In Texas, they say if it ain't
brisket, it ain't barbecue. And today, it's all
about the brisket. There are a thousand
different ways to cook it and a lot of ground to cover. So we better get going. (upbeat music) An important part of cooking a brisket is
getting a good bark. Bark is the slightly crispy
exterior of the meat, where smoke, rendered
fat, and seasonings combine for the
most epic of bites. You know, if we're gonna
talk about brisket, there's a lot to talk about. There's different
breeds of cows. There's different grading. Is it a left side? Is it a right side? What are you gonna
season it with? Salt and pepper? Maybe something more than that? Are you gonna cook
it hot and fast? Are you gonna cook
it low and slow? But one thing's for
sure, if you're gonna figure out how you
like to cook brisket, you can only change
one thing at a time. If you change too many things,
you'll never figure it out. So today, we're gonna
only change one thing. (twangy guitar music) We're gonna cook three briskets all the same way
on the same cooker. One we're gonna wrap in foil, also known as the Texas Crutch. The other one we're gonna
wrap in butcher paper, not known as the Texas Crutch. And the other one we're
not gonna wrap at all. So let's get started. So today we're
cooking all primes. This is what we use
at the restaurant, so this is just the easiest
thing for me to grab. Well, the whole point to trimmig is to make it more aerodynamic. You want to cut off the
fat that's not good. You want to leave enough
on there to keep it moist throughout the whole
cooking process. But you're also trying
to regulate how much bark there's gonna be
when it's finished. How much rendered fat, because rendered fat's
pretty delicious. But nasty, like, white gross
fat that's not rendered, it's maybe not
quite so delicious. And then you also want
to have a lot of meat. So you're really
trimming everything just to make sure you
have a good balance and every bite has exactly
what you want out of it. So these briskets are
looking pretty darn good. We're gonna go and rub them. It's just gonna be half salt, half pepper for this experiment. We're just gonna
keep it real simple. But you can put a lot
of other things on there if you really want to. (upbeat guitar music) So I'm gonna kind
of work around here. And even though
it's called a rub, you're not really
working it in there. Some people might. I really choose
just to let the rub lay on top and just
kind of pat it in there. You don't want to really
get too carried away. And the higher you go, the
better spread you'll get. If you get real close,
it'll be real uneven. The coarseness of the pepper
will actually help attract smoke So this coarse pepper's
gonna help this thing really get a nice bark. (relaxing guitar music) That is a good-looking
piece of meat. Alrighty, For the first part of the
cook, they'll all stay naked. But once the briskets
start to form a good bark, that's when we'll
get to wrapping. So I like to start
with a hot cooker. I've had this thing going
for about 45 minutes so far, getting it up to about 275, 285. Top heat means that
I put fat side up. But it's an off-set cooker, so I put the points
towards the firebox, 'cause all that airflow is
gonna be coming this way, and I don't want to burn
the edges of this side. So I want a little
extra fat right here to kind of shield that stuff. And I chose this spot because this is kind of the sweet spot. Air comes out of
here, starts to spin, got a lot of convection, got
a lot of vorticity right here. And then out the
smoke stack it goes. So these briskets
are good to go. No matter how big or
small your cooker is, you're always trying to find the sweet spot and the
perfect temperature. On a larger cooker, your
meat could be farther from the fire, so
you may need to cook a little bit hotter than 275. And on a smaller
cooker, you might need to bring that heat
down just a little bit, since your brisket could be
pretty close to the fire. So if you hear it sizzle,
back off a little bit. If it's not cooking,
you probably need to build a bigger fire. But I'm gonna go wash up
and start watching the fire. (guitar strumming) So the majority of your
time is gonna be spent watching the old
temperature gauge, probably for about
12 or so hours. You've just got to be patient. It just keeps going and going. When it dips down a little low, you have to get up, put a
little bit more wood on. (guitar strumming) A lot of people tend to think
that in order to make a long brisket cook, you have to
lose a night's worth of sleep. But there's also a little thing
I like to call a split cook. A split cook is a great
way for a home cook to get a couple hours sleep and
still get some great briskets. Start the briskets
the day before. Cook them up to about 165
degrees internal temperature. Put a big log on there. Make sure it's not
gonna get too hot. Go sleep for a couple hours. Come back in the morning. And pick up right
where you left off. (twangy guitar music) So this is the brisket episode. - Yes, it is. - You, just like me, have made an entire career based
on one piece of meat. - Yeah. Writing about it,
you cooking it. (Aaron laughs) Absolutely. - I thought it would be a
cool thing to talk about, how briskets kind
of become, like, this like huge, like,
that is Texas barbecue. - You know, back in
the meat market days, they were getting in
whole carcasses of beef. And they had to sell it all. They would take the
entire forequarter, and they would cut
it up into, you know, a dozen pieces and
smoke the whole thing. And people would
come in and ask for, they might ask for
lean or fatty beef. But they weren't
asking for brisket. - But I wonder when
the trend started to actually figure
out, like, oh, well if you overcook it
severely, it gets tender. - Yeah, that's a good question, like when people
actually started really-- - 'Cause that's where
I'm coming from. - Really paying attention
to those individual cuts. And the thing that's
curious to me is so with all of
those cuts that you could choose from
the forequarter, when the pit masters of
yore started to choose that one cut, they
chose the brisket. Right? I always wonder was
it price related? Or was that simply
just after cooking all of those different
cuts for so long, they realized, this is
the one I want to cook. What we're seeing today in Texas is the rise of fatty brisket. - [Aaron] Yeah,
'cause it's delicious. - No longer are people
afraid of the fat. No longer are people afraid
of calling it fatty brisket. - I prefer lean myself. - A good, moist,
slice of lean brisket can not only be
more pleasurable, but is also harder to do. - [Aaron] Yeah, it's way harder. - It takes more skill from
your standpoint, does it not? - Yeah. It's cool to see the evolution
of brisket, you know, start off as maybe kind of
a homely, utilitarian piece. Cook it, and now it's
like this artisinal anti-barbecue barbecue
kind of thing, so. - It's the darling
of Texas barbecue. - It really is. And I like talking about it. - I can't stop talking about it. - Let's get out of here
and go talk about brisket. Thanks for being on the show. - Yeah, you bet. - Brisket cooking could be an
all-day or all-night affair. Whether you're cooking one
brisket or 100 briskets, get ready to clear
your schedule. (relaxing guitar music) (twangy guitar music) (upbeat guitar music) So it's about 6:30 AM. Threw the last log on
about 1 o'clock AM. Briskets are looking super
juicy, looking real nice. They're at a good
point right now. And I'm getting a little lonely. I think I need some company for the second half of this cook. So, I've hollered at my good
friend John Markus. - [John] Good morning. - Good morning. - Cheersies. - Cheersies. Early in the morning, but that's a good time to be doing this. I can smell that you're at some particular
place in the cook. - I bet you're dying
to take a gander. - [John] Look at the gorgeous
color on these things. May I touch? - [Aaron] Oh, probe away. Ow, ow. - Oh, it's-- (Aaron laughs) I like it when I touch
your briskets, you go "ow." - Yeah, it's so
personal, you know. - You are so connected
to this meat, man. What I was told was that
you're gonna attempt some different processes
with each of these. - We're gonna wrap
one of them in foil, one of them in butcher paper,
and not wrap the other one. And see what that
does for, you know, cook time, moistness,
bark formation. - I would say that
while these things have momentum, let's... - Let's get to wrapping. - All right, OK. I can watch you or help. - Ah, it's early. You should drink your coffee. - OK. That's your way of
saying, I'm doing this. - (laughs) Back off. (laughs) Well, I just do two
pieces like this. And then one solid
piece sideways. That way you kind of
cradle all those juices. You always want
the shiny side in, because you don't want
to reflect the heat trying to penetrate the
brisket while it's cooking. (relaxing guitar music) All right. And then the next one, paper. I always put my flats
to the right side. - You know, there are a
lot of barbecue people of some repute that are so
secretive about everything. And here you are. You're just opening
up the doors to all the stuff that you know. - Well, maybe not everything. - Ah, see that's the thing. Because really, there
is the key thing no one will ever know,
which you have to admire. But this is tight. This looks like almost tight in the way the aluminum foil was. - Yeah. The tighter the better. I'm gonna put that over there. - That's a great visual
demonstration of the three different methods we're
gonna finish these off with. Our brisket that's naked
for the rest of this cook you have in the middle. And I would think
that that middle would be the hottest
spot in back. - Ah. - Am I right? - And that's why I asked you
to come hang out with me. I'm trying to offset the
time that they're coming off by putting this in the cold
spot, this in the hot spot, and this one in the
second hot spot. You know, there is
that little saying that I've heard once or twice. If you're looking,
you ain't cooking. - Well, let's put
these back to bed then. - I think we'd better. - Yeah. Let's get this
party started again. - OK. So we've gotten the
cook up to the point where we're doing the wrap test. I'm watching these three
different briskets. But we have the rest
of the cook now. With them wrapped and
sitting on the smoker, what do we do? - Stare at fires. Absolutely nothing. Don't fuss with it. Don't open the lid. Don't look at it too much. Keep a good steady fire. And just be cool, man You know, I think it's neat
that today's brisket cook is all about changing
one variable. You know, there's so many
variables in cooking a brisket. And today, we're just
wrapping one in foil, wrapping one in paper, and
not wrapping the other one, just to really kind
of fine tune what the actual effects are gonna be. But I think so many people
change too many things at once. And then you never can
pinpoint what happened or what went wrong
or what went right. - What did I do this time
that made it so good? - Yeah. - And I always keep a log. - [Aaron] Ah, the captain's log. - I do. I keep a log as to what
elements go into each cook, so that when I change
something, then I can go back. But I think because
barbecue takes place over such a long period of time, these variables come into play. Because the variables occur over the entire time of your cook. - You know, it's crazy
at how microscopic one little thing could
be and how magnified it becomes towards
the end of a cook. Something as small
as just, like, the size of the wood versus,
like, the size of your cooker. Or if your temperatures
spike up and down. I mean, you could be
adding hours to that cook. So you've got all
these different things that can kind of
stack up in a cook. You know, wood, fire, actual
animal breed, marbling, rub. I mean, all this stuff. - Placement on the cooker. - Placement on the
cooker, air flow. I mean, tons of stuff
going on, you know. I mean, there is a
lot of different ways
to cook a brisket. I think we figured that out. - I was gonna say as
I sit here with you, what I realize is it's endless. - It is endelss. - When you're dealing with heat and smoke and the
fibers of meat. - There's really
no end in sight. - Yeah. - It just keeps going. - You have to be a weatherman. You have to be a butcher. You have to be a firemaker. - Sometimes a welder. - And I found that the people
that really are the best at it are the most relaxed
when they do it. They have to actually
have a command of all these various things, where
they're just not worried about them at all times. - Well, you can't worry
about these things. Just let it go. It's just a piece
of meat with fire. It's the oldest way to cook. - I wish I'd been
raised by parents where I could worry less. - I think you'll be OK. You're in Texas now. (twangy guitar music) Behind me is Kreuz market
here in Lockhart, Texas. These guys have been cooking
brisket almost longer than anyone in the
entire state of Texas. So if we're gonna talk brisket, we've got to chat
with Rick Schmidt. (bluesy guitar music) Well, Rick, thanks for so
much for talking to me. You're welcome. Glad of your interest. - Well, of course. I'm very interested in barbecue. Start from the beginning. - OK, well, Charlie Kreuz bought an existing meat market here
in Lockhart back in 1900. My father went to work
for them around 1935. And he worked for them 13 years. And they offered
to sell it to him. - [Aaron] Wow. - '48's when my dad bought it and the Schmidt's ran
the Kreuz market. (bluesy guitar music) Mostly your older
barbecue places, especially in central Texas,
have the name "market." They started as meat markets. The other thing that
they all have in common is the way they
spell "barbecue." It's B-A-R-B-E-C-U-E. They have no
initials, no jumping. And just a little, you
know, quirk that we have. But our menu is a
product of evolution, cooking things instead
of letting them spoil, making sausage out
of the cheaper cuts. Before brisket
got so popular I saw a lot of
brisket just going to sausage 'cause it was a
tough piece of meat. And we cooked whatever
the customer wanted. And they didn't
want that brisket. (bluesy guitar music) - [Aaron] Boxed beef
started in the early 1950s. And most barbecue joints really took to ordering just
the cuts they wanted, since they didn't have to
break down whole forequarters. But Kreuz kept on butchering
their own beef for a while. - In fact, before we
went to the boxed beef, we used to buy
square-cut chucks. That was chuck and shoulder. - Yeah, that's
the shoulder clod. - Yeah, shoulder
clod and the chuck. And presentation looked good. But it evolved into where it was 80% of our barbecue service. - [Aaron] Really? When did you see that
people were maybe ordering more brisket
than clod, or? - I think about
10 years ago that we noticed we were
running out of brisket. So we started cooking more
brisket than anything else. And now we put on more briskets, it just about flip-flopped,
than those clods. - Really? Ah, that's crazy. - [Rick] People are not
afraid of fat, I guess. And so now the brisket's
making a big comeback. - It's about time people
aren't afraid of fat. [Rick laughs] - Oh, fat's where the flavor is. - [Aaron] Yup. The shoulder clod
is more forgiving. You can serve it a little
rare, and it's still tender. Can't do that with a
brisket, as you well know. Brisket is trickier. First thing it does
is it gets done, OK. Then you got to keep cooking
until it gets tender. And then you got to
know when that is, so you can get it off. - And then you got to go
a little further still. - And if you have to go a little
further and you go too far, in my mind, that's when the
barbecue sauce comes out. I'll be sitting there at
the table and somebody's, why don't y'all
have barbecue sauce? And my friend will say,
ain't got nothing to hide. [Aaron laughs] - It's true. Well, Rick, sure appreciate
you talking to me. Thank you so much. - Thank you. - I appreciate it.
- Appreciate it. (upbeat guitar music) - You ready? - Yes. - It's a huge knife. It makes me a little
nervous, I got to say. You good? - Yes. - You can go ahead
and grab some. I'm kidding. This is the one that everybody
wishes they could get. Wait for it, wait. OK, go! - [Voiceover] Oh, Aaron. (kids chattering) (upbeat guitar music) - (mumbles) - [Kid] What's the
name of the cow? - [Aaron] Oh, Thelma. (kids giggling) Her name was Thelma. (twangy guitar music) - It's kind of the moment
of truth, isn't it in a way? All these hours. - Yeah, it really is. This feels really
nice, by the way. You know when the
briskets are done when the meat feels
soft and tender. And I can feel it just
kind of want to fall over. - [John] Yeah. - Oh, that's good. - Look at it. It's almost breaking
apart as you put it down. - Yeah, it is. Let's let things
rest for a little bit and slice them up, see
what they look like. - I think that sounds good. I mean, I think we're gonna have three different
experiences here. - [Aaron] Oh, I think so. Resting a big piece of meat is almost as important as
actually cooking it. It lets the meat relax,
reabsorb its juices, and cool down enough to eat. - You know, I'm sorry to
follow you everywhere. But there's brisket to be eaten. (Aaron laughs) So I'm just gonna
be on your tail. I can't help it. - Which one do you
want to try first? That one came off first. Give it a whirl? - [John] Let's go in order then. - All right. I'm going to make the first cut. I'm gonna kind of
get through there. And that's the end cut. I'm just gonna save
that for later. I like to cut on the pull strok. - [John] Watching you
slice brisket is like going to a baseball game and watching
a pitcher pitch a no-hitter. - [Aaron] See, that's
a good-looking slice. Moist, good fat render, marbling
cooked out of there well. - [John] Can I pop
this in my mouth? - Oh, I wish you would. Mhm. - Wow. - So this is the fatty If you notice, it's
a little thicker. On 1/4 inch, if it'll hold
up under its own weight, with just the lightest
tug break apart, that is a perfectly
cooked brisket. - Beautiful. I'm getting hits of the
salt, which is very pleasing. But there's, first of all,
beef flavor coming through. That's the most pronounced
flavor to me is the beef, which is what I'm
always looking for. - This is the foiled one. Pretty moist, and the
bark really held up a lot better than
I thought it would. I thought it would get a
little more pot roasty. You ready to cut the paper one? - Let's do it. - Let's do it. Slide that old guy
over a little bit. - [John] This is the
brisket that we thought breathed more than the
one that was foiled. - Yup. Again, a little end cut action. Oh. You know, just to see. - [John] It's more toward
the firmness you want for like the real
accurate brisket. Like it's on the money. - Yeah, it definitely has
more integrity on the bite. I mean, that is such
a good-looking piece
of brisket there. - [John] Gorgeous. - Good fat render in there. The flat looks moist. The point looks moist. And again, a brisket
under its own weight... Minimal pulling. - [John] Thank you. - [Aaron] But that
bark is there. - You can tell when you
look at something like this that it was hours and
hours in the making. That's what's great about
it when you look at it. You can't do this if you cook
it for two hours, six hours. - [Aaron] Uh-uh. - [John] It won't
look like this. - You just can't cook a
brisket super hot and fast and expect it to form
this kind of bark. Well, maybe the bark, but it
might be a little crunchier. It might be kind of
burned, you know, not like a well-formed,
like, seasoning. - But inside, you're not
gonna have this moistness. - Mm-mm, no. I don't think so. This one tasted a lot beefier. You could tell that the fat
like really cooked back into it. It had a much stronger flavor. It had a much
stronger aroma, too. And then ready for the one that
I'm really curious about... because I don't ever cook
brisket without wrapping it. And this is kind of
what a lot of people really think of as, like,
central Texas brisket. I mean, it's heavy on the bark. It's heavy on the pepper. Well, see, that looks all right. - [John] And there's a lot
of moisture there as well. - There's a good bit
of moisture, good
bit of smoke ring. Let's see. This one's gonna
be real crunchy. - All right, here's
our naked brisket. Wow. - [Aaron] It's crunchy. - Like it's a party
treat at a party I want to stay at
until they drag me off. - It kind of makes you think of original Kansas City burnt ends. - It does. I was gonna say burnt ends, but it's not that
part of the brisket. - It's not even that
part of the brisket. - Definitely. It's a hair smokier
than the other two. - Mm-hm, it's not as beefy. It has the least
amount of beefiness. It's better than I
thought it would be. - When I look at this brisket
and taste it, I think of LBJ. I'm thinking of being in a
Cadillac with big fins on it, going 90 miles an
hour out on the ranch, hooping and hollering. That's this brisket right there. I'm thinking of picking
up my beagle by the ears. - I'm thinking of opening up
a restaurant, selling brisket, saving up money, and starting
an amphibious car collection. (John laughs) - See, we're having different
thoughts, you and me. - LBJ had an amphibious
car collection. - I didn't know that. - He did. - See, I didn't know. I really like it. These have been really
different experiences. You have here the unwrapped
brisket, the robust brisket. One of the great presidents
of the United States brisket. Right here. (Aaron laughs) Over here, you've
got like the brisket you want your whole
family to have. It's honest, but very flavorful. It's not too aggressive. I really like that this
was wrapped in the paper. And that's what
I loved about it. Here, this is the brisket
in the aluminum foil. It's almost like a
lady who's putting on her high heels and her
lipstick to go out. (Aaron laughs) Those are the three
briskets to me. They all have
different qualities. Some are just a little
bit more done up. - So we cooked three briskets. We wrapped them all differently. The foil one's a
little more pot roasty. The one that's unwrapped
is really crunchy, lots of super Texasy,
simple flavors. Nothing overpowering,
but a lot stronger. And then the paper one's
just right in the middle. And let that be a reminder. When you're cooking
brisket at home, you're trying to really figure
out how you like to do it. Only change one thing at a time. And you'll get there. In the meantime... - I'm going in for-- - You should get that one. - I want the president brisket. - No, no, no, that's for me. - Mm. - You can take those
two back to New York. I'm keeping this one. (John laughs) Man, I love the bark on this. - Unbelievable. - Yeah. Brisket can get cooked
in many differ- Hoh-hoh-hoh! We do actually cook
unicorn briskets. (babbling) Can y'all tie a string to
my chair to pull me forward? - 'Cause then you can handle
the meat with the unicorn horn. - Well it's a handle. - [Voiceover] Uh, yeah,
let's, let's step into it. (rising electronic music) (sleigh bells)
