My 'Secret' Brisket Recipe

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!