Half-Smoked Brisket (Warning: Science!)
Greetings Earthlings. The way my peers and I talk about food usually leaves me feeling like an alien, especially when I'm not in the company of those who are hopelessly addicted to the culinary nerd kool-ade. Nice to have a place to stretch out. At any rate, sere's something I've been working on the past few months, and thought I’d share with the universe.
1 Brisket flat
2% Redmond real salt
2% Sarawak black pepper
9% Shio Koji
Mesquite (or your favorite hard wood as needed)
Rendered beef fat as needed.
72c 24- 36h ziplock freezer bags double bagged
70c and up; always double bag it, just like the time you were with that lot-lizard.
Always and only use ziplock freezer bags.
Don’t be a cheapskate, and you're not getting a deal, it’s not worth it.
Ziplock freezer is the only brand I’ll vouch for.
Great BBQ is a serious commitment.
Don’t be fooled by their grizzled personas, pit masters are the violinists of the culinary world. Hard-earned skills, gained through countless hours of repetition and cooking with open fire. Cooking with Fire is arguably what makes us human, and while not scientifically a living thing, fire certainly behaves as if it were. This factor alone makes the barbecuing an incredibly difficult skill to consistently nail. As for the few who’ve mastered this skill (especially brisket and whole hog which are most often considered the pinnacle of the craft), their names are deservedly said with reverence, and their cooking is truly worthy of a special journey. The ramshackle, hillbilly, redneck, Hacksaw Jim Duggan (or Junkyard Dog) angle is just an act. Beneath those overalls beats the heart of an artist with the soul of a poet and the patience of a saint.
This being said..I am not one of those people! The following method will never out-duel BBQ of that quality. It would be foolish to even try.
However, I do believe it will hold you over, until you're able to score your next piece of that sweet, sweet 'cue-nanny.
The half-smoked angle:
If you’re anything like me you rarely, if ever, have the time to cook a whole brisket in the traditional manner. I approached this issue the same way we restaurant folk handle big prep projects. I broke it down them down into stages, making a time-consuming process into more manageable tasks.
Day 1: Trim the brisket (if needed), and cut it in half against the grain: Weigh brisket, calculate and scale the salt, pepper and shio koji. Rub the brisket with the Shio Koji and evenly dust the meat with the salt and pepper. Place the seasoned brisket on a rack in the refrigerator and let sit uncovered, for at least 12 hours. 24 is better.
Sidebar: Shio koji is magical! It's a Japanese marinade, made with grain that has been inoculated with the mold Aspergillus Oryzae. That's the mold that’s blessed the world with miso, soy and sake, taking it's place in the culinary microbiological pantheon along with lacto-fermenting bacteria, botrytis cinerea, blue cheese penicillium, and good old yeast, without which Coors Light (and other things) would not be possible.
Day 2: Fire up the coals and set up a two-zone indirect grill or smoker. Heat the smoker or whatever rig you're using it about 250F. Place a small pan of water directly under the brisket, on the cold side of your rig, with the thick, fatty end aimed at the heat source. Add your favorite hardwood on top of the coals, close the lid, and smoke that bad boy about for 90min - 3 Hours… its really up to you. This won't be nearly long enough to cook it, but the koji actually really promotes a good bark in half the time.
When the brisket is cool enough to handle, place each half of the brisket flat into a gallon ziplock freezer bags, Add anywhere from a ¼ cup to 1/2 cup of rendered beef fat to each bag. Seal using the water displacement method. Now place each bag into a second bag, and seal again using the water displacement method.
(Wait, what? The water-displacement method is the poor man's cryovac. Once you've gotten your product into bags, carefully submerge the bags into water, and let the water pressure push all the air out of the bags. Then, when the opening of the bag is right at the water line, seal it. You won't get all the air out, but it'll be good enough for the girls you go with. Also, professional chefs, this approach will keep DHEC off your ass, which is why I know how to do this in the first place. Necessity is the mother of invention. Then, if you're double-bagging it, simply tuck the sealed edge under the food and repeat the process. Boom. No babies.)
Place in a heated water bath set to 72C (161F) and cook submerged for 24 to 48 hours.
Don’t fret if your water looks cloudy, that’s because it is… but seriously don’t worry. Believe it or not, smoke particles are smaller than the holes in plastic bags and naturally find a way out. Crazy, right?
Don't forget to keep your water bath covered to fight off evaporation; a little plastic wrap usually does the trick nicely; Also have your water bath sitting on a trivet or some sort of protective surface, as the water bath could damage your wife's countertops… or so I’ve heard.
Day 3 or 4
When you're ready to eat, crank up the grill again (or get an oven hot). Either grill or roast your brisket to crisp up the outside, and go for it. Serve slices from the fatty side to people you like, serve slices from the lean end to Braves fans, and reserve the burnt ends for yourself and your inner circle.
Really, this recipe contains 2 tricks. The first is the koji marinade, that's a no-brainer. The second is the half-smoked trick, which takes a project that is nightmarish (babysitting a fire for hours and hours) and makes it into something you can do while watching a ballgame, culminating in a glorious set-and-forget, so you can sleep, or crush some beers, or go to work, and rest assured your brisket will be fine. Is it as good as an actual full-on wood-fired brisket? Hell no, I never said it would be. However, it takes less time, and far less can go wrong. If you have the time and commitment to learn how to play the violin, go for broke and shred it like Poindexter from Revenge of the Nerds. Who has time and commitment? I certainly don’t.
Like my pal and cohort Jesse says, “Romance is imprecise,“ I offer the next best thing.
-NW
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