wdy to all y’all,
Just wanted to say thanks, I was all set to slice up another batch of my brisket jerky this last weekend when my better half, a full blooded, born and raised Texas gal asked me, "Honey, you don’t need any more jerky right now, why don’t you just smoke one of them sombitches for Sunday dinner?" Well I’ve always been into making sausage, bacon, ham, smoked salmon and of course jerky, but I’d never nutted up and threw a whole brisket in the smoker before. That’s an embarrassing admission because I’ve been living in Texas for six years now and one of the first things the little lady bought for me when I moved here was a New Braunfels Bandera Smoker, so I suppose it was about time.
Having just bought a couple of those Sam’s whole-packer briskets everyone was wondering about a few weeks ago, and making sure that I’d picked out the most flexible "left handed" ones they had. I broke out my boning knife and proceeded to get pretty anal about the trimming. I like to work with meat but I’m sure as hell not a butcher by trade. I’m sure many of y’all can dress out a large cut like that in a few minutes, but not me. About an hour latter I had two of the cleanest hunks of meat possible and about ten pounds of trimmed fat I wish I could figure out something to do with. One of the briskets I decided to save for making corned beef, the other one I massaged hell out of with a Texas style rub from one of my sweetheart’s cookbooks. I let it marinate for a couple of hours while I got a nice seasoned post oak fire going in the smoker. At about this point I figured "What the hell, why waste all this good smoke?" so I decided I’d throw in some corn, and I’d try a couple of those Jimmy Dean Fatties y’all rave about. And while I was at it, I’d also try that smoked cabbage with my homemade bacon, a bit of sausage, spice, and way too much butter.
The brisket had been smoking for about five hours before I added all that other stuff, and admittedly I’m not that that good at tending a stick burner for such an extra long duration. According to my Maverick remote probe, the brisket internal temp spiked up to 175 F a bit early in the smoking process and I had to moderate the smoker temperature by opening the door a crack. I mopped everything with a thirty-thirty-thirty mixture of apple juice, cider vinegar and black coffee every 45 minutes or so until the internal temp finally peaked at 190 F, after almost ten hours of smoke time.
The cabbage was in a stainless steel bowl and a bit under done so I just covered that with another bowl and then foiled up the brisket and the fatties, then stuck it all in a cooler to let it sit for the last hour it took the cabbage to finish cooking. I was working on a sauce and some Texas toast in the kitchen at that point, and through some stroke of good fortune everything finished up right at 5:30 pm!
Dinner time y’all, and way too much food for any two people to eat, but well hell, I figured it would all save pretty well.
I gotta admit the corn was a loss, I overcooked that one, but Carolyn, bless her heart, told me the brisket was incredibly good and I had to agree, it really was a phenomenal feast. The cabbage was great, the fatties were killer, and embarrassing easy to make so I can't take much credit for those, thanks go to Jimmy Dean!
But that brisket took the cake, not to brag, but I'd say it was the best I ever tasted, I’m truly hooked now y’all. I doubt I could have pulled it off if I hadn’t read all y’all’s tips and instructions on how brisket is supposed to be done. Thanks everyone, now my honey won’t mind me sitting outside by the fire all day after this!
