Finally A Brisket Worth Cooking

I stand by my statement that a Chuck Roast or Rib Roast is the beef joint to cook low and slow in the UK but this weekend I nailed a brisket purchased at a local supermarket. How? I hear you cry so I will tell all.

Firstly I looked for a brisket that had fat on the outside and then looked for one that also had some intramuscular fat. Not always easy to spot when the briskets are wrapped but look through them to see which you think has the most fat content, trust me it won’t be too much fat! The last time I was wide of the mark, the brisket cooked okay, tasted nice and ate okay but was dry as a bone. This time it all looked good but I took no chances and brined the brisket for around six hours then took it out of the brine, didn’t rinse, vacuum sealed it and put it in the fridge overnight. This brisket as many do had a large cut through it where the butcher removed the decal. I don’t mind this as the decal will not render very well and I tie the meat together again to keep it as one piece whilst smoking.

The following day I took it out of the wrapper and allowed it to come to room temperature. I then used yellow mustard for a binder and hit it with some Angus & Oink Black Gold. I’ve used this for the last three briskets (one a week for three weeks) just to keep the taste profile the same to see how the briskets tuned out.

The first brisket I smoked on my Masterbuilt 800 for 7 hours, some of you tried it at our Fire Shack event and if I say so myself it was tasty and a bit moist. The second one I smoked for 7 hours on our Masterbuilt Portable, I tasted good but was dry (that was the cut not the grill). This one I smoked at home on my Traeger Ironwood 650 and boy was it good. As you can see from the images is was oozing moisture and it tasted spot on, my best supermarket brisket to date.

Was it the Traeger? They would love me to say yes but my Traeger is as good as any other smoker at holding temperature for 7 hours straight though this one only took 6 hours, cook to temperature NOT time. I wrapped them all at 72 C internal as it won’t take on any more smoke flavour after this temp but this one the pink paper was running with tallow, enough to pour back over the brisket when I unwrapped it after an hours rest.

Am I a convert from Chuck Roasts? No, although this was an excellent cut that tasted wonderful and was juicy and tender I find British brisket too hit and miss BUT if you can find a good one it will be worth the effort, just remember to brine it first!