What have I been smoking?
We were going to let the brisket cook till about 7, and eat at 7:30, which is candle-lighting time here in Livingston this week, but by 5:30 we couldn’t stand it any more. Neither of us had made any lunch today, plus the excitement had been building.
The challah was done. I cheaped out this week and let the bread machine finish it up, since there was just too much going on to braid loaves and bake them in the oven.
It really grew in the break machine. It was almost touching the top. The best part was that it was really, really good.
We started with the leftover Borscht from the second seder. This is my mother’s mother’s recipe. It’s a hot borscht, with beef, garlic and beets in it. It’s seasoned to sweet-and-sour, using Splenda and Sour Salt (citric acid powder.) Words do not express how good this is. My Grandmother was born in Zhitomir, in the Ukraine, but since she came here at two years old, we can only assume that she learned it from her mother, or an aunt or something.
Next I unwrapped the brisket. This is what I got. It’s black on the outside, a mixture of caramelized fat, burned seasoning, and I’m not sure what.
I made the first cut on the end, specifically to take a photo. Thereafter, I cut 90 degrees from that cut in order to cut against the grain.
Note the red “smoke ring” around the outside, that Jon says is so important, and hard to obtain. I have one here. The meat is juicy and pinkish grey, the edge is red, and the outside is black. I think we hit.
I served it with some barbecue sauce. We had two of the baked potatoes that had been in the fire.
How was it? Everything was excellent, and we ate till we could eat no more. There are two more meals worth that went into the freezer, plus three slices for breakfast.
The meat was not as tender as I expected, and there was no stringyness, or falling apart. Perhaps it could have used some more hours in the smoker. I’m not sure. I’ll take it though, and I look forward to (a) the leftovers and (b) doing it again.
I’ve always watched TV cooking shows, and when the dish is ready, and the chef and his guests taste the meal, and exclaimed, “excellent”, I felt left out. Now you can be left out, because I had it for dinner :)
Time to light candles in about 20 minutes. Good Shabbos, All.
3 Responses to “What have I been smoking?”
Comment from Jon
Time April 11, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Well Grasshopper,
I guess you have taken the pebble from my hand, and now it’s time to leave. As you thought, the tenderness comes from longer cooking at lower heat. The smaller the smoker the harder that is to acheive. I do it in a weber kettle grill but my next purchase is either the Weber Ranch Kettle ( http://www.weber.com/grills/assets/en-us/pdf/RanchKettle.pdf ) or the Treager Pellet smoker ( http://www.traegergrills.com/ )but some say I’ve lost my mind and smoking has become a religion. Glad it came out so well, keep it going and send me a slice. When you get to NY I’m planing to smoke a shoulder clod!!!!
Comment from Liz Bard
Time September 11, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Back in the 60′s when I was a teenager in Texas, my dad read about making a smoker from a new, metal garbage can, some heavy metal sticks and wire, an electric burner, coffee can and wood chips. I think he read it in Popular Science, Mechanics or an outdoor magazine. He used a 30 gal. can with lid and would smoke salmon, squirrel, rabbit and chicken. I do not know how long things were smoked. I just remember the first time he did it, the neighbors were running over to the house to let us know our trash can was on fire. Then my dad would have to show off his new smoker and tell how much it cost to make. We used it for at least 5 years. I do not remember if we took it with us when we moved. Different woods gave things a different flavor. I do not remeber the wood chips I liked the best, it has been too many years.
Comment from angel
Time April 11, 2010 at 10:28 am
Yum!
Very cool.