vegetables, hamburgers, hotdogs, and yes, even fruit!

Gas grills are substantially cheaper to operate than charcoal, create very little mess which means very little cleanup, and are usually ready in about 10-15 minutes. They are also extremely stable once the temperature is set, and very easy to change the temperature on if you didn't have it quite right to begin with.

The Detriments
The number one detriment to a gas grill, is that it isn't charcoal! What I mean by that is that it doesn't produce the smoke, the flavor, or the general experience that cooking with charcoal does. Most inexpensive home gas grills are also extremely difficult if not impossible to keep at a low enough temperature to cook even medium cuts, like a small roast or a rack of baby backs. There is also always the problem of running out of propane mid-grill if you are not prepared.

CONCLUSION
There you have it - a brief overview of the benefits and detriments of each cooking tool / method. For your big cuts, stick to smoking it low and slow. It produces better flavor, and you can make an entire day out of it with friends if you like. For an evening dinner, or an afternoon of burgers or similar sized fare, go ahead and fire up the gas grill. By the time your charcoal smoker would have been ready to put the meat on, dinner will be done!

Where Smoke Meets Fire: The Origin

How many backyard burger grillers are out there in the world? If you are reading this, you've probably fired a couple hotdogs or chicken breasts on a gas grill from your local hardware chain. What? This isn't you? You must be the hardcore enthusiast, who smokes his meat, low and slow, soaking up the flavor of burning hickory or mesquite.

I have found that these sides tend to be at odds. Charcoal vs. Gas. Hot and quick versus low and slow. These ideologies, the flavoring, the preparation involved with each, and everything in between is what this blog is about. I started out watching my dad cook burgers and steaks on the grill as a youngin', and moved on to trying my own hand as a teen. In college I bought a gas grill. Then a charcoal grill. After law school I was using gas primarily, but a friend opened my eyes to the world of smoking, slow and low - so juicy and tender it falls apart.

I thought I had found the mother load, and to be honest - I still love smoking large cuts. There is this primal instinct in every man (and many of you ladies out there) that makes us want to cook our food with some type of flame - from charcoal, or gas, or what have you - that cannot be matched by a frying pan or a kitchen oven.

Those backyard cookouts, whether they are once a year, or once a week are ingrained in our society. What I want to do here, is share my thoughts on grilling techniques, recipes, and the fruits of my labor on smoking with a cheap offset smoker. 

This is the place for the everyman. Whether you are just starting to smoke and/or grill, or have been at it for years, and still want to get that perfect steak, I want to help. After this introductory blog, I'm going to start by explaining Smoke versus Fire (charcoal smoking versus gas grilling) and what each is best suited for. So, stay tuned for that and much more to come soon!