Enhanced Brisket, Texas Style

On Memorial Day Weekend (2010), I cooked a 13-pound, untrimmed, beef brisket, and it was perhaps our best ever, certainly our most-commercial.

I used the cooking method described in Damn Good Brisket and pics, with only the following changes:

• No onions, pepper, etc. from the Damn Good Brisket recipe.  (Substitute The Rub, plus garlic, described below).
• The Rub.
• Fat side of brisket scored, through the fat, 1-inch apart throughout its length to allow penetration of the rub into the meat.  Rub was hand-rubbed into the meat on all sides, especially into the scores on the fat side.  A whole garlic was peeled and chopped and spread evenly into the scores.
• Brisket was wrapped in wide aluminum foil and placed in a 4″ pan, as before, and kept in the refrig 36 hours.
• Cooked fat-side-up.  Foil and pan removed when transferring from the oven to the smoker.
• Shorter time in the oven, longer time in the smoker.  4 hours 40 minutes in the oven instead of 6 hours.  Total cooking time exactly 12 hours, 3am to 3pm.
• Temperature in the oven and smoker held closely to 285 degrees (very important).
• Sliced and served hot, 10 minutes out of the smoker.
• Sauce optional, but not needed.

The Rub

Texas-style brisket rubs mostly have the same ingredients with minor variations.  Wifey, the culinary artist, put this one together.  The proportions matter.  The amounts shown would have been fine for even a larger brisket, 20% more than were needed for this 13-pounder.

• 4 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons chili powder
• 4 tablespoons paprika
• 4 tablespoons salt (about right, commercially, but can be reduced)
• 2 tablespoons garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons onion powder
• 4 tablespoons black pepper (some Central TX restaurants would have used more)
• 2 tablespoons cayenne
• 4 teaspoons dry mustard
• 4 teaspoons ground cumin

This recipe is our new standard.  One caveat:  I have no clue how this would work on a gas grill.

Leftovers were wrapped in foil and kept in the refrigerator overnight, after most of the excess fat was removed.  Here’s a shot, bottom-side up.  The color on the fat side was essentially the same.  This color is typical of what you get at the very finest few Central TX BBQ restaurants… dark, almost black, not burned anywhere, juicy and falling-apart tender.

Enjoy!

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