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THE TEN STEPS TO BRISKET NIRVANA
aron Franklin (Franklin Barbecue, Austin, Texas),
Hugh Mangum (Mighty Quinn's Barbeque, New
York and New Jersey), and Billy Durney (Hometown
Bar-B-Que, Brooklyn, New York) run three of the
best barbecue joints in North America. When they
talk brisket, it’s worth listening.- The quality of the meat matters and so does the
source. When I interviewed pit masters for my book
BBQ USA in the early 2000s. everyone spoke of
the pit, wood, and seasonings. No one mentioned
the actual meat. Modern masters insist on natural
or organic beef, ideally from farms in their region.
The new brisket bragging rights include terms like
humanely raised, hormone-free, and grass-fed. In
other words, where your meat comes from and how
it's raised matter as much as how you smoke it. - Keep the seasonings simple. Forget arcane rubs.
Aaron Franklin seasons with only two ingredients:
salt and cracked black pepper. Hugh Mangum uses
three: salt, pepper, and paprika. - Burn wood only, but go easy on the smoke. The
ultimate fuel for brisket is wood. But make sure your
brisket tastes like meat, not like smoke. "I like to say
our meat is 'kissed' by smoke," Mangum says, "not
overwhelmed by it." - Keep the air flowing. "Keep plenty of air flowing
through the pit at all times," says Franklin. "That's
the secret to a good, clean fire." For even heat
circulation, leave at least 3 inches between briskets.
This is especially important when using a home
smoker. - Slow it down. Here’s one point on which the
upstarts and old masters agree: Cook your brisket
low and slow. It takes a low temperature (225° to
250°F) and long cooking time to melt the collagen,
fat, and other tough connective tissue. - Don’t cook to temperature. Tradition holds
that the best way to cook a brisket to the proper
doneness is to use an instant-read thermometer
to reach a target temperature of 200° to 205°F.
But Billy Durney works more by look and touch. "A
properly cooked brisket will jiggle when you shake
it. Think Jell-O comprised of animal protein and beef
fat." With practice, you'll learn the right feel, but it’s
always good to double check with a thermometer. - Wrap it up. For the last couple of hours of
cooking, Franklin wraps his briskets in butcher
paper. "The paper is porous enough to let the meat
'breathe,' unlike aluminum foil, which produces a
'pot-roasty' consistency." he says. Once the paper
becomes soaked through with brisket fat, it seals in
the juices. A side benefit: It also makes it easier to
move the briskets around from pit to warming box
to cutting board. At Mighty Quinn’s, the moment the
briskets come off the pit, Mangum and crew swaddle
them in plastic wrap. And at both establishments,
the brisket is rewrapped after each slicing to keep
the meat moist. - Give it a rest. Durney smokes his brisket for 18
hours, but the meat isn't ready to serve until it rests
in an Alto-Shaam (a professional warming oven) for
4 hours. "This allows the juices to be reabsorbed
into the meat." he says. Don’t have an Alto-Shaam?
An insulated cooler works great—and once you’ve
rested the brisket, use the cooler to chill the beer. - Keep it moist. A succulent brisket demands
a moist pit. Mangum keeps 10 gallons of meat
drippings from a previous smoke session in the drip
pan during the entire length of the cooking process.
At home, place a water pan in the smoker. - It’s not about the sauce. All three men serve
their brisket unsauced. They hope you'll try it by
itself before you reach for barbecue sauce. Amen.
BEEF I 69
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