Here is a way to spice up your smoked brisket and make a delicious and memorable meal. For years, I have enjoyed applying Jamaican jer spices to chicken, lamb, and shrimp on the grill. A good way to prepare something similar for brisket was hard to find, but I finally got it worked out and it is great! Brisket tends to be less forgiving of mistakes than other meats, so I am more careful in how I use spice rubs, marinades, and binders. Temperatures were a tricky thing for smoked brisket; having a good meat thermometer and keeping an eye on the smoker air temperature is how I get consistently good results.
Keeping those words above in mind, I was feeling adventuresome (just as with the jerk spice spiced brisket) and set out to develop a spice mixture to bring out some spicy, sweet, and zesty flavors of jerk seasoning in a brisket. The results make my mouth water, even as I write! Give this a try for one of your next briskets; it is delicious.
Note: Start preparation about 36 hours before you want to serve this brisket. Begin by refrigerating the brisket for a few hours at a temperature just above freezing, so that the meat and fat become firm and easy to trim.
Preparing the Jamaican Jerk Spice Rub
When made fresh, jerk spice is a moist mixture of spices, juices, and oils, which are chopped, ground, and blended before being bottled or applied directly to meat as a marinade. You may have seen some dry spice rubs in Jamaican jerk style, but I don't favor their use unless you lack the time to marinate the meat or cannot obtain all of the fresh ingredients.
Save some of this marinade mixture, as it may be applied liberally to the meat during smoking, before it is wrapped. For this smoked brisket, the ingredients should be chopped and ground coarsely - not too finely, so it keeps some texture. Here is the ingredient list:
- 1 medium onion, chopped or minced
- 5 cloves of garlic, chopped or minced
- 4 or 5 jalepeno or scotch bonnet peppers, chopped or minced
- 3 or 4 chili or birdseye peppers, chopped or minced
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 ounce avocado or olive oil
- 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons chopped parseley
- 2 teaspoons chopped thyme
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon chopped cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk until they are thoroughly mixed. Pour in the liquids and continue to mix by hand until everything is thoroughly mixed.
Love the 4-2-10 Method of Smoking Brisket
The 4-2-10 method is a "hard to mess up" way of smoking brisket Pitmaster X's 4-2-10 Method. If you are unfamiliar, take a few moments and see my page on using this method of brisket smoking.
When the brisket has become firm in the refrigerator, remove it and trim away the fat. Use a sharp knife and work your way around the brisket, leaving no areas with large masses of fat.
Rub the wet and pasty spice mixture into the brisket. Spread the spices evenly and liberally. Rub it in with moderate pressure. Let the meat sit and marinate for several hours to absorb the jerk spice flavors.
The next sections are based on when you want to serve the freshly smoked brisket. Plan to start up the smoker in the afternoon of the day before if serving at lunch time. Begin during the prior evening for a jerk spice brisket dinner. The ten hour oven segment is what takes the most time.
Four Hours Initial Smoke
Start up the smoker and get it stable at a temperature of 250° F or 120° C.
Put the jerk spice spiced brisket in the smoker, with a pan under it to capture the sure-to-be-plentiful fat drippings. Over the next hours, you should see a nice bark form on the brisket. Fat will render, slowly, but the brisket will have a lot of liquid in small pools on its surface.
Time this stage of the smoking for four hours.
Two Hours at High Heat, Rendering Fat
After four hours has elapsed, increase the temperature to 285° F or 140° C, for a period of two hours.
Fat in the brisket will render at a faster rate, and much of the liquid on its surface will evaporate in the high heat. Plenty of taloe should collect in the pan while the brisket gets a bark becomes more firm.
When the two hours has elapsed, get some butcher's paper ready to wrap the brisket. There will be some beef taloe in the pan, with a bit of jerk spices mixed in. Spread some of that taloe on the paper, saturating it. For later use, you can scoop out the better taloe and discard the portion with more spice in it, or pass it through a strainer to catch any bits of spices or meat which have separated from the brisket.
Remove the brisket from the smoker and wrap it in the taloe soaked paper.
The next phase of cooking the brisket is usually accomplished in an oven. If you wish, the smoker can be used if and only if you can get the temperature down to 140° F or 65° C and keep it there. Some chefs have done it, but the results seem more consistent with an oven (and its reliable thermostat).
Ten Hours in the Oven, Wrapped and Sealed
You no longer need anything collected earlier in the pan. Pour out anything remaining, then pour about a half cup or 150 ml of water into the pan. Place a cooking rack over the pan and set the wrapped brisket onto the rack. Wrap this whole setup tightly in aluminum foil, to hold in the moisture.
Place the brisket setup into the oven and let it cook for ten hours at 140° F or 65° C.
After 10 hours, remove the brisket, unwrap it, and prepare to eat a juicy and flavorful jerk spice brisket. When I tried it, the result was fabulous. Even our seafood and poultry loving guests greatly enjoyed it.
Conclusion
Although being a challenging meat to prepare, smoked brisket can be served for interesting and creative meals you might not think would work. This jerk spice style was something I had thought about a few times, but was unsure of how to handle an often moist and somewhat chunky seasoning.
To save time on the next one, I may try a ready-made dry rub, as I have seen a couple of them advertized. The catch is that fresh seasonings are hard to beat. I really liked the fresh garlic, chopped thyme, peppers, and other goodies. Being more confident in the results, I will probably try a more conventional smoking style as well, just to stay well rounded and able to smoke the brisket with a variety of techniques.
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