Incredible Brisket Recipe

Figured if you were going to drive 3,000 miles, I could drive 300.

I agree with you about the traditional way of doing the brisket. It's great. Fortunately, I've found a place with "choice" cut, full packers. But what if someone only has a "select" cut, flat brisket? We know it'll be dry using the traditional method. Does the "pot roast" method (for lack of a better term) make sense in this situation?

quote:

Originally posted by Pags:
Figured if you were going to drive 3,000 miles, I could drive 300.

I agree with you about the traditional way of doing the brisket. It's great. Fortunately, I've found a place with "choice" cut, full packers. But what if someone only has a "select" cut, flat brisket? We know it'll be dry using the traditional method. Does the "pot roast" method (for lack of a better term) make sense in this situation?

IMO, no! But real pot roast, or better yet corned beef or pastrami would work well. Pags, you need to do some pastrami.

I know Todd. So much to smoke, and such little time. I love pastrami.

Most experienced cooks would agree with Todd.

Yes,many folks really want to cook a brisket-so what do they do?

Some would say it is like you heard how great a free range bluefoot chicken is,but all you can find is a 10 year old banty rooster.

Can you make it as good? NO!

Can you cook it?

Yes?

I'd say first,make a REAL effort to find packers.

Find a friend and order a case.

There will be around five and they freeze for a year,or two in cryovac.

Call around to your wallyworlds and see who has packers,or will order a case.

Wally will have whatever comes from their distribution center.

If they get choice,or CAB s,they toss them in with the select.

They often can't sell packers and they wind up closing the case out for $0.99/lb.

At that price you can make burgers,stews,chili,pot roast,enchiladas,tacos,etc

The grading process is not real accurate on packers,so look thru the box/pile.

Find a heavy,thick,consistent,square flat.

Look for interspersed fat,and a limber flat that will bend easily.


Call independent markets and see if they will order a case.

If it is worst case,and folks won't make the effort-we have threads on cooking flats-so I won't go into them here.

As to the pot roast,that is where we see flats sliced up into the neat, lean, three lb pieces.

The points get tossed into the grinder,for burgers.

Nice little grandmothers, up east, can make New England Boiled Dinner, for after church, for the family.

Add a few carrots,a couple of potatoes,an onion and cook until fall apart tender.

Some of her homemade rolls,a little fruit salad,and her famous apple pie.

The kids will love it and she even has a little leftover for Monday lunch.

Good stuff, Tom.

I know it says half hickory and half oak, but can someone who has made this tell me how many ounces of wood they used. I'm assuming 1 chunk of one and 1 chunk of the other.

I have never done this or a flat,but I would think 2-3 oz would be good starting point.Smoke is a personal thing,on how much you like.I would say that you have it figured out. Good luck!!!

Many folks might say the small chunk of oak in your CS will matter about the same amount as what color T shirt you are wearing.

Now using a flat to learn,will be the question.

Have fun.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Smokin I'm so glad you left this post HOT, I just cooked a real nice brisket, took it to Xmas and now I have no meat leftover for sandwiches??? I followed this recipt to a tee but at the end as I was cooking a day early as our weather here seems to be screwing up everything I finished the brisket in the foil then wraped it in a big towel and into the cooler with the thermometer still attached. It was still 105 degrees the next morning, at 93 degrees I pulled it for slicing, OMG! It went into a crock pot with beef conseme just to stay warm and it was the hit of the meal!!!!

Thank you so much onesharpbroadhead!!! This is a killer recipt!!!!!

You make me look so good!!!!!

Mark

Glad it worked out well for you. Some folks would caution on letting the brisket temp to dip below 140* for to long of a time, it can make the product unsafe for consuming.

Like cal says.
Just one other thought is that besides many fine Q cooks,Iowa has several fine brisket cooks.

Some of them may feel this is much closer to a chinese pot roast than what brisket would be like.

Just encouraging you to try some more traditional techniques, the CS was designed for, and finding the real potential as a comparison to please the friends and family.

You might be pleasantly suprised.

Keep cooking and let us hear .

This is Aaron Brooks, I created this recipe.

While I agree that this recipe in not "Traditional" I did not make it to be "Traditional"

I actually created it, sitting at my desk at work while trying to think of different ingredient combinations that might go well with brisket.


I still have and use the Cookshack that I won for the recipe in 2001. As a matter of fact I am cooking a beef brisket in the smoker the "Traditional" way now.

I love to cook and have alawys had fun cooking!

I now own a catering company and still receive great reviews on my brisket when I serve it.

If anyone has any questions regarding the recipe feel free to ask.

Aaron

Welcome back Aaron. 7 years later you can see it's VERY well liked, so thanks for dropping back in.

I think the comments about it not being traditional aren't a hit on your recipe as much as people trying to use it as a fix when they don't know how to do brisket.

It's a winner (figuratively and literally) so it's posted here and there's a LOT of people liking it.

Congrats again, on the smoker.

Now what's your next wiining recipe?

A beautiful Excel packer jumped into my cart at Wally World yesterday...gonna give your recipe a shot in a week or so.

MaxQue. You just have to move faster through the meat dept. Otherwise, all kinds of things wind up in the cart.

Not sure of the next recipe but I have been doing things with Pork lately for my customers.

I will post some more recipes in the near future.

Good to see you are still on the board Okie!

As normal when I cook something for the first time I go to trusted sources to learn what, how and things to look out for. Not only was this my first brisket ever it was my third ever effort with my new SM045 (salmon and country style ribs prior), so I came to this site. Well this recipe turned out excellent. My wife, the self proclaimed brisket expert (she does make a great brisket in the oven) said no way I could match her old family recipe. She happily admitted it was as good or better than hers. I wanted to pass my compliment on to everyone in this post for their insight and suggestions; to AC&C for his recipe; to onesharpbroadhead for posting the recipe and to smokinokie, Tom, pats and others for the discussions. I learned a lot from them as the information was excellent. You guys know your Q!
I was a little stumped with the discussion about this recipe versus traditional as to which to use. Since I could not find readily any information on the rubs used for a traditional smoked brisket I went with this one. I would like to know what rubs you Q gurus use for a traditional brisket.

Thanks again for the great information. My success on my first brisket is a testimony to this excellent forum.

You guys rock! Excuse my typos.

Pags I apologize for not getting your handle correct. My auto correcting computer liked pat better than pags.

Congrats on the brisket. Glad it turned out so well.

Cookshack Brisket Rub is one of the best around.

In emergency ,fall back on the traditional brisket cooks' salt,pepper,garlic powder.Most find that cooking the meat correctly is far more important than the rubs used.

I'm trying this recipe now with a little modification. I have a 6.7 lb flat that I marinated for 9 hours. Then I let it start getting to room temp and applied the rub with a little of the CS brisket rub as well. I put it on the smoker last night fat side down on the top shelf w/ the rack in the top position with a piece of foil on the lower rack to help keep the small flat from catching so much heat and drying out. The CS was set at 190* with a probe in the thick end. I'm using about 3-4 oz. of hickory. This morning the internal temp was 140* so I've upped the CS temp to 225 and I'm going to pull at 165* and then wrap in foil with some beef broth until internal gets to 185* then FTC for dinner.

I'm substituting the beef broth for the finishing sauce above as I'm in Texas and our tastes aren't really accustomed to a sweet meat.

Here's hoping it comes out good.

Be interested to see your opinions.
I'll be they've never seen a brisket like that in west TX.

It turned out really good.
I could barely taste a hint of the cinnamon but it didn't taste bad. The beef broth was a good addition and the flavor was incredible. I didn't even notice the coke or orange juice.

I'm gonna go ahead and use this on the packer for Memorial day.

Did this today. Put 11lb packer in at 5:30am at 225. When temp hit 175 took it out foiled it and put back in Smokette until 185. Put it in pre heated 300 oven until it reached 205. Pulled it out and let rest in foil for 30 minutes. It came out great. My family loved it and it was super moist.
Give it a try!!

Wow I used this recipe today with a 6lb brisket (remember I have an old SM008 with 14 inch shelves). Smoked it 6 hours at 225, internal temp got to 193, pulled it, put the finishing sauce on it and wrapped the foil TIGHT with the probe still in. Cooked it at 225 another 90 minutes until that probe read 192. Pulled it. Left it wrapped in foil tight 1 hour. Then made this lovely plate in honor of my friend Chuck Vaughn Lloyd who passed away two years ago on this day. This is for you Chuck...

The brisket with a little of the finishing sauce napped over it, baked potato, iceberg lettuce wedge with homemade Bleu Cheese dressing... Liberty School Cabernet



I've liked my briskets, but TODAY I nailed it. WOW !!!

Nice job. Pass me a glass of wine, please

One more data point: I followed the original receipe to the "T", and it was AMAZING!

15lb American Waygu brisket. 28 day wet aged. Had 16 guys over for dinner, and each one said it was the best brisket they ever ate. I don't think they were just trying to be nice, either!

Phenomenal!! Many thanks to the OP!

Been considering getting a Waygu brisket via Sam's online, but for the money the Choice I've been getting locally is pretty good...

By the way folks, if any of you like wine and also happen to shop at Sam's (that has a liquor license like my Freehold one does) or Costco look for that wine in the picture. It is called Liberty School Cabernet - it was going for about $9.00 a bottle at Sams for a long time, now they reaised the price to $12.49 and believe me it's still a steal. A remarkable wine. Back in the mid 80s the Liquor Barn chain in Northern California was carrying a 1979 Liberty School Cabernet for less than $5.00 - it was easily $40.00 a bottle caliber wine (back then prices). Originally Liberty School was Caymus' second label and they'd "dump" wine they felt wasn't quite up to the Caymus Reserve quality. The owners of the vineyards Caymus were buying from eventually decided to go their own way and the Liberty School brand was reborn. Amazing red wine. Alone, with ribs, brisket, pasta, chocolate, you name it. Really fine stuff... Do take my advice on this one please.

quote:

Originally posted by easy victor:
...

15lb American Waygu brisket. 28 day wet aged.

First, let me say congrats on the 2nd. But...

Have you ever cooked the Waygu without all the marinade? To me, a marinade like the above works for some, but it doesn't taste like brisket to me.

I think, reading the various posts above, you'll understand that some of us are a little more "traditional" in our approach to brisket.

BUT... my hats off to the winner that created this recipe, it gets lots of great reviews.

This is the first Waygu that I have done. It was given to me at the last minute to smoke and I decided to try the OP receipe.

I understand where you're coming from. Everyone has a preference for what they like. I am a bit eclectic in that I like a number of different styles and tastes. And I don't do competition.

The reaction last night was so positive that I would have a hard time changing it up. I might cut a small piece off before marinading and see what happens.....

I do have a related question for you: Is there a guide or something that I can use to learn how to separate the packer into it's parts? I smoked the whole thing because I don't know how to cut it up.

Thanks.

EV -- I'm happy you liked your brisket with this "killer" recipe. If you & the family or whomever you're serving are happy, the smoke was a success!

That being said, I'm with Smokin in that I'm a traditionalist when it comes to brisket. Personally, if I were gonna put out the $$$ for "Waygu," the smoke would go au natural - my traditional smoke.

This recipe has to be good. A bunch of people have raved about it! Just giving my $0.02 worth.

Keep on smokin!

Not that I wouldn't do it again myself, but the meat was given to me to smoke and I wasn't going to turn down the Waygu!

As the fine cooks above said,there are several beef cuts,many of low quality,that could be kinda "oriental pot roasted" and achieved the same outcome at hugely lower costs.

I'd venture that most cooks could use bottom round,ungraded brisket,etc for $1/lb and still met the goal.

Think how much fine wine could be purchased for the saved money.

quote:

Originally posted by easy victor:

I do have a related question for you: Is there a guide or something that I can use to learn how to separate the packer into it's parts? I smoked the whole thing because I don't know how to cut it up.

Thanks.

Try this.

quote:

Originally posted by easy victor:
I do have a related question for you: Is there a guide or something that I can use to learn how to separate the packer into it's parts? I smoked the whole thing because I don't know how to cut it up.

Thanks.

And This

Perfect! Thank you!

quote:

Originally posted by dls:

quote:

Originally posted by easy victor:
I do have a related question for you: Is there a guide or something that I can use to learn how to separate the packer into it's parts? I smoked the whole thing because I don't know how to cut it up.

Thanks.

And This

Wow, this is way worthy. First brisket, way beyond what I rightfully expected. Guests raved.
Thanks all.

I just took one of these out of the smoker and had it for lunch. It was fantastic! I have a couple thoughts I want to save for next time I make it. I didn't have celery salt or garlic pepper ready to go and I couldn't find either at the store, so I ended up making them from their respective ingredients. Second, the marinade and rub are so similar that the next time I make it I'll save myself some prep time by mixing up a base of the common ingredients.

Based on a web search, here's what I used for garlic pepper and celery salt:

• Garlic Pepper - 1 part garlic powder, 1 part freshly ground black pepper
  
• Celery Salt - 1 part celery seed, 2 parts salt
  

After combining the salt/pepper from those with the original marinade/rub, here's the base I'll create next time:

• 5 Tbsp sea salt
  
• 4.5 Tbsp freshly ground black pepper
  
• 1.5 Tbsp garlic powder
  
• 1 Tbsp celery seed
  
• 3 Tbsp oregano
  

Then for the marinade:

• 1/2 cup orange juice
  
• 1/2 cup coke
  
• 7.5 Tbsp base spices (1/2 cup then remove 1/2 Tbsp)
  
• 1.5 Tbsp cinnamon
  

Then for the rub:

• 7.5 Tbsp base spices (1/2 cup then remove 1/2 Tbsp)
  
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
  

Thanks for the great recipe!

What kind and weight brisket did you use? What are you cooking on.

You didn't mention in your profile where you live .When we know things like that, we might help steer you towards herbs, spices, rubs ,meats, fuels ,etc.

Welcome to the forum.

The applause for this recipe was so thundering that I couldn't resist doing my first packer cut (10.5 lbs) by this method, or something like it. Smoked at 225 in my 045 for 5 1/2 hrs, wrapped in foil (with a splash of apple juice) until internal temp hit 185, about another 5 hours, unwrapped and returned to smoker. Once unwrapped, internal temp fell to 170 so I cooked on. At about 14 total cooking hours, I was faced with the thermometer versus clock dilemma because the temp had only climbed back up to about 180-185. Fearing a dried out result, I pulled it and it is getting FTC for about 3 hours before serving. Will my guests be chewing on leather?

Heck no it won't be dry- it should be somewhere near perfect! Enjoy. I routinely leave my briskets in around 18 hrs in my Amerique and they've never been close to being "dry"

quote:

Originally posted by easy victor:
Heck no it won't be dry- it should be somewhere near perfect! Enjoy. I routinely leave my briskets in around 18 hrs in my Amerique and they've never been close to being "dry"

Easy victor called it right. Falling apart tender, even guests who normally eat in moderation had third helpings.
I may mess with seasonings but the cooking in foil with liquid (maybe beer next time) is a gentle braising phase that produces a tender product in the end. This is key in brisket, it seems, just as it works so well in the 3-2-1 technique for ribs.
Still baffled by the drop in temperature when the foil came off (3 temperature probes by the way) but all's well that ends well. And to all a good night....

Wow. Made this recipe over the weekend with an 8 lb. packer. Although I did marinate the brisket for 28 hours it was fine. I did not wash off the marinade and proceeded to dry rub the brisket. Into my Smokette at 7:30 P.M. and added a foil container of drip beans. Set the smoker for 200 degrees and went to bed. At 4 A.M. the following morning I pulled the beans and increased the temp to 225. At 10:30 A. M. the internal temp was 192. Pulled the brisket, wrapped in foil, added the finishing marinade and put it back at 150 degrees. I servered it later at about 5 P.M. Was truly the best brisket I ever tasted. A few guests went into the kitchen and proceeded to pick at the carcass. This recipe is truly a winner. Will always cook brisket this way. Fabulous. Don't need to change a thing. Used apple chunks for smoking.