It's what's for Dinner

...and lunch, and supper, and then lefties the next day. We're talking about a Monster Brisket, as big as a Buick.

(posted by Bill)

As most people know, I found Religion in a big way. Pork, and pork products. Naturally, I'm not referring to "the other white meat"*, that sawdust-textured crap that had me swear off the stuff for 20 years. People thought I was Jewish (which is funny, because most Jewish people I know eat pork as if it were Manna). Nothing beats kurobuta or heritage pork, with the right amount of fat in it. On a related note, Chef Jonathon Sawyer's (Bar Cento) wife Amelia posted this on her very creative blog, Chef's Widow (a rack of bacon?). If I was getting ink, this would be the tat:


Anyway, I'm normally loading the smoker up with pork. I did almost 30 lbs. for the kid's birthday party (along with two hams and 15 lbs of kielbasa), as well as doing the same for our Porsche Club wine tasting in back to back weekends. We also enjoyed a marvelous kurobuta pork butt at Fred and Linda's over Memorial Day, as well as rib tips with an Asian huckleberry glaze. So, depite the fact that there is no such thing as "too much pork", I would try a change of pace, and that means brisket for BBQ. Otherwise, we're simply grilling rib eyes, or skirt. So on Friday, we made a stop at Mr. Brisket. Besides some of the best pastrami and corned beef in town, they make this great thai sausage, and hot dogs. We loaded up on those items as well as this big ol' hunk o' beef.

I did a rub of black pepper, adobo, anchos, corriander, salt, cardamom and cinnamon. I left the brisket in the oven overnight at 200F (7-8 hrs), then in the smoker at about 200-225F for another 8 hrs. After burning through 30 lbs of charcoal and some chunks of mesquite, I wrapped it in foil and a towel, and placed it in an ice chest for the two hours before dinner (no ice-a cambro is a glorified ice chest. Insulation works in either direction, i.e., thermal transfer is thermal transfer. It reminds me of a joke about a thermos: "how do it know?"). I made a sauce out of the same spices used in the rub (plus brown sugar) in tomato sauce. There's a picture of the finished product in the post below.

The fat cap on this brisket really made the difference. I rendered over half of it away while cooking, and it still left a little fat on top. I didn't bother to trim it off before serving, as I figured everyone could determine how much of that fat they wanted to put into their diet (along with that spicy brown crust), LOL.

We also did some thai sausage (in a huckleberry glaze) served over sesame noodles , and some killer duck breasts served with an Asian chutney. They went too fast to snap a picture :-).


*That reminds me-Shelley's mom made us "city chicken" for dinner last week. I've always wondered how it got it's name. You'd think that it would be easier to raise chickens in the city than pigs. Case in point: the "Animal Detective" shows on The Discovery Channel always show the New York Animal Control officers battling cock-fighting rings (which to me seems like the Hispanic equivalent of Neck-Car)