Where is Smell-O-Vision when you really need it?
What do you do with it next, after removing at 172? I assume it still needs to cook further, up to around 195?
So you’re suggesting a syrah, zin, pino and or a cab or rhone blend would drink well with this masterpiece?
I am bringing a 2007 Saxum Heartstone Vineyard GSM blend. Also does well with anything else flavorful.
It’s a style question. If I want to melt out all the fat, it’s a slow heat and then hold at 200-205 degrees for a few hours to melt the fat, but I don’t think that’s necessary here and leaving in more fat would be nice.
it was close to impossible to drive it home… the smell was divine and penetrated every pore of the car (even after 2 plastic bags and whatever else jay lovingly wrapped it in.)
Whoa counselor…next time you come to PR we are cooking!
I had 5 smoked briskets at my synagogue last weekend for the Family Homeless Shelter BBQ and after about 6 hours reheating slowly in the oven, someone came in and asked, “Wow, that’s a lot of bacon you’re cooking. What’s it for?”
Explain a bit more. Are you saying you take it off at this point, and just keep it warm? That it’s done enough at 172? Everything I understand about this is that the fat and collagen haven’t been fully cooked to the point of tenderness by this point, and that it needs more time and temp to get there. Is that conventional wisdom wrong?
No, not quite what I do. The issue is how long I leave it at 200 degrees (I was recently told the precise correct temp is 203). I do not think it is necessary to bring it to that temp to “cook” it so that it can be eaten and enjoyed, but the real issue is whether you just bring it to that temperature and then take it out, or bring it to that temperature and then hold it at that temperature for hours. If you do the former, it is perfectly soft and juicy, but the fat and collagen are still in the meat. If you bring it to 200 and leave it there for 3 or 4 hours, then the fat and collagen will melt and come out of the foil as a pool of clear fat in your pan. It you do it just right, the meat is falling apart as you cut it but the fat is very limited, and a lot of people like that. Here are two photos of what you get when you leave the brisket in the oven at 200 for many hours:
First, have you even seen fat free brisket - this was an extra piece that I did not slice until the next day, when it was cold and I could slice it cleanly. The little orange spots are fat that congealed on the top of the brisket.
Then you have the "perfect slice. This is a slice of the point, or deckel, end of the brisket. I was slicing brisket for 120 people as fast as I could on a service line and this kid slicks out his plate to get some. I decide it is the perfect piece so I make him hold out his plate, I pull out my cell phone, and took this shot. Notice the perfectly marbled, but only slightly marbled, piece on top. Note also the caramelized onions in home made mole which were spread over the brisket before it was wrapped and baked to get out the fat.
Jay, Thanks for the pictures. Yeah, I’m very familiar with the goal, and your bottom picture is pretty much my nirvana as well. I was only asking what you’re next step is after removing from the BGE at 172, which is what your thermo reads in that picture. What next steps do you take to get it to 203?
Jay, as an avid bge cook and wine drinker…first, you are a geek. Me too. I will eat and or, drink with you any time. If you find your way to our crazy state, please let me know!
I slather with caramelized onions and mole, then double wrap in foil and after a day in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to integrate, I put in oven at 300 degrees and and bring the temp up to about 190, then lower the oven to 250 and bring to 200 degrees internal temp. Then I leave it there for a couple hours until the fat melts out.
Nice job, Jay. Nice job. I love your enthusiam and zest for this type of stuff. It’s second to none.
Thanks. It takes one to know one, Mr. Pizza! I pulled the brisket off the BGE on Saturday at about 6:30 pm. Despite two showers, dozens of hand washes, bombing my pool with excess chlorine and other activities over the past 38 hours, I can still smell the smoked brisket on the fingers of my right hand.
To Count’s point, you won’t ever need it if you ever have Jay’s brisket. Mouth is watering with many happy memories—and that was 7 years ago! I can still taste that brisket. Mmmmmm.
Mike
Thanks again Jay, great stuff!
Somewhere, there is a photo of me in a Curtis Martin Jets jersey stabbing a smoked brisket with a 14 inch Shun carving knife while holding a 12 liter bottle of Taittingers NV in my other hand at BF 2.5.
There are briskets and then there are Jay Hack Briskets. Hats off to you, sir!
Just really seeing this now. Oh my god. I cannot wait. Thank you Jay, this looks so good. Full NYC treatment for this visitor.