I made that. It's good. mtmuley
Unpopular Opinion on Brisket
- Thread starter Brandon270
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What city were these in?
Brandon270
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Central CA so not Brisket country but still supposedly "award winning"
cgasner1
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I’ve also heard briskets and gravy is good but I have my biscuit and gravy dialed and can’t bring myself to try it
I gotcha, when I went to Texas this year it made me question all the BBQ I had had up until that trip and damn near ruined it for me after. The brisket especially. It had a great bark but the meat was so buttery you could eat it with a spoon.
I think you are right though and brisket is a little overrated in general.
Wildabeest
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That seems more like a typo than a good idea.
Hilljackoutlaw
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The oven way of cooking it is the way to go with the gravy. Over your favorite bread. Yessir!!
cgasner1
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He used it in the gravy
LopeHunter
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Would you order sushi in Utah? Walleye in Texas? Clam chowder in Montana? Do you expect a great meal there selecting those items?
Most of you have never had a properly prepared brisket. You need a properly trimmed brisket and properly seasoned or a train wreck experience should be expected. You need a stone oven where smoke can seep out of every crack of the oven. Takes a wood fire to produce the coals to then create the infused smoke as fat drips from the meat. Mesquite, apple or oak wood all work though each creates its own flavor in the rind which is just above the reddish smoke ring that will be the first 1/4" or more of the meat as you slice the meat. A grill or an oven inside your home will never compare to a properly seasoned oven which smothers the brisket for hours in smoky low heat.
You need the brisket just out of the stone masonry oven as your sandwich is created. Once the brisket goes cold, is like a day-old shucked oyster or reheated mashed potatoes. The magic is lost. Think of brisket as a soufflé. Wonderful but fragile and has a short life of excellence best experienced quickly as is removed from the oven.
You need to slice the meat with the bias. This is not how you would normally cut beef but is how you cut brisket.
Burnt ends are the trimmings. Carbonized. A bit crispy on the outside including the fat. Burnt ends are a small portion of the cooked brisket. Alas, demand for burnt ends is such that weak, Hell-bound cooks began cubing the main part of the brisket to generate faux burnt ends to create more product to sell to naive folks which is a travesty. This cubing is even done in Kansas City in some respected BBQ eateries. Chose wisely.
Go to Kansas City. I am not pronouncing Kansas City as the best city for brisket but I will without hesitation say you can slay the dragon of whether brisket is merely an over-rated entree pushed by wanna-be influencers as they toss back their Blanton's and sit in front of their donut lighting reading cue cards.
Don't cheat yourself of a potentially life-affirming moment. Eat a brisket sandwich at Arthur Bryant's at the original location. Eat a burnt ends sandwich at Gates (can order "lean" if are adverse to chunks of carbonized fat chunks) at their State Line location. Do not just go to any location. The magic is not everywhere. Yes, there will be beef fat staining the sandwich bread or roll. That is part of the flavor complexity. Do not gobble the sandwich. This is not something you shotgun like a beer at a bachelor party. Savor each bite with several chews. You should have dill pickle slices on your plate. Eat one after the first couple of bites of sandwich. Mix in a bite of French fries. Some baked beans. And, sip a cold beer.
You are now eating what working men ate a century ago in KC when their blue-collar clothes or the color of their skin kept them from most eateries. Oh, how the times have changed. Thankfully.
If you still feel brisket is over-rated or crap after a couple of meals in KC then you have made an informed decision. But much like trying fresh sushi for the first time in Denver...you are selling yourself short of the real deal experience when you grab a brisket sandwich in California.
Most of you have never had a properly prepared brisket. You need a properly trimmed brisket and properly seasoned or a train wreck experience should be expected. You need a stone oven where smoke can seep out of every crack of the oven. Takes a wood fire to produce the coals to then create the infused smoke as fat drips from the meat. Mesquite, apple or oak wood all work though each creates its own flavor in the rind which is just above the reddish smoke ring that will be the first 1/4" or more of the meat as you slice the meat. A grill or an oven inside your home will never compare to a properly seasoned oven which smothers the brisket for hours in smoky low heat.
You need the brisket just out of the stone masonry oven as your sandwich is created. Once the brisket goes cold, is like a day-old shucked oyster or reheated mashed potatoes. The magic is lost. Think of brisket as a soufflé. Wonderful but fragile and has a short life of excellence best experienced quickly as is removed from the oven.
You need to slice the meat with the bias. This is not how you would normally cut beef but is how you cut brisket.
Burnt ends are the trimmings. Carbonized. A bit crispy on the outside including the fat. Burnt ends are a small portion of the cooked brisket. Alas, demand for burnt ends is such that weak, Hell-bound cooks began cubing the main part of the brisket to generate faux burnt ends to create more product to sell to naive folks which is a travesty. This cubing is even done in Kansas City in some respected BBQ eateries. Chose wisely.
Go to Kansas City. I am not pronouncing Kansas City as the best city for brisket but I will without hesitation say you can slay the dragon of whether brisket is merely an over-rated entree pushed by wanna-be influencers as they toss back their Blanton's and sit in front of their donut lighting reading cue cards.
Don't cheat yourself of a potentially life-affirming moment. Eat a brisket sandwich at Arthur Bryant's at the original location. Eat a burnt ends sandwich at Gates (can order "lean" if are adverse to chunks of carbonized fat chunks) at their State Line location. Do not just go to any location. The magic is not everywhere. Yes, there will be beef fat staining the sandwich bread or roll. That is part of the flavor complexity. Do not gobble the sandwich. This is not something you shotgun like a beer at a bachelor party. Savor each bite with several chews. You should have dill pickle slices on your plate. Eat one after the first couple of bites of sandwich. Mix in a bite of French fries. Some baked beans. And, sip a cold beer.
You are now eating what working men ate a century ago in KC when their blue-collar clothes or the color of their skin kept them from most eateries. Oh, how the times have changed. Thankfully.
If you still feel brisket is over-rated or crap after a couple of meals in KC then you have made an informed decision. But much like trying fresh sushi for the first time in Denver...you are selling yourself short of the real deal experience when you grab a brisket sandwich in California.
LuketheDog
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Locality has no real meaning anymore if you're in or near a big city or in a good restaurant (and 'expensive' doesn't necessarily equate to 'good'...). Denver has some great sushi, the fish is flown in fresh daily. The best sushi I've ever been served was in Lake Tahoe, the guy who took me there had spent 20 years working for a Japanese company and really knew his stuff, that was nowhere near the coast. I've had plenty of mediocre brisket in Kansas City from multiple BBQ joints...
I enjoyed reading that. By your measure, which I trust based on that post, I have not had truly great brisket. The brisket that I have had has not blown my hair back.
That being said, pork ribs are my king of the bbq mountain until I discover otherwise.
From reports I hear the little Connor Store in the Bitterroot has an excellent clam chowder. But only on Friday's mtmuley
Cheap fatty pork roasts that get marked way down. Be quiet though. I don't want them to go "brisket". mtmuley
We've gone to a few BBQ joints, several that were highlighted on TV shows as some of the best, and was only highly impressed with one dish. You would never believe it but the best BBQ I've had was the burnt ends at Bid Daddy's in Fairbanks, Alaska! I've been to Central BBQ and Neely's Interstate, both in Memphis, both highly rated, and was bummed with both. Both maybe had one item that was decent but overall seemed like a waste of money. Really wanted to try the Pecan Lodge in Dallas when we went to the race but the traffic sucked so much we never went. I did eat some small beef ribs at a place in the Stockyards in Ft. Worth but they were just OK. Pork ribs anywhere I've tried them don't match my own. None. I've done probably 5 or 6 briskets myself now and I think the very first one I did was the best. Something changes every time it seems now that I want to improve on my recipe or technique. I have one or two in the freezer that I'll do this summer to share with my daughter but won't buy another. It's just way too much for one person, even by freezing some for later. And yes, I agree that leftover brisket is nowhere near as good as first sliced.
D_Walt
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Brisket is probably my favorite food, and I smoke one or two a month. I have a 19 pounder on right now. I prefer to cook on post oak, but live oak and mequite work too. Done right it is fantastic, if it’s not right it can be so-so.
Nick87
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Texas has entered the chat...
Bigjay73
Well-known member
If you learn the science of rendering day and breaking down collagen, you can cook a great brisket. It's not about wrapping at this temp, pulling at that temp.
I’ve been there a few times- certainly very good, but I like Hard 8 better myself.
Khunter
Well-known member
love brisket and do a fine job with them. Do not see brisket as ‘over rated’. 
But what has me excited is hiring a guy to smoke 6 hind quarters of beef for a big dinner I plan for work event each year. Usually do tenderloin steaks but this time will be Six beef hind quarters smoked in on giant smoker all at once. Can’t wait to see it happen and EAT some. Will look something like this photo I pulled from online when researching. Called a “Steamship round” roast to feed 240 or so folks.
But what has me excited is hiring a guy to smoke 6 hind quarters of beef for a big dinner I plan for work event each year. Usually do tenderloin steaks but this time will be Six beef hind quarters smoked in on giant smoker all at once. Can’t wait to see it happen and EAT some. Will look something like this photo I pulled from online when researching. Called a “Steamship round” roast to feed 240 or so folks.
