Best Way Tocook Corned Beef Brisket
It's the time of year when our thoughts turn to green beer and our shopping lists include cabbage and corned beef.
Corned beef brisket is a natural in Texas, as it's a cut we know and love. But the all those curing salts and spices make this a very different product, so I wanted to know the best way to cook it.
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Beef right now is not cheap, and corned beef is going for about $6 a pound, with most packages ranging from 3 to 5 pounds. It's cut from the flat, the lean part of the brisket, so going in, I assumed the methods that cooked it low and slow, the oven and smoker, would be the most successful.
I bought three, 3-pound cured corned beef briskets. After rinsing them to get off some of that salt, I cooked one in the smoker, one on the grill and one in the oven. Here's how it went.
Corned beef can be prepared on the grill took on a crispy bark, but lacked the flavor compared to the oven or smoker.
Jessica Phelps / Staff photographerGrilled
Method: I set the grill with indirect heat, with the coals set to one side and the meat placed on the cool zone, with a temperature of 400 to 500 degrees and cooked it like a steak for about two hours.
Pros: This was by far the fastest method to cook the brisket, and it developed a great charcoal flavor.
Cons : Brisket is a pretty tough muscle and needs more time to get tender. The crust on the brisket was as firm as a car tire and by far the most difficult to slice, although the beef flavor didcarry through. Overall, this method gets the Food Shack endorsement as the worst way to treat your brisket.
Rating: A solid F for find any other way.
Corned beef cooked in the oven.
Jessica Phelps / Staff photographerOven
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Corned beef brisket cooked on the grill produced a crispy crust in a short amount of time.
Jessica Phelps / Staff photographerMethod: I set the brisket on a rack in a roasting pan with with 32 ounces of beef broth poured into the pan. I cooked it in a 300-degree oven for four hours.
Pros: The brisket made the house smell like heaven while it cooked, and the final product was relatively tender. It's by far the easiest and most accessible way to cook the meat, and an oven gives you the ability to precisely control the temperature.
Cons: I had no major complaints, but I felt cheated eating brisket without that additional layer of flavor that charcoal and smoke provide. So the finished product was good, but it felt like something was missing, and if I were to do it again, I would add a few sprigs of rosemary.
Rating: A solid B+ for better than I thought.
Corned beef brisket cooked in a smoker had a tender texture and lighter color than the ones cooked in the oven or on a grill.
Jessica Phelps / Staff photographerSmoked
Method: I set the smoker to 250 degrees with a blend of oak and hickory wood and cooked the brisket for six hours.
Pros: Brisket and smoke just belong together. This meat was velveteen and sliced like butter. It was the lightest colored of the three cooked. It didn't need to be wrapped in foil or spritzed.
Cons: Obviously, you need to have a smoker and plenty of time — and that just won't be possible for everyone. You also won't get that classic "smoke ring," because of the heavy dose of curing salts used to make the corned beef. But outside of that, I've got nothing.
Rating: A solid A for totally awesome.
In this state, corned beef brisket will never overtake the traditional slab of beef that makes Texas famous for its barbecue, but it's a fun and tasty twist that pairs nicely with green beer. So if you got 'em, smoke 'em.
cblount@express-news.net | Twitter: @chuck_blount | Instagram: @bbqdiver
Source: https://www.expressnews.com/food/chucks-food-shack/article/best-way-to-cook-corned-beef-brisket-16983457.php
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