As written for the Sisterhood Cookbook at my Synagogue. Bracketed language is my additions for posting here.
The World’s Greatest Brisket
If you think there’s a bit of hyperbole in that title, let it be known that at Falltacular, a charity wine collector event that raises money for a Women’s Shelter in San Juan Capistrano, three attendees who had eaten this brisket at an event in our back yard in 2010 [In New York] complained that I had failed to make it, freeze it, and bring it with us to California so they could have it again.
This recipe is the whole enchilada. You can omit parts of it; you don’t have to use a smoker; the mole sauce is icing on the cake that I learned to add at the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park; and you can adjust it as you find convenient. You can even make it better and claim the title of “The World’s Even Better Greatest Brisket.”
This recipe is as much about technique as it is about ingredients. You don’t have to follow the rub recipe below, you can be creative and make your own, so long as you do not forget the important rule of cooking beef – you can’t have too much garlic. This recipe is designed not to be overtly “hot.” If you like Szechuan and Vindaloo, you can add your favorite ground hot pepper to the rub. If you don’t have a smoker [Why anyone would not own a smoker is beyond me], you can do the first bake in the oven for a few hours instead, but make sure that you bake it over a pan of water because you need the humidity. If you want to fiddle with the mole recipe, go ahead. I have seen mole recipes with as many as 25 ingredients.
Step I – The preparation of the brisket for the absorption of the flavors:
Buy a full brisket with the entire fat cap, weight in the 16-18 pound range. Take a really sharp knife (I use a Shun Japanese 12 inch Yangiba to slice off the fat and a 10 inch Trident chef’s knife for the big chunks ) and remove the exterior fat, making sure to cut some of it off in sheets or strips, which you will use later to keep the brisket ultra juicy while smoking it. Also remove the large triangle of solid fat in the deckle (point) portion of the brisket and any other large solid chucks of fat, but do not remove any of the fatty meat. Lay the sheets and strips of fat on top of each other, put them in a plastic bag, and put in the refrigerator. The first time you do this, save the rest of the fat in the refrigerator as well. Once you get the hang of how much fat you have to save, you can throw out the big chunks the next time. You want to cut off as much of the exterior and solid pieces of fat as you can so that the rub – Step II – touches the meat. You do not want to cut into the meat, but a few boo-boos are almost inevitable. Not to worry but leave the meat as intact as possible.
[Shortcut – buy a trimmed whole brisket. If you want to use only the flat-cut, low-fat portion, I recommend that you pick another recipe. This recipe is not low fat and it doesn’t work very well with a lean flat cut brisket.]
Step II – Initiate the flavor absorption process:
You need to make a spice rub to flavor the meat. You can use whatever rub you want, but you will need at least one-half cup of it. Make a cup and if there is leftover, just save it for something else. I use only spices in the rub, but you can add herbs if you want or other spices if you want. I use only dry ingredients. I believe that moist ingredients do not work well because they cause the rub to clump together. Other people disagree.
My basic rub is made free hand without measuring cups, but this is about right. Mix together ¼ cup garlic powder, ¼ cup paprika, 1/8 cup Kosher salt, 1/8 cup freshly ground black pepper, ¼ cup freshly toasted and freshly ground cumin seeds (ou can use pre-ground cumin, but the fanatic in me requires that I take cumin seeds, toast them in a hot cast iron fry pan until they start to release their aroma, and then grind them finely before adding to the mix). Throw in some onion powder if you have it. Rub the spice mix into the brisket, all sides, getting it into all the crevices and flaps. Put the brisket in a large glass pan and cover the pan with plastic wrap. DO NOT use a metal pan unless you first double wrap the brisket in plastic wrap. Put the brisket in the refrigerator for a day, or two days, or three, but not longer.
(Shortcut – buy a Cajun rub or any other commercially available BBQ rub.)
Step III – Prepare the accoutrements:
While the brisket absorbs the flavors, you need to prepare two things to bathe the brisket.
Part A – the onions
First, make at least two pounds of caramelized onions. You need to start with at least five pounds of large Spanish onions or, if you want to be nominated for the Foodie Fanatic Hall of Fame, use Vidalia onions. Slice thinly and sauté in a bit of olive oil, stirring regularly, until the onions are medium to dark brown and reduced in volume by at least 50% as the water cooks out and the flavor intensifies. Start with a high temperature and lower it as the liquid comes out of the onions and boils away. This takes at least 30 minutes with regular stirring. You can, when mostly done, cheat a bit by putting the onions on a no stick cookie sheet in a slow (250 degree) oven and let them roast, stirring every once in a while. Cool, put in jar or plastic bag in refrigerator.
Part B – the Mexican mole sauce
This is one of the real fanatic parts. You are going to make Mexican mole sauce. The following recipe is a modification of a recipe for Mole Rojo. Mole is a traditional multi-ingredient sauce. You can buy it in some stores, and that’s an acceptable, although not quite as good, alternative. If you buy it in the store, you usually have to add some water because it is too dry. You want it to be the consistency of a very thick sauce, but still able to be poured.
The basic ingredients are plum tomatoes, dried Guajillo peppers, bitter chocolate, and pumpkin seeds. You need a black iron fry pan or other heavy griddle. Take three to four ounces of dry Gaujillo peppers, remove the seeds and stems (use plastic gloves if you have them and if not, wash your hands thoroughly after seeding them), and then dry fry them in a hot iron fry pan until they start to brown. Remove to cool. Toast a half cup of raw pumpkin seeds in the dry iron fry pan, stirring as they make a popping sound, until they start to pop and they turn light brown instead of green. Remove to cool. Dry fry 12 ounces of fresh plum tomatoes in the iron fry pan, stirring occasionally, until the skin begins to brown. Remove and let start to cool. In a blender, add the tomatoes, peppers, pumpkin seeds, 6 cloves garlic, two canned chipotle peppers (buy a little can in the Mexican food department at the grocery store), 2 tsp salt, 1 tsp ground allspice, 2 tsps cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground close, 1 tsp sugar, 2 tbsps olive or peanut oil and ¼ cup peanut butter. Use almond butter if you are allergic to peanuts. Skip the nuts if you are allergic to both. Puree in the blender until smooth and then puree some more so it is really smooth. Add a bit of water if you need to loosen it so you can puree. After it’s smooth, put a bit of oil in the iron fry pan to coat, heat the fry pan until almost smoking hot, put the entire mixture from the blender into the iron fry pan and sauté, adding ½ ounce of bitter sugar free chocolate, chopped up to facilitate melting. 91% Lindt or 85%+ Valhrona or comparable. Sauté for about 5 minutes until warmed and the chocolate is fully melted, stirring occasionally. If needed to maintain a thick sauce consistency, add a bit of water. Cool and put in jar or plastic bag refrigerator.
Step IV – Smoke the brisket [DONE IN THE BGE BUT NOT MENTIONED AS SUCH IN THE OFFICIAL RECIPE]
Heat smoker to 225 degrees using hickory, apple, oak or fruitwood on top of lump charcoal. Do not use mesquite, it’s too bitter. Do not use briquettes, they are for amateurs. If you do not have a smoker, you can use a Weber kettle with the indirect method but be careful not to get the temperature too high. Remove brisket from pan and unwrap if you wrapped it. Take the strips of fat you saved in Step I and lay them on top of the brisket and secure with toothpicks. Cover the brisket as completely as you can with the fat. This keeps it moist while smoking. Put the brisket in the smoker and smoke for 8-12 hours at 200-225 degrees.
When done, remove from smoker and remove the toothpicks and discard any loose fat on top. Lay out a large sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil twice the size of the brisket on the counter, smear half of the caramelized onions and one third of the mole sauce on one side of the aluminum foil. Put the brisket on top of the onions and mole, then top with the rest of the onions and the mole sauce. Wrap tightly with the aluminum foil. Wrap a second time with aluminum foil so it is double wrapped tight, put in refrigerator and let sit for one to two days to allow the flavors to integrate.
Step V – Melt out the remaining fat.
Take the brisket out of the refrigerator. DO NOT unwrap. Poke two or three tiny holes with a toothpick on the underside and put the brisket in a pan – metal is fine. Hopefullly, you have a continuous read thermometer with a read out you can keep outside the oven. If so, stick the probe into the meat. If not, you’re going to have to check the temperature a lot. Put the brisket in a 350 degree oven. After two hours, decrease the temperature to 250 degrees. Better choice is to drop the temperature once the internal meat temp gets to about 175. You need to gradually increase the internal temperature until it is between 195 and 205 degrees and hold at that temperature. At that temperature, the fat and collagen melts. When the meat gets to that temperature, lower the oven to 225 degrees. You need to hold the meat temperature at 195-205 degrees for at least two hours and let the fat melt. It will ooze out of the foil into the pan. You know you are done when there is a pool of clear fat in the pan. When that happens, remove the brisket in the foil from the pan, put on the counter, unwrap. If you get impatient, that’s OK, you can take it out earlier.
Get a big wood cutting board and place upside down on top of the brisket. Flip the brisket and cutting board over. This takes two people. The brisket is so soft at this point that this is the only way we have been able to get it onto a cutting board. Remove the foil, allow to cool just a bit, and slice with the sharpest knife you own. If you do not own a good Japanese steel sharp angle carving knife, get one, because the meat is so soft that there is no other way to carve it. When you carve it, serve it along with the onions and mole sauce that have had a close relationship with the meat for the past few days.