Brisket Watch

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Remember many years ago when Baby Jessica was stuck in a well?

Remember how all America waited with bated breath for her to be released from her confinement?

Or, more recently, remember those Chilean miners who were trapped in a mine in Chile (where else would you expect to find a trapped Chilean miner, I ask you?) Remember how the whole world was watching? Remember how we all cheered upon their release???

Now, you’re starting to get the flavor of what we here in the Boonies experienced on Saturday night.

I like to call it “Brisket Watch”. And it’s my blog, dang it, so I’m going to call it whatever I want.

It all started innocuously enough.

The Big Bison went in search of an untrimmed brisket. He procured one from a little food store out here in the country, because we know that the bigger grocery chain stores tend to buy most of their meat already cut and trimmed these days.

We had never tried smoking a brisket before, and are actually still  very much novices at the whole meat smoking thing, so mercy and grace are kindnesses you might well extend toward us as you ponder  the judgment you will render in regard to our sad situation.

So, anywho, he got the brisket, and charged me with finding a recipe, pronto. I went to Steven Raichlin, who used to be a contributing editor to Gourmet magazine, and who has written books on barbecue and smoking, among them How to Grill and  The Barbecue Bible, and who even hosted a show on PBS that some of you may remember called Primal Grill. Seemed like a reasonable idea at the time. I knew that the Bison wanted a rub (heh heh) that he could apply to the exterior of the brisket.

Here’s the rub I used. It sounded good to me!

Bacon Crusted Texas Style Brisket
	Source: How to Grill by Steven Raichlen (Workman, 2001) Serves: 10 to 12 For the brisket and rub: 1 trimmed brisket (5 to 6 pounds) with a layer of fat and least 1/4-inch thick 3 tablespoons chili powder 1 tablespoon coarse (kosher or sea) salt 2 teaspoons black pepper 1-1/2 teaspoons brown sugar 1-1/2 teaspoons garlic salt 1-1/2 teaspoons onion powder 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 8 slices of bacon There’s more to the recipe, and you can click on the link if you’d like to read it, but I knew some of you would be asking about what we put on it. The recipe also calls for a mop, made out of beer, vinegar, and garlic salt, so if you want the total recipe, go see Steven Raichlen’s website. Don’t forget: you can click on all these pictures to further enhance your vicarious pleasure. The brisket with the rub, all prepped for the smoker. Anyway, the Big Bison scored the brisket, we let it sit in the rub overnight, and then the next morning around 10:00, he put it on the smoker. Let’s get smokin’! And Brisket Watch began. We waited. And waited. At 6:00, after smelling that smoke for 8 hours, I was so hungry I was considering what the consequences of taking it off the grill a little early might be. The whole family was totally hungry and more than ready to eat! At 7:00, I was getting a bit testy. At 8:00, I was feeling faint from hunger. By 9:00, as I sat gnawing my arm off, the Big Bison said he’d be taking the brisket off the smoker soon, and then, we’d have to WAIT 30 MINUTES. (Insert sound of maniacal laughter.) Really? You’d like me to wait? The children are in their pajamas and headed for bed with no dinner, but you’d like us to wait??? Well, here’s what we waited for. Hot off the grill: note the darkness outside the window. Wipe the slobber off the corner of your mouth, there. The verdict: it was delicious. Absolutely delicious!!! However: next time, we will trim off more fat before we grill/smoke it. Oh, yeah. And we’ll start a whole lot earlier in the day.