Sorry about the lack of some postings. I'm in my 40's now, so I'm a bit slower.
I still have no idea why that bothered me. Right now, I'm chalking it up to the convergence of several big issues: my Dad being give 6 months to live, lots of work pressure and stress, and my house needing lots of reno work.
But, I started feeling better the night I smoked a beef brisket, then had Dean, Chuck and Mike over to sit around, chat and eat beef.
SMOKED BEEF BRISKET:
First thing you need is the 'right' beef brisket. If you buy one from the store it will be all trimmed up. That is not right. You need to get a good quality one from a butcher, and get it in the vacuum pack right from the slaughter house. It should be about 12 pounds and have all the fat attached. DO NOT LET THEM TRIM THIS FOR YOU. They will wreck it. Since it's all sealed up, this can survive in the bottom of your fridge and age for weeks. Make sure it's got at LEAST 5 weeks on it. More won't hurt. Just use it as is: can't imagine what you need to cut off.
Second important thing is a good Cajun spice. I mix my own, so I control the spiceyness and the salt (ie: it's a bit more spicey than you would buy and less salty). I'd share my recipe, but then I'd have to kill you.
Third is get a bag of hickory chips. Soak them in water for a least a few hours.
Fourth is to make a mop. Given the salty spicey of the Cajun spice, this needs to be savoury and sweet. Here's roughly what I used. Heat all this up together, then emulsify it with the oil while mixing.
a bottle of beer
about double that of apple juice
500 mls of stock (I think I used chicken)
a couple tablespoons of the same Cajun spice as above
about 6-8 tablespoons of brown sugar (this needs to be on the sweeter side)
4 tablespoons of wortershire sauce
a dash of apple cider vineager
at least half a pound of butter, whipped in to the hot fluid to emulsify and thicken
Get cooking!
Time wise, you want to look at 20 hours of cooking time. This brisket was only about 9 pounds but I still cooked it for about 22 hours. You want to spend the first 8 smoking it hard (hard as in lots of hickory smoke) at no more than 225 degrees. Then wrap it up in tinfoil, place in the oven for the rest of the time at 170 degrees F. No, I don't think you can 'over do' it.
Take the brisket out and rinse and dry. Then absolutely coat, as thick as possible, the entire thing in Cajun spice. I started this at about 6pm the day before.
Next, start a batch of charcoal, and get your bag of hickory chips that you have left soaking in water. I use an offset, charcoal only, smoker. Fire up a couple batches of charcoal and get things to a good solid 225 F.
Put the meat on.
Now, for the next 8 hours, you need to keep the temperature up, while you add wet chips to make gobs of hickory smoke, and mop down the beef brisket. Of course, you don't want to let the heat out either. So you need a hotter fire, that gets cooled down with wet chips and survives mopping down the meat every hour and a half.
It is essential at this point to enjoy the plume of hickory smoke sailing up to the sky in a column of fragrant joy. Have a beer, think about all those old testament sacrifices, and ponder God enjoying the aroma and the moment. It's dark out, it's still and quiet, you're all alone with your maker, and tomorrow nights dinner. Really folks, that's church for me.
So, at the end of 8 hours, you've maybe repositioned the 'fat' end a few times, you're out of hickory chips, the meat is looking browned, and you're ready for bed. Wrap it up in tinfoil carefully! You don't want to scrap off any flavor. Double wrap it so it's really sealed, and then put it in a big pan so if it leaks you don't trash your stove.
Put it in a stove preheated to 170 degrees F, and leave it.
Pull it out an hour before serving, and let it sit on top of the stove. Cut (if you can) the now tender beef brisket across the grain, and eat with fresh buns and coleslaw.
Sorry there is no picture of the final product. I got so excited that I forgot. I guess I'll have to do another and update this......
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