Title: The Brisket Chronicles: How to Barbecue, Braise, Smoke, and Cure the World's Most Epic Cut of Meat Author: Steven Raichlen, America's grill master, who has authored a library of books devoted to barbecue. I confess barbecue-type cookbooks don't blow up my skirt. but a book devoted to brisket - that's Marilyn Monroe skirt's over a street grate exciting. I never felt that way about brisket until I encountered burnt ends. Burnt ends are the crispy, flavor packed bits from the point end of the brisket. I've been known to push away my child's hand to get the last one on the plate. Before you can relish burnt ends you must have a brisket, and no one does brisket like Raichlen. The Brisket Chronicles shares pages on preparing this cut of meat along with rubs, sauces, jams and so much more including sides. Brisket in ramen, Raichlen has it covered. The meat genius even has recipes for Brisket tots - fried potato nuggets packed with flavor and brisket! Special thanks to Workman Publishing for providing two recipes for our members to try now as well as three copies of this killer book in our giveaway below. Joe's Kansas City-style brisket Add this recipe to your Bookshelf (click the blue +Bookshelf button). YIELD: Serves 10 to 12 METHOD: Barbecuing PREP TIME: 20 minutes COOKING TIME: 8 to 10 hours, plus 1 to 2 hours for resting HEAT SOURCE:Smoker (ideally, an offset barrel smoker) YOU'LL ALSO NEED: A large (13-by-9-inch) aluminum foil pan; wood logs, chunks, or soaked, drained hardwood chips; a metal bowl or aluminum foil pan (for the smoker); a digital instant-read thermometer (preferably remote); spray bottle; heavy-duty aluminum foil; an insulated cooler; a rimmed sheet pan; a deli-style meat slicer or electric knife WHAT ELSE: Most of the briskets in this section are cooked to an internal temperature of around 205°F. This makes them supernaturally moist and cut-with-the-side-of-a-fork tender-the texture we associate with Texas barbecued brisket. Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que cooks the meat only to 185°F, which leaves it still sufficiently firm to slice on a meat slicer. Joe's also suggests wrapping the brisket in foil partway through the cook. Imagine that-the "Texas Crutch" (page 60) in Kansas City. In a city as barbecue-obsessed as Kansas City, there are many styles of brisket. None is quite as distinctive as the brisket at Joe's Kansas City Bar-B-Que, founded by Jeff Stehney, head pit master of the much-decorated Slaughterhouse Five championship barbecue team and a 2017 inductee in the Barbecue Hall of Fame. Stehney starts not with whole packers, as is the practice in Texas, but with brisket flats. He gives them the usual rub and smoke treatment, but what really sets them apart is the way they are carved-into paper-thin slices on a deli-style meat slicer. This gives you a sandwich with a shaved beef texture that may remind you of Chicago's Italian beef. Ingredients
  • 1 large brisket flat (6 to 7 pounds)
  • 1/2 to 3/4 cup Slaughterhouse 2.0 Championship BBQ Rub (recipe follows)
  • 1 cup apple juice or apple cider, in a spray bottle, for spritzing
  • 12 hamburger buns, brushed with 3 tablespoons melted butter and grilled or toasted (see What Else, page 72), for serving
  • Your favorite sweet-smoky barbecue sauce (I'm partial to my bottled Project Smoke Lemon Brown Sugar or Spicy Apple Barbecue Sauce), or one of the sauces in chapter 10, for serving Sweet pickle chips, for serving
1. Using a sharp knife, trim the brisket, leaving a layer of fat at least ¼ inch thick (see page 14). Be careful not to over-trim. It's better to err on the side of too much fat than too little. 2. Place the brisket fat side up in the aluminum foil pan. Sprinkle the rub to coat the brisket on all sides, rubbing it into the meat with your fingertips. 3. Fire up your smoker following the manufacturer's instructions and heat to 250°F. Add the wood as specified by the manufacturer. Place a metal bowl or aluminum foil pan with 1 quart of warm water in the smoker-this creates a humid environment that will help the smoke adhere to the meat and keep your brisket moist. 4. Place the brisket in its pan fat side down in the smoker. Smoke the brisket for 1 hour, then turn it fat side up. Continue cooking the brisket until the outside is darkly browned and the internal temperature registers about 155°F on an instant-read thermometer, 5 to 6 hours, rotating the brisket 180 degrees halfway through so it cooks evenly. Spritz the brisket every hour with apple juice. Refuel your cooker as needed, following the manufacturer's instructions. 5. Wrap the brisket tightly in heavy-duty aluminum foil, crimping the edges to make a tight seal. Insert the probe of a digital thermometer into the meat (it's best to pierce the foil only once). Return the wrapped brisket to the smoker and cook to an internal temperature of 185°F, 2 to 3 hours more. 6. Transfer the wrapped brisket to an insulated cooler and let it rest for 1 to 2 hours. (This allows the meat to relax and its juices to redistribute.) 7. Unwrap the brisket, working over a rimmed sheet pan to collect the juices. Slice the brisket paper-thin on a meat slicer or transfer it to a welled cutting board and slice it with an electric knife. 8. To serve, pile the sliced brisket onto the prepared buns. Spoon on the reserved brisket juices. Add barbecue sauce and sweet pickles. Slaughterhouse 2.0 championship BBQ rub Add this recipe to your Bookshelf (click the blue +Bookshelf button). Yield: Makes 1 1/4 cups This barbecue rub is classic Kansas City, with sugar to make it sweet and mustard, chili powder, and cayenne to turn up the heat. Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 2 tablespoons dry mustard powder, such as Colman's
  • 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
  • 2 tablespoons granulated garlic
  • 2 tablespoons granulated onion
  • 2 tablespoons dried granulated lemon peel
  • 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon ground white pepper
  • 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
Combine the salt, sugar, chili powder, dry mustard, paprika, granulated garlic, onion, lemon peel, and black and white and cayenne peppers in a bowl and stir to mix, breaking up any lumps with your fingers. Slaughterhouse 2.0 Championship BBQ Rub will keep, in a sealed container at room temperature away from heat and light, for several weeks.

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What if you want smoke flavor but don't have access to a grill or smoker or it's too cold to shovel out your grill after a blizzard? For those times, the Smoking Gun comes to the rescue. When I attended the James Beard dinner in 2018 one of our swag gifts was Breville's the Smoking Gun. It is ideal for anyone who wants to infuse a little smoke into a dish without leaving the comfort of your kitchen.

This month marks EYB's 10th anniversary and the good folks at Breville is providing one of these handy tools as a grand prize to one of our cookbook winners in the giveaway below!

 

The publisher is offering three copies of this book to EYB Members in the US and Breville is offering one member the Smoking Gun. One of the entry options is to answer the following question in the comments section of this blog post.

Which recipe in the index would you try first?

Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won't be counted. For more information on this process, please see our step-by-step help post and this forum post. Once you log in and enter your member name you will be directed to the next entry option - the blog comment. After that, there are additional options that you can complete for more entries.

Be sure to check your spam filters to receive our email notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at midnight on October 4th, 2019. a Rafflecopter giveaway