You can see the two muscles in this whole packer brisket at the legendary Black's Barbecue in Lockhart, TX, where they've been smoking brisket since 1932: The flat (A) and the point (B). The horizontal line along the side of the piece at right is the fat layer that separates the point from the flat. You can also see the fat line in the tip that has been cut off at left. Notice that this tip is mostly flat, with only a thin layer of point. Notice, also, the dark mahogany black crust, the amber fat cap below the cracking crust on the point at right, and the pink smoke ring below the crust on the piece on the left.
Left-handed briskets?
Tom Hoefer from Allen, Texas, posted this tale on the net in 2001. It is reprinted here, slightly edited, with his permission. Fact or fiction? You decide...
A few year back at the Texas State Finals, several of us arrived on Thursday to get in line for the best sites. Thursday night was devoted to serious drinking.
One of the better cooks, Ole Connie Baker of the team "Li'l Pit Of Heaven", was throwing back quite a few of those Mexican beers with a chunk of lime stuck in the neck. Connie had so many of them limeade beers that he was starting to smile with a pucker.
One of us asked him how come his brisket was so tender and always placed in the top three. I thought to myself, boy oh boy, if loose lips sink ships then Ole Connie is going down tonight. All got quiet as he stuffed another lime in a longneck and he said that he "only cooks left-handed briskets".
He explained that most, but not all, steers rest on their left side, which means when they get up they have to push harder with their right legs. At this point about half the bunch mumbled something to the effect of "bull hockey" and went back to different conversations.
A few of us noticed that Ole Connie wasn't smirking. Two or three of us moved closer and I told him "You can't stop there. What does pushing up with their right legs have to do with the left brisket?"
Ole Connie stuffed another lime and told us that when they push up with the right legs it flexes the right brisket muscle more so than the left. Therefore the right-handed brisket will be tougher and less marbled than the left. Not always but usually. I asked him "how the heck do you tell a left-handed brisket from the right?"
He stuffed another lime and told me that, with the fat side down, on a left-handed brisket, with the narrow part closest to you, the point will curve to the right.
Saturday awards time rolled around and Connie took First Brisket and Grand Champion over 180 of the best cooks in Texas. I think that I came in 19th with my right-handed brisket.
I just could not get this off my mind. I phoned the kin folk in LaGrange, Texas, and asked if they would check out their herd. Yep, you guessed it. Only three out of 37 consistently rested on their right side. Dangnation, Ole Connie has got it going big time!
I went to five different grocery stores and flexed briskets to see which sides were more limber and more marbled. There are some right-handed briskets that are more limber and marbled than the lefties, but for the most part, the majority of the best are left handed!
Welp, there it is folks. Take it or leave it. As Joe Friday on the 1950s TV show, Dragnet, used to say, "Only the facts ma'am."
Click here for more photos of brisket and the Austin Barbecue Belt. Click here for recipes from LBJ's famous barbecue chef, Walter Jetton.
A nifty trick
If you're having trouble controlling the temperature of your outdoor cooker, and most charcoal cookers are hard to control for long sessions, cook outdoors for the first four hours, after which the meat will not absorb much more smoke flavor. Then finish it in your kitchen oven.
Sides
Because the Big Bad Beef Rub is salty and spicy, brisket is especially good with sweet baked beans. In Texas brisket is usually served with simple unsweetened beans, but I think the sweeter Boston style, like my Bourbon BBQ Baked Beans. I also like a tossed green salad with blue cheese dressing or Classic Creamy Deli Slaw with brisket.
Barbecue Beef Brisket, Texas Style
"Any time you got nothing to do - and lots of time to do it - come on up." Mae West
A whole barbecue beef brisket is a huge clod of cow that comes off the pit almost black, looking more like a meteorite than a meal. But it is not burnt, and beneath the crust is tender, juicy, smoky meat. It is the national food of the Republic of Texas. A whole brisket is a great excuse for a party.
Like a Clint Eastwood cowboy, brisket is unforgiving. Cook it right and it is tender, juicy, and flavorful. Cook it wrong and it is like a wrangler's leather chaps.
Briskets are from the chest area of the steer between the forelegs. There are two per animal, and these boneless pectoral muscles get a lot of work, so there isn't much fat marbling within the muscle and there's a lot of connective tissue in and around the muscle fibers. That's why they are so tough. Much of the world's brisket is made into corned beef, pastrami, or pot roast, but it is also a fine cut for barbecue, and it is required in Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) cooking contests (about 500 across the nation) along with pork ribs, pulled or chopped pork, and chicken.
Your butcher probably offers two cuts of brisket, a whole "packer" brisket, or a section of the flat. Each cut needs to be cooked differently and below we discuss how to cook each separately.
The whole packer brisket
Click on the images below
to see enlargements.
A whole 12-pound packer brisket untrimmed fat side up, as it arrived from the packer. The cutting board is 20" x 14 ". The fat cap is 1/4" to 1/2" thick. The flat is A and the point rests on top of the right side of the flat in the oval B. As you can see, the packer trimmed it quickly and left some meat bare. Not the end of the world.
The same brisket fat side down. This side is usually close to fat free, although there may be some tough silverskin that must be removed. The flat is A and the point is B. The grain runs in the direction of the white line. Notice the fat vein that runs between the flat and the point.
This side view looks right at the end of the flat with the point rising in the background. Notice that the flat ranges from 1/4" think on the right to about 1.5" on the left, and the point is more than 5" thick.
When you buy a whole "packer" brisket (item 120 in the North American Meat Processor's Association Guide), it weighs 8-16 pounds and comes in an airtight Cryovac plastic wrap. Weights of 12-14 pounds are typical. There is a cap of fat on one side that can be up to 1" thick, and it is trimmed pretty close to fat free on the other side.
Beef is graded based on the age of the animal and the amount of fat marbling. Click here for more about beef grades. The more marbling, the better because fat brings flavor and juiciness. The most common grades, from lowest to highest are: Select, choice, and prime. When shopping for brisket, go for the highest grade you can find, and hand pick the slab with the most fat striation visible on the underside. But a lot of fat will not make the meat tender. Brisket is just an ornery piece of meat.
The top competitors and a lot of better restaurants prefer Certified Angus choice beef, not the more expensive prime grade of beef or the outrageously expensive Kobe or Wagyu breed of beef. But prime and wagyu are more marbled and will be more juicy, so if you can find it, and if you can afford it, go for it. Just try to avoid the select grade, which is the cheapest and least juicy.
There are two distinct muscles in a packer brisket: (A) A long flat rectangular lean muscle that sometimes comes to a point that is called the flat, and (B) a narrower, thicker, fattier, oval shaped muscle called the point. Got it? The flat is pointy and the point is round. Go figure.
The point lies on top of the flat and there is a layer of fat separating the two muscles. The flat makes nice uniform slices (think corned beef and pastrami), perfect for sandwiches or fanning out on a plate. Because one end is a lot thinner than the other, it often dries out as the thicker part of the clod cooks. For this reason, and also because the striation of the two muscles run in different directions, some cooks remove the point before or after cooking. It comes off easily along the fault line of fat that separates them. Some slice it separately and some cube or chop it.
Some top competitors will age the meat in its Cryovac in the refrigerator for 30-60 days from the packing date to allow the enzymes to start breaking down the tough fibers and develop more complex flavors. Do not try this unless the meat is packed in its original airtight Cryovac package.
The Hunk o' Flat (HOF)
Many grocers sell slabs of beef brisket cut from the flat running anywhere from 1-8 pounds. I call them a HOF, for Hunk o' Flat. My grocer usually has a number of HOFs in the 2-4 pound range, perfect for serving a small family. If you are cooking a 2-4 pound HOF, there is much less waste and shrinkage, so buy 1/2 pound or so for each person. But don't ask your butcher for a HOF, that's just a term you and I use.
This cut is practically pure muscle and it can be especially tough to make tender. Most people who buy it are making pot roast by simmering it for hours in liquid. But we're going to go for the Texas taste here. So you go for the highest grade you can find and get the thickest HOF you can. It will cook slower and be more tender. Look for marbling and even thickness so one edge won't dry out. If the meat is not on a plastic tray and you can flex it, select one that is floppy.
Nothin' but controversy
As with anything barbecue, there is controversy surrounding brisket. Pitmasters disagree on several major scores:
Meat grade. A lot of brisket is Select grade, and it is almost impossible to get this stuff tender. Make sure you get Choice grade or Certified Angus which is usually Choice. Some competitors buy Prime or Wagyu/Kobe, but they are expensive, and I think Choice is just fine.
Trim. Some cooks like to leave the entire fat cap on the meat as insulation, trimming what remains before serving. They think it helps moderate the heat during cooking. Others trim most of it off before cooking, leaving a layer of 1/8" to 1/4", reasoning that seasoning on the fat cap will never penetrate and is wasted when trimmed. Some even remove much of the fat layer between the two muscles.
Rub. Before it is cooked, many of the best Texas barbecue joints simply use "Dalmatian rub": Liberal amounts of kosher salt and coarsely cracked black pepper. For them, stylin' is to add some cayenne and garlic powder to the rub. Some leave it on the meat overnight, but others just season the meat and toss it on the pit. On the competition circuit many cooks use a complex secret concoction of herbs and spices that give a little spark to the bark, the flavorful crust that forms after all that cooking.
Slather. Some folks think it is a must to put a thin layer of mustard on the meat before the rub to hold it down. Others use oil because many spices in rubs are oil soluble. Both sides believe that either mustard or oil will help form a crunchy bark.
Pump. Many competition cooks like to inject brisket with an internal marinade by using large hypodermics and other gimcracks. These "pumps" add moisture, break down tough fibers, and add flavor. Apple juice with spices is a popular pump. Others use plain beef broth. Lately many of the champs have been injecting the meat with a product called Fab B Light, a moisturizer and flavor enhancer. It contains hydrolyzed soy protein, vegetable oil, sodium phosphates, monosodium glutamate, autolyzed yeast extract, xanthan gum, disodium inosinate, and guanylate. Some traditionalists think this is way too Barry Bonds and are repulsed by the idea. The results speak for themselves. They are winning. A lot. If you choose to inject, don't use anything very flavorful, just plain beef broth, don't use a dark liquid because it will leave tracks inside the meat, and insert the needle parallel to the grain.
Fat cap. Most folks cook with the fat on top. For years it was believed that the melting fat would actually penetrate the meat, but nowadays most folks understand that fat cannot penetrate meat fibers very well. The melting fat bastes the meat keeping it moist, but it takes longer to cook. Some cooks like the fat cap on the bottom, as sort of a heat shield. Others cook halfway with the fat up, and halfway with the fat down. On a smoker like the Weber Smokey Mountain or other bullets, where the heat is directly below, a good case can be made for fat side down.
Point. The point end is usually twice as thick as the other end, so by the time it is properly cooked the other end is overcooked. Some cooks, over the objections of the traditionalists, remove the point layer by sliding a knife through the fat layer that runs between the flat and point. They cook them side by side rather than one on top of the other. I'm not real keen on this. The point is fattier and helps keep the meat moist.
Temp. Many competitors swear that low and slow, around 225F for up to 20 hours for a whole packer, is necessary to make the meat tender and juicy. Danny Gaulden, the respected owner of Danny's Place in Carlsbad, NM recommends 250F. Legendary "Barbecue King", Walter Jetton, Lyndon Johnson's caterer, advocated cooking brisket at 275F and up. John Fullilove of Smitty's Market confesses that he cranks the heat over 300F and knocks out his briskets in as little as eight hours.
Mop. A lot of cooks like to keep their meat wet by mopping it with a baste. They say the mop replaces moisture that evaporates. Others say we should keep the lid closed to keep the heat and humidity in. They say mops ruin the crunchy crust.
Crutch. The Texas Crutch is a technique for speeding the cooking and tenderizing the meat. The concept is that you wrap the meat tightly in heavy-duty foil with a little beef broth, apple juice, white wine, or light beer, and let it steep on the grill for an hour or two. Then it comes off and sits in an insulated box for several hours. Advocates like the tenderness and of the meat, and the fact that the process captures natural jus for in a sauce. Opponents dislike the fact that the crust or bark gets soft. Some folks try to get the best of both worlds by crutching and then taking the meat out and firming up the crust over a hot grill just before serving.
Slicing. When it is cooked, controversy reigns over slicing. Brisket is easier to chew if you cut it perpendicular to the grain. Cut with the grain and it can be stringy and chewy. The problem is that there are two muscles, the flat and the point, and the grains run in different directions. Most folks slice from the thicker, point end into about 1/8"-1/4" thick slices. Some folks run a knife through the fat layer between the point and flat and separate them and slice each separately. Some folks cut off the flat where the point meats it and then they rotate it so the cut is on the side and they slice through the point and flat from the side.
Recipe for a Whole Packer Brisket
Whole packer on a gas grill
A) The grain on the flat runs one way.
B) The grain on the point runs another way.
C) A small aluminum loaf pan with wood chips sits on top of the burner. You can use chunks or pellets, too.
D) A meat thermometer probe inserted into the point.
E) An oven thermometer probe sits above the grates at the same level as the meat over the water pan.
F) The water pan puts moisture into the atmosphere and catches drips.
In the recipe below I have chosen a path that yields excellent results. Some may dispute my choices, but if you start here, you can then riff on the controversies above. If your effort yields meat that is a bit dry or tough, try again. Sometimes it's the cow, not the recipe or the cook!
Yield. If you are cooking a whole packer, start with about 1 pound of meat or more per person. There will be significant loss, up to 20% from fat trimming and up to 40% from shrinkage.
Preparation time. 5 minutes to apply the rub. If you can let the rub soak in for an hour or two, that would be nice. Overnight is better. You can make the sauce while the meat is cooking.
Cooking time. Your times may vary because each cooker is different and sometimes objects in cooker are weirder than you think. If you follow the recipe below and cook at 225F, it should take about 12 hours to cook a whole packer brisket. Even a 4 pound HOF can take that 8-10 hours!
Resting time. When the meat is cooked, this recipe recommends you let the meat rest, wrapped in foil, wrapped in a towel, buried in a plastic cooler, for another 1-3 hours. This is a great fudge factor that lets you take the meat off when it is ready and hold it until the guests are ready.
Toolkit
1 grill or smoker with lots of fuel
6 feet of heavy-duty aluminum foil
12 ounces of hard wood chunks or chips for smoking
1 digital meat thermometer, preferably a Maverick ET-73
1 plastic beer cooler bigger than the brisket (not styrofoam, which could melt)
1 towel or blanket
1 long, thin, sharp knife Cooking log
1 alarm clock
1 lawn chair
1 good book
6 pack of beer
1 pair of shades
Sun tan lotion
Tunes
A crowd of hungry friends
The Meat Big Bad Beef Rub
1 whole packer brisket, Choice grade
1 bottle of commercial beer such as Lone Star
Optional: 1/8 cup of beef broth per pound of raw meat for injecting
The Sauce 2 cups of Texas Barbecue Mop-Sauce (you can make this days in advance) for a packer, or 1/2 cup for a HOF
Sides Brisket is great with potatoes. For sandwiches, use thick slices of sturdy bread or kaiser rolls, and let the gravy soak in and get sloppy. Garnish with grilled ancho and red bell peppers or caramelized onions.
Do this 1)Trim. Rinse the meat and dry it with paper towels. If you have a packer, trim off most of the fat cap but leave at least 1/4". If you are trimming a packer, until you get the hang of it you might cut off some of the meat while trimming. No harm, no foul. Some cooks will attempt to remove some of the fat layer between the flat and the point by slicing them apart from both sides, but not slicing all the way through so they remain attached. If you are competing, trim the flat to about 9" wide in order to fit the width of the standard 9" x 9" turn-in box after shrinkage. On the meaty side, make sure there is no silverskin, a tough thin membrane, left. If you have a HOF, you probably will not need to trim much at all. Just make sure there is no silverskin on the meaty side.
2) Pump. This is an optional step. I normally do not pump a whole packer, but I almost always pump a HOF. If you have a hypodermic for injecting meat, now's the time to use it. Pump in about 1/8 cup of beef broth per pound of raw meat by inserting the needle parallel to the grain in several locations and back it out as you press the plunger. Do it in the sink and be careful so you don't get squirted in the eye. Use broth only. All we want here is moisture. We don't want the fluid to mask the flavor of the meat.
3) Rub. Before you apply the Big Bad Beef Rub, notice the direction of the grain of the flat and remember this so you can carve it perpendicular to the grain. Sprinkle the rub liberally on all exposed meat and rub it in. Not much sense in wasting rub on the fat since most of it will melt off or be cut off by your guests. If you can, let the meat sit for 1-2 hours to allow the rub to penetrate a bit and form a moist paste that will become your crust. Overnight is better. I strongly recommend you use a digital remote thermometer such as the Maverick, especially if you are not an expert with brisket, and insert the probe with the tip centered in the thickest part of the meat.
4) Preheat. OK, before we begin, it is important to note that brisket is an inexact science, and the timing can vary significantly depending on the size of your brisket, it's moisture and fat content, and the nature of your cooker, not to mention the accuracy of your thermometer. But the method I describe has a long period of resting in an insulated beer cooler (warmer in this case), and that time is flexible so you can use that buffer time to keep dinner on schedule. If you are using a grill, set it up for indirect cooking. Click here to see how to set up a gas grill. Here's how to set up a charcoal grill, and here's how to set up a bullet smoker like the Weber Smokey Mountain. Get the temp stabilized at about 225F. It is crucial to keep the temp low or else the proteins can seize up and squeeze out all the juices. And this can happen fast on brisket, so monitor your temp carefully. Brisket is a lot less forgiving than pork shoulder.
5) Cook. Put the meat on the cooker, fat side up. On a Weber Smokey Mountain, put the meat on the lower grate, right above the water, and make sure you monitor the temp at that level. It is different there than near the top of the dome. If the temp starts to run up, start mopping the meat with water, apple juice, or beer to keep it cool until you get the oven temp back down to 225F. Add wood right after the meat and when the smoke stops for the first two hours. Keep an eye on the water in the pan. Don't let it evaporate. After three hours, turn the meat over if the color is different from top to bottom. Otherwise leave it alone. The meat temp will move steadily upward to a spot called "the stall" or "the conversion zone", somewhere between 140-150F. Once in the zone, it will seem to take forever to rise. This is the magic time when the connective tissues made of collagens begin to dissolve and create fabulous flavor and texture. When you hit the stall, don't panic and crank the heat up. Once the internal temp is past 170F it will probably rise more rapidly. This may seem way overcooked, especially since steak is well-done at about 150F, but we need to cook brisket to a much higher temperature to make it tender. Click here for more about the thermodynamics of cooking meat. We're shooting for 180F.
The Texas Crutch
When the meat hits 180F, wrap it tightly with foil or in a foil pan as above. Cook until it hits 190F, and turn off the heat. Let it rest for 1-3 hours on the warm grill (but not a hot grill) or in a beer cooler or in the indoor oven.
Slice the flat across the grain until you encounter the flat muscle on top of the flat.
The remaining hunk has two muscles with the grain going in different directions. Slice it in half.
Slice the center section.
Slice the remaining butt end of the point in the same direction as you cut the flat.
Leftovers can be chopped, doused in sauce, and served on a bun like they do at many restaurants in Texas.
6) Crutch. When the meat hits 180F take it off and wrap it in a double layer of heavy-duty foil. Pour a cup of beef broth or beer over the top of the meat before you seal the foil. Then seal it tight and drink the leftover beer. Put the wrapped meat back on the smoker for an hour. This step, the Texas Crutch, generates a bit of steam which tenderizes the meat. So when is it ready? The experts say you really can't tell by temperature. Each brisket is different. The pros can tell when it is ready by feel. Some talk about a gelatinous bounce it has when they poke it because the connective tissues have melted. They call it the "wabba wabba" point. Others stick a fork in the side of the flat and twist. If it turns easily, it is ready. "Fast Eddy" Maurin says he waits until his thermometer probe "falls into" the meat on a whole packer and it is "as soft as buttah." Until you get a feel for this, I recommend you pull it off at about 190F and no higher than 205F. It should only take about an hour in foil to hit 190F.
7) Rest. When the temp hits 190F, get your plastic beer cooler, line it with a towel, blanket, or crumpled newspaper and put the meat, still in foil, into the cooler on top of the lining. Leave the thermometer probe in. If the foil is leaking, put the meat in a large pan first. The lining is important to prevent the plastic from warping or cracking. Close the lid and let the hot meat sit in the cooler for 1-3 hours until you are ready to eat. Do not let the temp of the meat fall below 145F while it is in the cooler or else you could get a tummy ache. If you have a tight cooler it should hold the meat well above 160F for hours.
8) Slice. Brisket dries out quickly once it is cut. Make sure everyone is ready to eat before you start carving. When your guests are ready, heat up your Texas Barbecue Mop-Sauce and bring it to the table. Turn the meat fat side up so the juices will run onto the meat as you slice.
Slicing is a bit of a challenge because there are two muscles and the grain flows in different directions. There are two good ways to slice:
(a) This is my favorite method, shown in the pictures at right. Start slicing the flat, cutting across the grain so the meat will fall apart in your mouth aboput 1/4" thick, about the thickness of a pencil. As you approach the area where the point muscle lies on top of the flat, stop and cut the remaining hunk in half. Slice the center section crosswise, in the opposite direction that you sliced the flat. The slice the remaining butt section in the same direction you sliced the flat.
(b) Some competitors prefer this method of slicing. Run a knife between the flat and the point and separate the two muscles. Trim off excess fat. Slice them separately across the grain about 1/4" thick. The meat should hold together, not fall apart or crumble. It should pull apart with a gentle tug. If the first slice falls apart, cut thicker slices.
9) Serving. If the meat is perfectly cooked it should be moist and juicy. You can serve it on a plate or as a sandwich and, if you wish, drizzle some Texas Barbecue Mop-Sauce on top of the meat. Serve everyone a little of both muscles.
10) Burnt ends. Burnt ends are amazingly flavorful bite-size crispy cubes. Originally they were simply edges and ends that were overcooked, sort of fried in their own natural fat, and trimmed off and munched by the kitchen staff. If there were any leftover, they were given away for free. Then, in 1970, in his marvelous book American Fried, Calvin Trillin wrote the following about Arthur Bryant's restaurant in Kansas City "The main course at Bryant's, as far as I'm concerned, is something that is given away for free -- the burned edges of the brisket. The counterman just pushes them over to the side as he slices the beef, and anyone who wants them helps himself. I dream of those burned edges. Sometimes, when I'm in some awful overpriced restaurant in some strange town -- all of my restaurant-finding techniques having failed, so that I'm left to choke down something that costs seven dollars and tastes like a medium-rare sponge -- a blank look comes over my face: I have just realized that at that very moment someone in Kansas City is being given those burned edges free."
Well, not any more. They taste so great that folks started asking for burned end sandwiches and Bryant's had to start making them on purpose. Here's how: Before you wrap the meat in foil for the crutch, cut off the thin part of the flat and throw it back in the smoker without the foil. You will then wrap the point end and the flat beneath it in heavy duty foil as described above. Keep the thermometer probe in this section. Cook the unwrapped flat until it gets really dark but not burned. Remove it and cut it into 1/2" strips with the grain and then cut the strips across the grain every half inch to make delightful, spicy, flavorful, crispy, crunchy cubes. They will probably be a bit dry so mix them with a bit of sauce, wrap in foil, and hold in your cooler with the rest of the meat until you are ready to serve. I have even been known to toss them into a non-stick frying pan with a little bacon fat to crisp them and then I add the sauce. Serve burnt ends like a side dish. They will go fast.
11) Pulled or chopped brisket. I'm not a big fan of this method since there is more surface area and the meat dries out quicker. But if you are drenching it with sauce, go for it. To make pulled or chopped brisket, after you remove the meat from the foil, cut off the thin end and slice it into strips. Then pull it apart into chunks and shards or chop it with a knife or cleaver. Splash on some sauce and serve on a bun.
Leftovers
There are likely to be leftovers. Problem is that they dry out quickly. Here's what to do with leftover brisket:
Leftover brisket makes good sandwiches. I like mine with lettuce, tomato, and avocado. I slice or chop leftover meat and freeze it, two portions per zipper bag (that's brisket being chopped for sandwiches at the Salt Lick outside Austin, below). Freeze the sauce in ice cube trays and put the cubes in zipper bags. When it's time to serve, defrost the cubes, pour the gravy over the meat, and gently warm it in a microwave on low or in the oven at 200F (below boiling). If you don't have gravy, moisten the meat with beef stock.
Slow's Bar-B-Q in Detroit is famous for their brisket enchiladas. They are made by sauteeing onions, tossing in some sliced brisket and a splash of hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and their house secret sauce. They then dump it on a tortilla, top it with grated smoked gouda cheese, roll it uo, grate some American cheese on top, and give it a squirt of hot sauce for good measure.
Believe it or not, leftover brisket is great in a Chinese stir-fry with onions, carrots, broccoli, and a soy/sesame oil/hoisin sauce with a splash of hot sauce on a bed of rice.
Buzz Dean of Nekoosa, Wisconsin, says he takes his leftovers to the pub and trades it for beer!
John R. Crowley in Denver says he likes to chop leftovers up in beans or fry it up in some hash.
Bill Martin in Hawaii likes his leftovers chopped up in scrambled eggs and on top of a salad.
Lucy Baker says "Make Italian beef-style sandwiches with very cooked (limp) green and red bell peppers, onion, and a little italian seasoning. Reheat the beef in broth and spoon over crusty bread before adding the beef and peppers. Yikes!"
Merrill Powers in Elmhurst, Illinois, makes quesadillas with his leftovers.
Rodney Leist from Elfrida, Arizona, kills several different leftovers in one dish. He puts one of those single serving bags of corn chips in a bowl, adds a big scoop of leftover chopped briskett, a similar amount of leftover smoked sausage, and a similar amount of beans. On goes some leftover sauce, chopped onions, chopped jalapeños, and grated cheese. The whole thing gets heated in the microwave.
This page was revised 1/31/2010
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The Smokenator
If you have a Weber Kettle, you need the amazing Smokenator and Hovergrill. The Smokenator turns your grill into a first class smoker, and the Hovergrill can add capacity or be used to get steakhouse steaks. Click here to read more and for ordering info.
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A whole barbecue beef brisket is a huge clod of cow that comes off the pit almost black, looking more like a meteorite than a meal. But it is not burnt, and beneath the crust is tender, juicy, smoky meat. It is the national food of the Republic of Texas. A whole brisket is a great excuse for a party.
Leftover brisket makes good sandwiches. I like mine with lettuce, tomato, and avocado. I slice or chop leftover meat and freeze it, two portions per zipper bag (that's brisket being chopped for sandwiches at the Salt Lick outside Austin, below). Freeze the sauce in ice cube trays and put the cubes in zipper bags. When it's time to serve, defrost the cubes, pour the gravy over the meat, and gently warm it in a microwave on low or in the oven at 200F (below boiling). If you don't have gravy, moisten the meat with beef stock.
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