A Barbeque Feast: The Main Event, Smoked Beef Brisket

If there's one thing we love other than delicious spaghetti and Italian food, it's a great barbeque experience. By that we mean real barbeque, which is importantly different from grilling. Whereas grilling is all about searing in the juices and flavors of your meat with the hot flame, barbeque is all about slow and low cooking - tenderizing the meat by cooking it at very low heat for hours and hours, and adding flavor with smoke. Unfortunately, this is much harder to do in a NYC apartment setting. The smoking would be prohibitively dangerous. That's a bummer. Fortunately, we recently made a trip to Bryan's parents' house for a weekend visit, and used the opportunity presented by a suburban back yard patio and outdoor grill to smoke up some beef brisket and make a barbeque feast.

So excited for barbeque!!

Over the next few days we'll go through all the various recipes that make up this feast. As you can see in the picture, there were quite a few of them, plus a starter. So the menu for the week will be beef brisket with sides of mac and cheese, tomato cucumber salad, and barbeque baked beans, with fried eggplant and buttermilk ranch dressing as the starter. Sound delicious? Yes. Worried that it might be too complicated? Well, with the exception of the smoking, you can do all of this in any kitchen, and it's actually quite simple. Any of these sides will make a great accompaniment to anything you can make on the stove or in the oven, and you can even do the brisket in the oven for the same amount of time and just sacrifice the smokey flavor.

Making the Feast
Today we'll start with the beef brisket. You've got to start with the brisket because it takes a while to cook, a good 5 - 7 hours depending on the size of the brisket. This is great if you have a little Herbie to cook with you, as it will give you plenty of time to play together while the meat is cooking.

I am on the hunt for some brisket!

Getting the brisket going is pretty easy. You'll notice that one side if covered in fat, that's called the fat cap, and the other side is a little leaner. You don't want to trim off the fat because as that fat renders in the heat, it's what will keep your meat nice and moist. Coat the meat with olive oil, and then rub it with your favorite barbeque rub. Ours is the Dinosaur Barbeque Cajun Fourplay.

Sprinkling the brisket with the cajun foreplay seasoning.

You can get a pretty similar effect by combining salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, chile powder, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano, and some paprikia. Rub the spice mix into the meat and get it in as deep as you can, then let the meat rest and come to room temperature. This will make cooking easier and also give the meat some time to absorb the flavor of the rub.

Annnnnd that looks delicious.

If you will be doing it over a grill, place some wood chips in a bowl of water and let them sit for about half an hour. This will be necessary to make sure they create smoke, rather than flame. You can get wood chips at many grocery stores, and also home improvement stores like the Home Depot. For brisket, you'll probably want mesquite or hickory wood chips to give it the best flavor.

Soaking wood chips in water. 

We had a regular charcoal grill at our disposal, not a true smoker, but that's fine, this method works well on the regular charcoal grill. If you have a gas grill... consult the manual, we're not really sure how to do it there. With the charcoal grill you'll want to create a two zone fire, with all the briquettes piled up on one side. On the other side, place a drip pan and fill it up with about a quarter inch of water. Then light up the fire and wait for all the briquettes to become lit and ashy. Cover the grill and bring the temperature down to about 250 - 275 (similarly, if you're using an oven, set it to this temperature).

Wood chip packet.

Once the grill is ready to go, prepare your wood chips. Take a handful of them, drain them off, and place them onto a sheet of aluminum foil. Wrap up the foil around the wood chips to make a little packet. You'll want to make 6 of these, and you'll be using two at a time for the first few hours of smoking. Poke a couple of holes in the top of the packets as you're ready to use them, and then place them on top of the coals.

Brisket on the grill, fat cap side up. 

Place the meat over the drip pan side of the grill. You don't want it directly over the flame or it will get tough and chewy. Position it so that the fat cap is on the top, which will let the rendered fat drip down and moisturize the meat. Then, close the lid and watch the smoke works begin. After a few minutes you should see the smoke start to billow out of the top of the grill as the wood chips heat up and start to smoke.

The smoke starts to exude from the grill.

After about an hour, the wood chips will likely have cooled off. Remove them and add in two more packets and let smoke some more. You'll want to make sure the temperature remains at around 250 - 275, and you can add more coals if necessary.

I've found a comfy place to wait while the meat is cooking. 

After another hour, add your last batch of wood chips and smoke again for an hour. After the smoke has died down this time, take the brisket off the grill and wrap it in aluminum foil. Then place back on the grill and continue to cook for another 2 - 3 hours depending on the size of your brisket. (You can also just place it in the oven at this point if you'd rather not try to maintain the temperature.

While the brisket is cooking, you'll have plenty of time to make all your sides, which we'll go into more detail on throughout the week. So keep checking back to see how we made the most amazing four cheese macaroni bake, barbeque baked beans, tomato cucumber salad, and fried eggplant with buttermilk ranch dressing.

Fully cooked brisket. 

When the brisket has fully cooked, you'll be able to tell by how tender it is. If you can pull it apart with a fork, it's good to go. Let it rest for 15 - 25 minutes before carving, which will give the proteins some time to relax and draw in the juices. When carving, slice quarter inch strips against the grain.

Nicely sliced, juicy, beef brisket. That ring of pink around the edge is the result of the smoking. The thicker the ring, the better job of smoking. 

 Get ready for a wonderful explosion of flavor complemented by wonderful sides! Stay tuned for the rest of the meal throughout the week.