Old School Brisket

[Dwain Pannell]

I was straightening up the cookbook shelf this AM and came across one I haven't seen in a while: The ONLY Texas Cookbook from the Texas Monthly Press published in 1981 so I decided to thumb through it again.

In the brisket recipe it says not to cook a brisket any higher than 200* because it would boil all the moisture out of the meat at highr heat. They also instruct the cook to marinade the brisket for 24 hours wrapped tightly in foil, open the foil after 24 hours only to add more pepper to the marinade, seal the foil back up, and place in a 200* cooker overnight for 8 hours.

Interestingly, I've never marinaded a brisket, or cooked one at a temp that low, or cooked one from start to finish wrapped in foil. Definitely on the opposite end of the spectrum from a High Hot cook.

 

[Richard Hinton]

I've seen recipes that say to pull the brisket to 185, but this is a new twist.
Does the recipe give a weight approximation for the brisket? I'm willing to try anything once. Thanks.

 

[Dwain Pannell]

It says 8 to 10 lbs so I imagine they're talking flat.

 

[J Hoke]

What was the marinade?

 

[Dwain Pannell]

What was the marinade?

1/4 C dry red wine
1 T molasses
1/4 C soy sauce
1 t peppercorns
1 T salt
5 cloves garlic, pressed
2 onions minced fine
2 stalks celery, minced fine

marindae 24 hours wrapped tight in foil. Open foil prior to cooking and sprinkle generously with course ground pepper. Seal foil and cook 8 hrs.

 

[Dave Russell]

It says 8 to 10 lbs so I imagine they're talking flat.

Actually, from what I gather, 8-10 lb packer cut briskets are quite common in beef country, but since it's not specifying a BBQ technique, I assume it very well could be referring to how best to cook a market-trimmed brisket (flat).

Regarding the warning not to cook over 200 and boil the fat, this is utter nonsense. Wrap something in foil and you can probably cook it at just about whatever temp you want to, but when it comes to smoking, moderate temps seem to work best for me. If I cook too slow (without wrapping in foil), then the flat often ends up on the dry side.