4.02.2017

Brisket recipe / cooking notes

Most of this process derives specifically from the following Chef Steps recipe:

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/smokerless-smoked-brisket

With the exception of the brine, it seems like most of the recipe items (glaze, rub, etc.) make far more of the component than you need.  So far, 1/4 of the recommended amount seems to be just fine for a single brisket, with the exception of the brining step, which should be calculated based on your water volume. For that, I have a large foodservice bucket.  I'll put the still-factory-sealed brisket in the bucket, fill it up with water, and then work from there. On the chefsteps site it will let you re-scale the ingredients up top, and those measurements will flow down through the page. For this, it's only really necessary to know that 1 liter of water = 1 kg. So since my bucket is gradated in both quarts and liters, I can very quickly get a weight for my water, and base the brine ingredient weights from that.

I follow the recipe pretty faithfully. I trim the fat cap down to about 1/4", as well as trying to eliminate as much as possible of the large, hard deposits between the flat and the point.

Here's a good youtube video about Aaron Franklin trimming a brisket:

I use the Mercer Culinary 6" boning knife for trimming. Comes super sharp.

https://www.amazon.com/Mercer-Culinary-Millennia-Curved-Boning/dp/B005P0OPY2?ref_=bl_dp_s_web_9974519011


I brine in a big cambro 18 quart container, then dump the brine out and cook in the same one.

I'll put the whole thing in a foodsaver expandable bag for the water cook step. All of it goes into a big cambro plastic food/drink container, for one brisket. I typically seal it 3 times per side, just to make sure leaks don't happen during the 24 hours of cooking.


For two or more, or briskets larger than 11-12 pounds, I'll put it in my fancy cooler setup. It's one of these guys, with a 2 3/8" hole cut in the top with a 2 3/8" hole saw. I use the 900w Anova sous vide appliance.


 This cooler is about twice the volume that the anova is supposed to handle, so I fill it up from the bathtub hot water to begin with.  After working things around, this seems to be fine - the brisket is going to take a nice long time to come up to temperature, so it's not 100% necessary to have the water at 155 to begin. I'll just get it heating up while I take the brisket out of the brine to glaze and bag it.








Also, instead of finishing in an oven, I'll put it in the smoker @275 for 2-3 hours, looking for an internal temperature of about 205.  I use oak lump charcoal in a large size big green egg, adding some pecan chunks which have been soaked in water for 20+ minutes for additional flavor.
 I'll put a foil pan with an inch or so of water in it below the brisket to help maintain a moist environment as well as to keep the temperatures stable.


I generally use either the chef steps rub or the old fashioned Texas coarse black pepper and coarse kosher salt. For this "dalmatian" seasoning, you want a 50/50 pepper/salt ratio by volume. This is basically the one thing that I prepare in the process that isn't done by weight on my little digital scale.