Advertising | Beef Brisket counts alongside Pulled Pork and Ribs to the “Holy Trinity”, the “Holy Trinity” of barbecue. Wagyu Brisket tops it all. Accordingly, there are also thousands of hints, tips, page-long recipes and hundreds of lists of what can go wrong. Some of this I usually pay attention too, but hey, it can be simple and still delicious. You need a beef brisket, a smoker and time.
The beef brisket
Fortunately, I didn’t have just any beef brisket, but half a beef brisket from a thoroughbred Wagyu beef from the local Havel floodplains. I have already been able to convince myself of the quality of Havel-Wagyu several times, both in terms of burgers, flap meat or ribeye steak. I did not experience any negative surprise with this Wagyu Brisket, but was once again thrilled with the quality of the source material.
With brisket, you should generally look for good quality. Sad as it is, the usual German beef brisket is inadequate for brisket. There you can inject, wrap and mop sauce, it will most likely become too dry. This in itself is not a drama, as it can taste wonderful served with a sauce. However, it also goes differently, namely juicy and aromatic.
The procedure
As is common with cuts of meat that are smoked at low temperatures, there is no way to predict when the good stuff will be ready, even with Wagyu Brisket. The core temperature alone is decisive. This should be between 88-92 degrees, but most importantly, the brisket should be nice and soft. The piercing thermometer* for core temperature measurement should be easy to pull out. It can take 10-20 hours to reach the targeted core temperature.
For smocking, I used my El Fuego Portland* gas smoker. It could not be simpler! Smocking was done with hickory wood chunks*. Hickory are trees from the walnut family and are very popular for smocking, especially in the USA. I don’t use too much smoker wood for the most part, as we prefer a more subtle smoke flavor, but that’s up to each person.
The meat was brought to room temperature a bit and rubbed with a Texas Brisket Rub from Weber. I had brought the rub with me from the USA, it is not available in Germany. However, any rub that suits your preferences goes. In the USA, even just salt and pepper are often used in a 50:50 ratio.
Since this Wagyu beef brisket was wonderfully marbled and riddled with veins of fat, I decided against injecting it. However, for drier cuts of meat, it is recommended to spray the brisket in advance, for example with beef broth and/or liquid butter, using a marinating sprayer*, and then apply the rub.
The smocking
The Wagyu Brisket went into the smoker at about 110 degrees, got the smoke from the hickory wood pieces for the first hour, and remained in the smoker until a core temperature of 70 degrees. It was then wrapped in Butcher Paper* and allowed to go back into the smoker. The wrapping had two reasons: First, I wanted the Wagyu Brisket to be ready in the evening. The so-called Texas Crutch applied here allows the meat to get through the so-called plateau phase faster. In the plateau phase at about 70 degrees, the core temperature just doesn’t seem to want to rise any further. The reason is physical and chemical processes, which are not important here. You can now wrap the Brisket (or Pulled Pork) tightly in aluminum foil, for example. The plateau phase thus passes more quickly, and the meat is ready sooner. However, wrapping in aluminum foil destroys the beautiful crust, that is, softened. This does not happen with Butcher Paper because it is permeable to air, and the crust is preserved.
After 11 hours, the Wagyu Brisket had reached 90 degrees core temperature, and also felt aureichend soft. Further wrapped in the butcher paper, it still came together with a bottle of hot water for an hour in the warming box. This has the advantage that the meat juices can still distribute optimally, the meat becomes more tender before you finally cut it.
Do not throw away the liquid in the butcher paper or aluminum foil. This is an excellent base for a sauce. None was needed with this beef brisket, it was so juicy!
(*) The products advertised in the post are so-called affiliate links. If you click on such an affiliate link and make a purchase via this link, I will receive a commission from the online store or provider in question. For you, the price does not change.
