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Modernist Brisket Approach

Emily_189724

Hey Folks,

I have a good amount of grass fed brisket in my freezer and am trying to determine what to do with it. Thus far my results with brisket have been less than stellar. I have a pressure cooker and sousvide setup (sansaire and several hefty cambro tubs, also have vac sealer.) I noted a recipe for pastrami on the site but the saltiness of a traditional pastrami approach doesn't really appeal to me. I would ideally like to get a shredable, BBQ style, brisket. Has anyone experimented with this? I would love any guidance/advice and especially photos

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bchavannes

easy approach would be to follow the short rib time and temp charts. I would highly recommend curing your brisket for at least a day though and remember to incorporate the kill step before dropping the brisket into the bath if cooking at lower temps.

Emily_189724

Thanks Brandon! I was watching one of the ChefSteps videos on purchasing meat and I realized that one of my "problems" is likely that I have been buying flat cut and not point/nose cut brisket. I am considering actually turning much of the flat cut into ground meat for a BBQ and then slow cooking or pressure cooking the fattier nose end.

Daniel_153642

Emily,

A modernist way to mimic smoked Texas brisket would be a challenge. And in my experience fails drastically short of the real thing. You need to impart smoke in some way and obviously with TX brisket it smokes for hours in a traditional smoker. There is no substitute. Alternatively you can make up a brine/injection to get a faux smoke introduced by use of liquid smoke then add another layer of smoke flavor with smoked paprika and/or smoke seasoning (can be found at a lot of stores; becareful this stuff is potent; http://www.savoryspiceshop.com/cart/spices?SearchPhrase=smoke .) You can then cook it via the oven low/slow finishing with broiling (flipping to get both sides.) Or, you can sous vide the brisket and then broil or use a handheld torch to give it a crust. I'll outline my suggestions more in detail below...

Do you have a BBQ grill or better a smoker? If yes, I would go that route. If you have a standard Weber style or other BBQ grill you just need to set it up so it's not direct heat/smoke. The other thing is you need a food temperature probe. The cooking temp of the grill smoker should can be 225-275*F, I stick to 250*F. The temp range for brisket is typically between 190*-205*F with 203*F being the magic number where a digital thermometer will slide in like 'buttah'. As for time, brisket is one of those finicky cuts of meat that hits a stall. On average its about 1.5 hrs/lb of meat but could go as high as 2 hrs/lb.

Once you have all the above simply season with equal parts salt and pepper (you can experiment to suite your own tastes with other spices such as garlic powder, cayenne, etc.) ensuring to cover the brisket completely. You can do this 30 min's prior to putting into the smoker/grill or overnight. You will see the temp rise steadily up until the stall around 160*. Once there it could be a couple hrs before it breaks free. What's happening is it's 'sweating' and thus lowering the temp of the brisket causing the stall. This is all typical regardless of cooking on a grill or in an oven. Now, there is something we call a "TX crutch" to help speed up the stall but I highly recommend not using it. It does work but also it's no longer smoking at this point but basting in its juices. What you do is wrap it in foil once it reaches the stall and put it back onto the grill.

Now, the above is a primer for getting true smoked brisket where you can slice it or chop it easily. Alternatively, if you don't want to go through smoking or don't have the equipment you can do a faux smoked brisket in the oven. It would require doing a brine/injection which would include liquid smoke. Then after the brine you would include the same rub but use equal amounts of smoked paprika (smoked seasoning), brown sugar, with the salt/pepper. Put it in the oven at 250* and follow the same steps as the smoker.

Lastly instead of the oven you can put it in your sous vide till it reaches 203* internal temp. Then take it out and broil/torch the exterior to get a crust. Before serving, and if you have it, you can use the Polyscience smoking gun under a tent to mimic the smoke flavor associated with brisket. This is as close to a 'modernist' approach you can do IMHO.

Hope this helps/what you're looking for.

Daniel

Emily_189724

Thanks Daniel,

Great advice there!

My husband and I just moved into an apartment in Portland, we have a fantastic ceramic grill (by Primo) sitting in our storage unit and are sad we may never get to use it again (we are in this apt until our downtown condo finishes being built next summer) The no charcoal grill rule was almost a deal breaker on buying the condo. I have suggested my husband find a good friend who wants to play foster parent to our Primo (provided of course that we get visitation rights

In the meantime I am trying to make due with the tools at my disposal...unfortunately the oven is not a friend. We have an itty bity euro sized unit with extremely poor temperature regulation. At this point I am contemplating contacting a local BBQ place to see if they would let us pay them to smoke our brisket for us.

-Emily

Daniel_153642

I think you can do the faux smoked brisket assuming you can get the oven to 400*C for 8 min. Just enough time to get a good crust.

ChefSteps just pushed their version of 'smoked' ribs which is similar to what I was saying. They started by brining and using liquid smoke then rubbing with molasses/liquid smoke, and dusted with their 'apartment rib rub' containing smoked salt/smoked paprika

You'll need to sous vide the brisket 24-48 hrs in order for the fat/collagen to begin to break down and get to that texture you are familiar with. Then instead of spreading molasses/liquid smoke I'd do a yellow mustard/liquid smoke version instead as brisket is not meant to be sweet. You don't need a lot of mustard and don't worry the flavor will cook off. Then just use their rub recipe and finish off the brisket in an oven at 400*C or on Broil. If broiling just flip at the 4 min mark. Oven is only to get a good crust so it should not need to be in there long (5-8 min.)

Let us know if you try this approach.