So, I pulled in a ton of favors for an intercollegiate debate tournament my team is hosting this weekend and to entice a few colleagues to come all the way down to the Houston area I had to promise smoked brisket. Feeding friends is like feeding stray animals ... they keep coming back for more. Sadly, good briskets have been in very short supply around these parts so I went with the best of what I could find.
So ... a pretty simple start to the process: pumped, slathered, rubbed, held, smoked, devoured.
I used a simple injection consisting of 1/2 cup of beef stock (Kitchen Basics brand), 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 cup Dale's Seasoning, 1/4 cup unsalted butter, 2 tbsp Crystal Hot Sauce.
After injection the 6.71 lb. trimmed choice brisket was slathered with molasses and then coated with a new brisket rub I've been playing with:
1/4 cup coarse ground black pepper
2 tbsp garlic powder
2 tbsp onion powder
2 tbsp turbinado sugar
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp ground white pepper
1 tsp ancho chili powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin
The injected/slathered/rubbed brisket was wrapped in plastic and will go in the smoker tomorrow morning around 6:00 a.m. and smoke most of the day at 225 with two ounces of hickory and three ounces of cherry. I'll add a hanging water pan with a Shiner Bock and that's it ... no Texas Crutch, no spritzing, no poking or prodding or fiddling. With a bit of luck and a short stall it'll be ready to remove between 4:00-5:00 p.m. at a final temp of 175. After cooling a bit, it'll refrigerate overnight and suffer through an early morning reheat to 175-180 in the oven with a bit of the reserved injection liquid and be taken up to campus for a little 9:00 a.m. BBQ before the tourney kicks into high gear. It's not optimal, but I remain an optimist.
Wish me luck ...
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