BBQ Beef Brisket

This past Sunday I spent a leisurely afternoon preparing a beef brisket. Although we Utahns call all grilling “barbecuing,” real barbecuing is slow roasting with a rub, sauce, or both. Here is my way of barbecuing a brisket: 

Ingredients

• 1 beef brisket
• BBQ Rub (recipe follows)
• Cooking oil spray
• Fine grain sea salt. 1/4 teaspoon for every pound of pound of meat. For example, a 4-pound brisket would require 1 teaspoon. 

BBQ Rub Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dried dill
• 1 teaspoon ground marjoram
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 tablespoon anise seed
• 1 teaspoon fennel seed
• 1/2 tablespoon black peppercorns

BBQ Rub Directions

1. Put the already ground spices and herbs (first 8 ingredients) in a 2-cup (250 ml) mise bowl.
2. Put the last three ingredients in a mortar. Use the pestle to grind and mix them.
3. Add ground contents of the mortar to the mise bowl containing the other ingredients and thoroughly mix them with a small whisk. 

Directions for the day before

1. Put brisket on wax paper. Spray upper side with cooking oil. Coat with half the salt and generous amount of rub.
2. Turn brisket over and spray the newly exposed side with cooking oil. Coat with remaining salt and more rub.
3. Wrap brisket with foil and refrigerate overnight. 

Directions for day of

1. Heat grill to medium-low with direct heat.
2. Unwrap brisket and put fat side down over heat for about 15 minutes to 25 minutes. You want  some browning of the crust without blackening.
3. Turn brisket and brown other side. 
4. Remove brisket from grill and convert to indirect low heat.
5. Put brisket back on grill and cook slowly until instant read thermometer registers 190^o F. This may require 3 to 6 hours. 
6. Put meat on a cutting board and cover with a foil tent for 15 minutes. Cut into slices against the grain.

Photographs

Rub Ingredients

• Although I am a passionate grilling enthusiast going back to the 1950’s when my grandmother gave my father a charcoal grill, I am new to real barbecuing: the slow roasting of meat with rubs, spices, or both. My inspiration for this rub comes from Chef S. Dean Corbett (Levy, S. and Mayer, L. 2012. Big Green Egg Cookbook, p. 307. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing LLC.)  I tweaked the recipe slightly for my own taste, but Chef Corbett deserves acknowledgement. In writing this post, I searched for Chef Corbett on the internet. He was an esteemed Louisville KY restaurateur and chef who sadly died in 2018. Going forward I will always think of the chef when I make this rub. 
• I use fresh garlic in all my cooking except for BBQ sauces and rubs. The very ethic of BBQ is a down home lack of pretentiousness. 

Measured Rub Ingredients

I like my marble mortar and pestle a lot. I have investigated purchasing a molcajete, a stone tool of Mexican and Texas Mexican (not to be confused with Tex Mex) cuisine. But molcajetes are porous, and I prefer the hard surface of the marble.

Before Coating the Brisket

Because this brisket weighed 4-1/2 pounds, I used 1/4 teaspoon x 4-1/2 pounds = 4-1/8 teaspoons of salt. The cooking oil helps the salt and rub stick to the meat.

Brisket with Rub and Salt

The odor of the rub is intoxicating. It is difficult to think that dinner is 24 hours away.

Wrapped and Ready for Overnight in the Refrigerator

I wrapped the brisket in both plastic wrap and aluminum foil 

After Sitting Overnight in the Refrigerator

At least, dinner is today!

Thermometer on Big Green Egg

Grilling temperatures: Low: 250-325; medium 325-375; high 375-400 (All degrees Fahrenheit).

The Initial Searing of the Brisket

Big Green Egg

After the initial searing, I will put a ceramic plate setter under the metal grill for the indirect grilling. The indirect grilling will require some hours. Please note: All cooking is done with the lid closed. I don’t want novice grillers to deduce from these pictures that cooking is done with the lid up.

Sliced and Ready for the Table

For this dinner I also served plain mashed potatoes and an arugula, bosc pear, and goat cheese salad with shallot citrus vinaigrette.

Endnote

For the record I do all cooking with the metric system. Because this treatment of brisket is so quintessentially American, I decided to use only Imperial/US measurements. I pledge that all future posts on cooking will include metric equivalents. I am grateful for your patience.

Thank you for experiencing my posts with me, including this first one on food.

Buon appetito!

Chef Michael