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Smoked brisket is a slow-cooked, spiced beef cut using smoldering wood. The tough meat of the cow’s brisket is typically discarded but can be tenderized through soaking, marinating, and smoking for up to 15 hours. The meat is coated in a dry spice blend and smoked at a constant temperature of 200-230°F. The fat cap on the meat melts and wets the meat, and a drip pan filled with steaming water or wine is used for extra moisture. The meat is served in thin, rectangular slices with barbecue sauce and sides.
Smoked brisket involves a method of grilling a spiced cut of beef with the low heat and subtle flavor of smoldering wood. Low heat requires a long cooking time. The long cooking time is dictated by the particularly tough meat of the specific part of a cow used to make the brisket. There are certain regions of the world with a tradition of curing and preserving beef in smokehouses. The brisket is one of the typical culinary specialties of the southern regions of the United States.
There is a thin layer of meat on the underside of a cow that covers what might be considered its brisket, its first five ribs. The meat is very tough, filled with veins of fat and connective tissue. Many butchers in the past have simply discarded this part, to be ground up with other garnishes thrown away. This beef is typically inexpensive compared to other, more tender cuts of beef. The slab can weigh around 4.5 kg, but is usually divided into two distinct sections called the brisket and flat.
Compared to the large muscles elsewhere on a cow that needs to be supported by a lot of fat, the brisket is very lean. To tenderize the pulp, it is commonly soaked in frequent changes of fresh water for up to three days. This is followed by 12 to 36 hours in a chilled solution of salty brine or acidic marinade. Once rinsed and allowed to dry, the meat is generously coated in a dry spice blend that permeates the meat at room temperature for about an hour.
There are many types of smokers, from small chimney-style drums to cast iron smokers the size of a car. Functionally, they are more or less the same. There must be a controllable heat source — coal, gas, or electricity — to burn fresh hardwood pieces like hickory and mesquite without igniting them. The resulting smoke rises to gulp – or is funneled through an offset gulp chamber – a grate upon which the spiced brisket sits. The smoker must be able to maintain a constant internal ambient temperature between 200° and 230° Fahrenheit (93°-110° Celsius).
For smoked brisket, this reduced cooking temperature must be maintained for up to 10-15 hours, a very dedicated task. Normally, any meat cooked this long will become a dry preserve. In addition to soaking and marinating the meat for smoking, there are other characteristics unique to its preparation that result in the moist, almost buttery-smooth texture of smoked brisket.
Characteristic of the beef brisket cut is a layer of fat on the skin called the “fat cap”. As it slowly melts in the smoker, it wets the meat underneath. Some of the fatty juices fall into a drip pan which is typically attached to a smoker’s rack. The pan will also be filled with steaming water or wine for the so-called “wet smoke” method. For extra moisture, once an hour you apply a mop, brush, or squirt of perhaps acidic fruit juices to the meat as a basting liquid.
After half a day of smoking, the breast meat will be fully cooked. It will have shrunk up to 30% in size and its fat hood will probably have disappeared. Smoked brisket is usually carved on the grain of its muscle in thin, long rectangular slices. A stack of them might be served with a drizzle of barbecue sauce accompanied by baked beans, potato salad, and corn on the cob; this is popular in some regions of the United States. Elsewhere, pastrami is one of the best-known smoked morsels in the world.
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