Lohkee wrote:
Chuckles. I fear that you may have killed your own thread. It's going to be very difficult us to compete with something so beautifully cooked that looks absolutely freaking delicious. Kudos to the chef!

Thanks...and a point of note, my photographer mentor started the BBQ rub company Special Shit www.specialshit.com many years ago. One of his customers sent some to his son in Iraq during the first Gulf war and the soldiers put it on their MRE's. He retired from product photography and has been selling his BBQ products for several years.  I've tried numerous rubs and wouldn't cook without it!

Chris Rifkin wrote:
I would skip the beans and just hog out on the cow...

Yeppers. I wouldn't have any room for the beans

MoRina wrote:
I will likely never cook meat outside, but I am curious of one thing.  Why would you put the brisket in first with the fat side down?

I always thought, in general, if the fat was on top it would keep the meat moist and retain the flavor.  Since you were specific, and you seem to know what you are doing I was hoping you could clarify?

fat side down or up is debated in the BBQ world. I do fat side down to protect the meat from heat which dries it out. Since I pick a marbled brisket and since I inject it and then later finish the cooking in tinfoil, it comes out plenty juicy.

FlirtynFun Photography wrote:

fat side down or up is debated in the BBQ world. I do fat side down to protect the meat from heat which dries it out. Since I pick a marbled brisket and since I inject it and then later finish the cooking in tinfoil, it comes out plenty juicy.

Thanks - that does make sense.  I suppose I can see the advantages of both methods, depending on the piece of meat itself and the rest of your process.

Chris Rifkin wrote:
I would skip the beans and just hog out on the cow...

Lohkee wrote:
Yeppers. I wouldn't have any room for the beans

Just a piece of bread to mop up anything left!

Vintagevista wrote:
Thank you for the food porn -

Now,  ANTHING I eat today will seem like cardboard - compared to that.

+1000

DEP E510 wrote:
y'all must want folks licking their monitors...

Y'all hush and hand me that there napkin!

Randall D wrote:
Y'all hush and hand me that there napkin!

Napkin?!? Are you nuts? That there piece of meat deserves no less than the back of a hand and a shirt-sleeve!

Lohkee wrote:

Napkin?!? Are you nuts? That there piece of meat deserves no less than the back of a hand and a shirt-sleeve!

I agree; my reply was in response to....

"y'all must want folks licking their monitors..."    {chuckle}

Now if it came to eating the meat..... hold your hands up and let it drip off your elbows!

MoRina wrote:
I will likely never cook meat outside

BBQ is best left to the Professionals, Men.

Kudo's on the Brisket and many thanks for sharing the tips!

Fifty One Imaging wrote:

BBQ is best left to the Professionals, Men.

True.  I'll stay in the air conditioning and cook the side dishes and put together the salad.

FlirtynFun Photography wrote:
Then it goes on the smoker fat side down for two hours, or until the internal temp reaches about 140 degrees. At around that time/temperature, a crust forms. (pores close and no more smoke would be beneficial to the meat...as a matter of fact, too much smoke will give it a bitter taste)

That bitter taste comes from Polycyclic Aromatic hydrocarbons that are carcinogenic.
Studies in Europe have found an almost doubling of cancer rates in areas where home smoked meats are consumed. Theses area while smoking meat more than industrially produced meat smoke their meat more lightly than in the US.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7447916

A study also compared cancer rates in rural areas where the meat cooking differed in other ways. Areas where stews such as goulash was the main meat dish rather than smoked meats the cancer rates were much lower. Goulash is a slow cooked spicy stew.

On another note I'm often surprised how much burning there is on vegetables in restaurants here in the US, in particular in US Italian restaurants. For example in Italy roast peppers will always have any blackened parts removed, zucchini will be triffolati very slowly and only very slightly browned, same with grilled eggplant. Also for wood based cooking of bread, pizza etc very seasoned wood as well as woods with less resins.

In Italy I was also thought a light smoking technique using moist leaves.
They are put in a wire tray and placed under the food. They are heated till they smoke strongly, but removed just before they light up and flame. White sage works very nicely this way. You get a combination of smoke and steam this way.

I've seen this in Spain too.

Randall D wrote:
Leave it to a Californian to throw cold water on the grill-fest! {chuckle}

Not Californian..... Just live here for the weather....

Fathers side of the Family is from Wurtzburg..... World capital of smoked meat..... Probably...

DEP E510 wrote:
y'all must want folks licking their monitors...

Blue Cube Imaging wrote:
This thread is making my mouth water...

Thought I'd stop by one of our last BBQ joints and pick up some brisket, gone, for sale sign on the door. I haz a sad. 

The brisket is gone or the store? 

Hmmm Blue Cube BBQ...

Fred Greissing wrote:

That bitter taste comes from Polycyclic Aromatic hydrocarbons that are carcinogenic.
Studies in Europe have found an almost doubling of cancer rates in areas where home smoked meats are consumed. Theses area while smoking meat more than industrially produced meat smoke their meat more lightly than in the US.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7447916

A study also compared cancer rates in rural areas where the meat cooking differed in other ways. Areas where stews such as goulash was the main meat dish rather than smoked meats the cancer rates were much lower. Goulash is a slow cooked spicy stew.

On another note I'm often surprised how much burning there is on vegetables in restaurants here in the US, in particular in US Italian restaurants. For example in Italy roast peppers will always have any blackened parts removed, zucchini will be triffolati very slowly and only very slightly browned, same with grilled eggplant. Also for wood based cooking of bread, pizza etc very seasoned wood as well as woods with less resins.

In Italy I was also thought a light smoking technique using moist leaves.
They are put in a wire tray and placed under the food. They are heated till they smoke strongly, but removed just before they light up and flame. White sage works very nicely this way. You get a combination of smoke and steam this way.

I've seen this in Spain too.

Studies have shown in Texas and any place BBQ is cooked and consumed, there will be everlasting smiles on those who partake.
EVERYTHING gives you cancer now. If I stayed away from everything that gave one lab rat out of 100,000 cancer, I'd be the boy in the plastic bubble.
There's no reason for this thread to die. BBQ away folks.

Click Hamilton wrote:
Sadly, I'm afraid I don't know what to expect from many of those names of cuts.

I usually buy sirloin, and when it's affordable I like Porterhouse and T-bones. Filet Mignon is always wonderful, but around here the price has become absurd. A good tasty value for a budget is the lean ground sirloin sold at Costco, aka "hamburger." I've had some good rib eye on occasion, but it generally seems kind of greasy to me. The restaurants around here push it as being something special.

Also sadly, the College Area where I live in San Diego does not seem to have good beef selections. Where I grew up in Ojai/Santa Barbara is much better, even if it comes from Vons. I get the impression that San Diego is the last truck stop for meat deliveries after all the good stuff has been picked off.

When I can find it on sale, all the Black Angus steaks from Harris Ranch in Central California are pretty wonderful, but they tend to come from a few specialty stores and the name is not widely known in San Diego.

"Roast beef" is something I remember from my mother's and grandmother's generation. I don't know what cut that comes from. I always lean toward cooking rare and medium rare steaks, so slow cooked/over-cooked stringy, shredded or "pulled" has never been on my personal menu.

Personally, I don't care for ribs and other high fat or high sauce preparations. The taste is not bad, but I don't think this kind of food is healthy for the long haul.

I have to say, I don't know what to expect from brisket. Around here, I see lots of tri-tip (looks similar), but it's not on the cow rendering chart above. Is tri-tip another name for brisket?

Tri-tip, I love. The flavor is great and it lends itself to a slow cook on the BBQ while still being in the "tender rare steak" category.

Carne asada is popular around here too, especially from Mexican restaurants. Is that a particular cut of meat, or it more a matter of marinade? It seems to be a tougher cut, softened by the preparation.

Your brisket looks fantastic, and your tutorial drives me up the wall. I'm in awe.

Click, I'd never had brisket until I moved to Texas either.
You're welcome here anytime and we'll drive to one or two of the best in Texas. The only warning I have is that you'll probably be buying a house here soon after.
Here's a link if you'd like to order some. Don't forget the sauce.
http://www.rudysbbq.com/page/home

Click Hamilton wrote:
A good tasty value for a budget is the lean ground sirloin sold at Costco, aka "hamburger."

From time to time I like a bit of hamburger smeared on bread raw with onion, salt and pepper, and maybe a dash of Tabasco. A la steak tartare but without the egg or the capers. I am really fortunate that I have a local [Halal] butcher that actually grinds beef fresh every day and sometimes grinds batches more than once in a day. I have a lot more confidence in eating that raw [or even cooked] than burger meat from any supermarket where it may have been ground up 3 or 4 months ago, was then frozen only to be defrosted before putting it out on display, and has more Air Miles than I do.

For pork, I have a second non-Halal butcher who I can actually watch cutting what I want from the primal cuts and can certify the name of the farm the pig was raised on.

Rabbit, duck, goose, pheasant, venison, turkey, chicken, and other stuff are all available from local sources. Seafood as well.

I really consider it a great good fortune of life here in the UK that there is still an artesinal butchery industry, mostly family businesses with long standing local connections.

Studio36