People tell me my brisket recipe is excellent. I've even been told it's restaurant quality, which I suppose is a compliment, at least if the restuarant is better than Denny's. Anyhow, there's no secret to what I do, so here's the recipe for anyone who wants it. Basically, lots and lots and lots of cooking at low temperatures = tender, tasty brisket. My recipe has two steps: 1) oven cooking the brisket in its own juices and 2) smoking it to firm it up and dry it out a bit.
We buy brisket from Costomoco (that's 'shorthand' for Costco), in the vacuum sealed packages, usually ~10 lbs each brisket. After trimming and cooking, each brisket reduces to maybe 5-6 lbs, so it'll feed 10 or so people 1/2 lb of beef each.
Once you have the brisket, dump one brisket in the sink, and hose it down to get a lot of the blood off. Fill the sink with cold water to soak the brisket.
While in the cold water soaking, I cut off a LOT of the fat. Since there's so much fat, I do my best to trim all of the hard/muscle fat, and then trim the edges of the soft/subdermal fat. Basically, when looking at the meaty side, you should see almost no fat, and from the fatty side, you should see meat around all of the edges.
Repeat the soaking & fat cutting for any remaining brisket.
Preheat your oven to 200F.
Put the brisket in a roasting pan and cover it with a rub of your choosing. We like the Kirkland mesquite rub from Costco; about 1/2 cup(ish) of rub per brisket is good. If you're cooking two briskets, just cram them both in the one roasting pan. However, be sure that the brisket all fits inside the pan.
Toss the brisket in the oven and go to bed. The time in the oven doesn't really matter much. 10+ hours in 200F heat and you'll have brisket soup (I was surprised how much juice and fat is rendered off the brisket. If your roasting pan was too small, it'll overflow! Remember, though, that if the brisket and juice both fit in the roasting pan when the were combined to start, they'll fit when they're separated at the end).
Fire up your smoker and get a good bed of coals going. Briquettes are fine for this part, but so is hardwood. It doesn't take a whole lot of smoke, so a small bed of white-hot coals is all you need. If you have a wood-burning grill instead of a smoker, that's fine too, just build your bed of coals on one far side of the grill and have your beef on the opposite end.
When the coals are almost white-hot, get the roasting pan out of the oven. CAREFULLY lift the brisket out of the roasting pan and set it on a large cutting board. Remember, the brisket has been cooking forever, so it will want to FALL APART! Don't let it! It might take three spatulas and a pair of tongs, but do everything you can do keep the brisket together for smoking it.
After all the brisket is out of the roasting pan, set the roasting pan aside to let the juice and fat settle. We'll come back to that in a bit.
When the coals are ready, set a medium-small piece of hardwood (I like mesquite and/or oak) on top of the coals. If you have hardwood chunks for smoking, that's fine too, but only put a couple on. Close all vents to about half-open(ish) to keep the fire down a bit.
Carefully slide the brisket, fatty side up, from the cutting board into the smoker at the end farthest from the coals. Make sure the hardwood is indeed starting to smoke, and then close the smoker and walk away for about an hour. Let's go take care of that juice!
By now the juice and fat in the roasting pan should be settled. Let's separate them! You have two options. 1) use a ladel to carefully skim the fat off the top or 2) use a turkey baster to carfully suck up the juice from below the bottom (I prefer the turkey baster option. It gives me a chance to use it for something other than Thanksgiving turkey). Pitch the fat, keep the juice.
After the brisket has been smoking for 1 hour, ladel some juice on it, flip it, and ladel some more juice on the meaty side. Add some more hardwood if needed. Walk away for another hour.
After the brisket has been smoking for another hour, ladel some juice on it, flip it, and ladel some more juice on the fatty side. Add some more hardwood if needed. Walk away for another hour.
After the brisket has been smoking for another hour, open the smoker, marvel at your handiwork, and pull the brisket off the smoker. I like 3 hours of smoking, and the brisket should be much drier and firmer than when you put it on. If you like your brisket drier, then just leave it on for another hour (if you dare to challenge this ultimate, secret recipe)!
Cover the brisket with a loose foil tent and let it rest for 15 to 30 minutes. The longer it rests, the better the slicing will go. Too short of a rest = shredded brisket. However, too long of a rest = cold brisket. Your call.
Slice the brisket at about 3/16-inch per slice. For you non-carpenters out there, that's less than 1/4-nch and more than 1/8-inch. Always slice AGAINST the grain, perpendicular to the grain if you can.
Enjoy the brisket with boracho beans, potato salad and cream corn. And please, please, please use a good, tangy (not sweet) BBQ sauce!
31 August 2009
01 July 2009
Cosmic Jewish Zombie
I just stumbled across this this picture/rant on the interwebs:
Interesting. So instead we're to believe science, which says that billions of years ago some random super-bolt of lightning smacked some perfect mixture of primordial ooze to create the very first amino acid, the building block of cells.
Except that first amino acid wasn't enough; no, more super-bolts of lightning randomly smacked more primordial ooze patches to create the twenty or so amino acids necessary to form even one protein molecule.
Exept that first protein molecule wasn't enough; no, thousands more super-bolts of lightning randomly struck thousands more globs of primordial ooze to create the thousands of amino acids necessary to form the thousands of proteins necessary to form even one single-celled organism.
Except a bunch of amino acids wasn't enough; no, the right combination of thosuands of amino acids randomly formed a committe and decided to self-organize into a tremendously complex single-celled organism. Ok, so now we at least have an organism.
Except a single-celled organism wasn't enough; no, science then tells us that an organism somehow survived and reproduced itself (because it was the fittest primordial single-celled organism, of course). Yet that reproducing/fittest organism randomly screwed up the reproduction process somewhere along the way and mutated into a slightly different organism. Ok, now we have at least two different organisms.
Except two organisms wasn't enough; no, those organisms had to continue to randomly mutate and mutate and mutate over millions of years until the right combination of cells randomly incorporated as a organization in the State of California to form the first multi-celled organism. Ok, now we have at least one multi-celled organism.
Except one multi-celled organism wasn't enough; no, this entirely random process went on and on and on for millions and millions of years until we arrive at the world we live in today.
Makes perfect sense.
Conclusions?
1. Somehow I think a cosmic Jewish zombie seems more plausible than science's admittedly conjured and tremendously improable story (science admits they don't know how it all started).
2. Somehow a cosmic Jewish zombie gives more meaning to my life than tremendously improbable randomness.
Interesting. So instead we're to believe science, which says that billions of years ago some random super-bolt of lightning smacked some perfect mixture of primordial ooze to create the very first amino acid, the building block of cells.
Except that first amino acid wasn't enough; no, more super-bolts of lightning randomly smacked more primordial ooze patches to create the twenty or so amino acids necessary to form even one protein molecule.
Exept that first protein molecule wasn't enough; no, thousands more super-bolts of lightning randomly struck thousands more globs of primordial ooze to create the thousands of amino acids necessary to form the thousands of proteins necessary to form even one single-celled organism.
Except a bunch of amino acids wasn't enough; no, the right combination of thosuands of amino acids randomly formed a committe and decided to self-organize into a tremendously complex single-celled organism. Ok, so now we at least have an organism.
Except a single-celled organism wasn't enough; no, science then tells us that an organism somehow survived and reproduced itself (because it was the fittest primordial single-celled organism, of course). Yet that reproducing/fittest organism randomly screwed up the reproduction process somewhere along the way and mutated into a slightly different organism. Ok, now we have at least two different organisms.
Except two organisms wasn't enough; no, those organisms had to continue to randomly mutate and mutate and mutate over millions of years until the right combination of cells randomly incorporated as a organization in the State of California to form the first multi-celled organism. Ok, now we have at least one multi-celled organism.
Except one multi-celled organism wasn't enough; no, this entirely random process went on and on and on for millions and millions of years until we arrive at the world we live in today.
Makes perfect sense.
Conclusions?
1. Somehow I think a cosmic Jewish zombie seems more plausible than science's admittedly conjured and tremendously improable story (science admits they don't know how it all started).
2. Somehow a cosmic Jewish zombie gives more meaning to my life than tremendously improbable randomness.
06 May 2009
Easily Get Text Out of a PowerPoint Presentation
A buddy of mine (Greg) figured this out, so kuddos to Greg for this post.
(I'm not sure of this process in older versions of PowerPoint, but I believe "Outline" appears on the View menu of 2003)
In PowerPoint 2007:
1. Open the presentation from which you're interested in copying the text
2. Click the round button with the Office logo at the top left of the window (aka the Office Button)
3. Click "Powerpoint Options" at the bottom of the Office Button menu
3a. The Powerpoint Options window will appear
4. Click "Customize"
4a. The Customize the Quick Access toolbar window will appear
5. In the "Choose Commands from" drop-down menu, choose "Commands Not in the Ribbon"
6. Click "Outline View" in the list that appears below the drop-down menu
You should see a square white icon appear in the quick access area of the PowerPoint ribbon (at the top right of the screen, to the right of The Office Button)
Click that button and the slide text will appear as a text outline. Copy & paste and you are off to the races.
To get back to the normal slide view, click the View menu in the ribbon, then "Normal".
Cheers!
(I'm not sure of this process in older versions of PowerPoint, but I believe "Outline" appears on the View menu of 2003)
In PowerPoint 2007:
1. Open the presentation from which you're interested in copying the text
2. Click the round button with the Office logo at the top left of the window (aka the Office Button)
3. Click "Powerpoint Options" at the bottom of the Office Button menu
3a. The Powerpoint Options window will appear
4. Click "Customize"
4a. The Customize the Quick Access toolbar window will appear
5. In the "Choose Commands from" drop-down menu, choose "Commands Not in the Ribbon"
6. Click "Outline View" in the list that appears below the drop-down menu
You should see a square white icon appear in the quick access area of the PowerPoint ribbon (at the top right of the screen, to the right of The Office Button)
Click that button and the slide text will appear as a text outline. Copy & paste and you are off to the races.
To get back to the normal slide view, click the View menu in the ribbon, then "Normal".
Cheers!
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