Making the Perfect Brisket | BBQ with Franklin | Full Episode

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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)
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Channel: PBS Food
Views: 913,461
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: PBS, food, cooking, BBQ, pitmaster, barbecue, Aaron Franklin, Texas, meat, grilling
Id: nu4p3l6LuyI
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 23min 30sec (1410 seconds)
Published: Tue Sep 05 2023
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