The Brothers Brisket

I say it with best of intentions but those damn Briskets are never the best guests.

Post the Riviera Invitational Tournament we had several guests say it was good brisket, and would we share the recipe so they could continue on their own low n slow journey.

Well, she’s a long drive down a dark road but here goes. I am not saying this is the only way to render out a brisket but the people like the end result, so we fiddle little with the process.

Day 1….. Firstly…buy good brisket or if you home kill make sure your bull is smiling before being sent to vegetarian heaven. I am a firm believer that the tastiest meat is always the happiest.

Unwrap your brisket and trim obvious fat chunks away. Don’t get too righteous…remember fat adds flavour and most will render out over the duration.

Binders. A good massage with mustard helps the rub stick but I like using sriracha chilli sauce. Once your meat is all moist with sauce then coat with a good rub. I tip my hat to The Four Saucemen, their Beef rub is bloody good. Then cover and into the fridge over night to let the rub and binder develop its relationship with your meat.

Day 2….. Pull your meat, from the cooler and let it rest on the bench. We want it room temp for the smoking session.

Get the smoker going and we want a good solid 194F/90C consistent smoke and heat. A good native wood always does the trick. At the tournament we used Terry’s offset smoker called Marg, she’s a biggun and good size firebox for the volume required.

Insert your meat into Marg and keep an eye on her. You want a good balance of bark and moisture. The moisture is attained by spritzing your meat with a 50/50 Apple cider vinegar, water mix every hour. All going to plan your meat should hit an internal temp of 160F/71C somewhere between hours 4 and 6.

At this point you can withdraw your meat and wrap tightly in a good heavy duty foil, then wrap again so you have a double wrap. Then your meat goes back in the fridge overnight.

Day 3….. Pull your meat, from the fridge and let it rest on bench. We want to take the chill off it.

Crank your oven to 285F/140C and when at temp you can insert your wrapped meat into the oven cavity and close the door.

After one hour drop the oven temp to 266F/130C, then at hour 3 drop the temp again to 250F/120C. You should be able to hold this temperature for rest of cook.

Now the trick is to get your meat internal temp to 204F/96C or thereabouts. At hours 3,4,5 probe the meat for internal temp and that should give you a good indication of timing before you are ready to pull your meat. Briskets can be a bitch as mentioned, and they will at any given time “stall”, meaning the internal temp will plateau. Be patient as at some stage they will give up the fight and continue on the cooking journey. Try not to poke too many holes in your foil wrap as we want to keep moisture in the wrap not in the oven.

Once you hit the target temp of 204F/96C your meat should have gone from firm to almost jelly like.  At this point remove your meat from oven and leaving fully wrapped drop it into a chilly bin and close the lid. Let it rest for at least 30min but up to 3 hours is fine.

Then off with the foil dress and into it with a sharp knife and Bobs yer uncle. Note also any brisket trimmings you had on day one can be chunked and sat in smoker to render out to tallow. Made by the good grace of grass. Kia nui te kai!