Pressure is On....Beer-Bike Briskets

Rice University's annual Beer Bike race today! Woo hooo!

Pressure to perform is On!! I'm making 2 briskets for the Alumn bbque at Valhalla afterwards.

I am ready! I'm feeling it. My first 2 brisket were for guinea pigs. The 1st brisket had excellent texture but an hour overcooked---my damn thermometer sucked. The second brisket last week was, I have to admit, the tastiest sumbitchen brisket I've ever cooked (I say with amateur pride with nothing to compare it to)...but I was gun shy from overcooking the last one so that was not good texture (1 hour undercooked).

Now I'm ready. and I have two in the pit to make sure one is perfect.

Thanks for all the help Behad and Pole...the pecan wood, selecting the right brisket, prepping it, mopping a few times and knowing your smoker! that's it (don't forget the beer)....I am hooked. Oh, and yellow mustard coating is killer, just like Behad's web site says.

Bring on the ribs.

 

got the Cherokee. I've learned you have to call in advance to make sure they get some for you. Last weekend Academy was out. So I was cooking wood in my Webber first to turn it into Cherokee and shoveling it into the El Dorado. That had great results, but too much work for a beautiful Sunday.

btw: I think I stumbled onto something last weekend. (I consider myself a sauce connessiour, and love pure brisket enough to know a great brisket needs no sauce.) My mom kept asking me to pull out the brisket because she had an Oscar party to go to. I was planning on something approaching 3:30-4. But, 3pm made it 6 hrs for a 5 lb'er, and I figured...I am damn sure not overcooking this one, so let's see... Anyhow I separated the top muscle from the marbled cut and could see a little blood seeping out and figured...**** this is undercooked by an hour...and my fire is out. But it was beautiful and tasty, just too chewy. So, I figured, hell I will cheat and cook it in the oven for 30 minutes to finish it. My mistake was I sliced it first, this bad idea (prompted by the end piece samples being so stellar) resulted in all the juices flowing out in the dish and braising the beef. The braising I knew would happen, but losing the juices gave it a poorly braised texture.

Then the miracle happened. I poured out the juice and added some subtle spices, and oh my god, a real freaking au jus sauce for brisket...not BBQ sauce mind you but an au jus made out of the briskets own pure essence....imagine liquid brisket.

poured that back over the slices....oh my god, they glistened! And then the next day eating it cold...incredible.

so, my tip is: when you are really trying to impress someone...like if you are trying to date Behad's daughter...cook two briskets and sacrifice one for its pure essence to give the other an au jus glisten.

It's like you have to just move on to another girl....and admit defeat. lol! cause even if you can do it, the daddy still wins and that ratbastid will brainwash his granddaughter's, too. You'll never have a chance! hehe

[This message has been edited by heypartner (edited March 31, 2001).]

 

Behad,

quick question...So i'm cooking these two briskets at home, and am going to transport them to Valhalla. I'm not quite sure when everyone will be there to eat...so,

should just wrap the brisket whole and store it in my cooler to slice later...or???

btw: do you like the way my fingers are really bad at spelling....misspelling "juices" as "choices". I have the Ernest Hemmingway disease...he was the first to mention how he was a good speller, but his fingers just sucked.

 

Yeah Ali, and the Valhalla grad alumns are going to kick some undergrad butt today!!!

 

rock!!!!!!

they .... they said.... brisket ...

rock!!!!!!