Finding My Meat

Brisket that is.

I've smoked it, braised it, roasted it and above all consumed it. But that's the easy part. My challenge is almost always finding it.

Brisket, in case you haven't had the pleasure of ripping into a Texas BBQ plate or a Jewish mother's kitchen, is a cut of meat comes from the lower area of the front chest. It is high on connective tissue which must be rendered down properly to avoid over chewiness. If you're still a little confused see Alton Brown's Brisket episode .  So my dilemma is not cooking but where can I find a good flat (or first) cut piece of meat that won't break the bank but also is fresh and ready to throw into the oven?

One year when I set out on this adventure, I thought I had nabbed a great cut. It was big enough for everybody coming over for dinner the next night (and then some). It was super affordable and even came wrapped in a special container. However when I looked at it at home I realized I had made a rookie mistake. I picked up a Corned Beef. It's not that I was way off, in fact a corned beef is actually a brisket cut but it's brined in salt and spices and ready to cook down and serve with cabbage and soda bread. However it doesn't go as great with kuguel and tzimis.

Other times I came back with one that was too small or too large or not enough fat or in one case one that had been expired. Yikes.

So enter yesterday's venture out to find the meat of my dreams. Specifically, I'm looking for a 4-5 lb cut that I can split in half. One half is going to be smoked tomorrow in my new smoker (see the previous post on my smoking brisket) and the other half is already in the oven on a slow and deliberate braising. As much as I love the later of these methods, this meal is not for me. The "jewish" brisket as I call it is one destined for Thane and Helen. They are spending a lot of time visiting their newborn son in the NICU and could really use something that isn't fast food.

But I digress from my meat purchasing adventure. Yesterday I weighed through the crowds at my local Costco, weaving around aimlessly wondering wagon pushers, dodging stop and go traffic around the free samples (seriously folks..it's just crab dip....act like you've been here before!) all to make it to the meat freezer with all it's exotic cuts and glowing red goodness. When I got there I didn't see any brisket. There were some very large vacuum bags that read brisket on the label but were clearly not the cut I seek. It turns out these were Round Tip Roasts mislabeled. So still no brisket, what to do? Seek out the meat cutter himself. If there is a brisket hiding in the store, he would find it. No dice. Except he said I could get some in the Kosher section. Great...except....well the wonderful world of Kosher makes you closer to G-d and probably a better person overall but in the world of brisket it means paying $12/lb. By comparison, regular brisket goes for about $4/lb. See the difference?

Well now I'm out of luck, except at that very moment, the Meat Department Manager drifted by. My savior! Dan, the manager, told me a new shipment would come in tomorrow morning and I should come by after 10am to have my choice. The next day (today) I strolled back in.  It was less crowded but still full of people who given the opportunity would run over me with their carts and leave my lifeless carcass rotting in the middle of the aisle if a sale on toilet paper was announced over the PA.
I made my way to the back and found my coveted brisket. Not only that they had just the size I was looking for, 4.51 lbs.

So at the time of this post, half is in my oven for our friends and the other half is marinating in my rub of spices and spicy mustard prior to inhaling the smoke of alderwood for 3-4 hours tomorrow. To quote Hilshire Farms, "Go Meat!"

Smoke My Meat

Contrary to popular belief there are few things in this world that are worth the wait. There are even less things that are a worthy reward for a hard days work (other then a paycheck!). But yesterday we were all treated to one of those rarities.

By “we” I mean family members and assorted hangers on who are hanging at the beach with us here in South Carolina and by reward I mean one hell of a smoked beef brisket. Mrs. Bloggerman and I had talked in the past about smoking meat and this week's beach vacation seemed like the right time to finally try it. If it didn't come out then there was always the pizza shop up the block or even better the 120 item seafood buffet next to it!

The following are the steps and pictures I took during my misadventures. I took my cues (no pun intended) from this recipe. We started with a 4.75 lb first cut beef brisket and the night before I took it out and spread deli mustard over the meat. I could have gone with cheaper yellow mustard here since it's only used to 1) help the rub stick on and 2) create a crust for the meat but we didn't have any in our limited supplies. We used a “Kansas City” pre packaged rub. It wouldn't have been my first choice but it came out very well and there was enough of it to really work a good hefty layer on top. I took the brisket and wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it to bed in the fridge overnight.

The next morning it was time to get the grill together. From what I can tell when you try this out you should use gas or electric (ala Alton Brown) because it keeps a constant temperature, but we had a basic charchol grill and even then it wasn't a fancy kettle grill. Think the type of thing you'd find at your local park next to the picnic tables, so there was some regigering needed. Number one rule of smoking is indirect heat. With the grill so small I had to figure out a way to keep all the charcoal on one side. I solved this with a disposable cake tin. It held 12-15 briquettes easy. I lit those up and let the lighter fluid burn off. Then I took the soaked wood chips (I used hickory...later I found out that I probably should have used mesquite) in a smaller tin on top of the briquettes. The next challenge was to figure out how to keep the smoke and heat in the grill. I solved this by taking a large disposable roasting pan and draped tin foil over the sides. This kept most of the smoke inside and circulating around the meat.

Each hour I replaced the charcoal and every two hours I replaced the wood chips and gave the meat a spritz with apple juice. Because I was cooking fat side up the juice helps keep the top moist and also helps create a nice crust. This insures that the fat drips down in to the meat as it heats up and melts which in turn keeps the meat moist.

After 7.5 hours of cooking I took it off the grill on to a cookie sheet and wrapped it up in tin foil for a 30 minute nap. We sliced it up and paired it with a green salad, baked beans, roasted veggies, and some cole slaw/cabbage salad.

Overall I was very pleased with my first attempt at smoking. I really am looking forward to trying it again. Although this time I 'm going to use a gas grill so I can enjoy my day a little bit more. I'm also looking to try some beef ribs for which I'll need more cooking surface space so when we get back I'm going to use my Propane Taxi Groupon and get my $2 tank and get cooking. Who's coming over?

smoking , a set on Flickr.