Last week, I thought of trying something a bit different for a smoked brisket. Peri peri chicken and peri peri shrimp are two of my favorite kinds of spicy protein, which are easy to prepare and forgiving of mistakes or excesses when experimenting on flavor. Brisket tends to be less forgiving of mistakes, so I am more careful in my approaches to spice rubs, binders, and temperatures used in cooking one up.
That said, I was feeling adventuresome and wanted to adapt that great peri peri flavor to a dry rub and really put some bang into a brisket. The results were pretty dern good! Give this a try for one of your next briskets; it is super tasty.
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 Peri Peri Rub
When made fresh, peri peri is a moist mixture of spices and oils, chopped, ground, simmered, and blended before being bottled or applied directly to meat as a marinade. It is also used liberally on the meat as it is cooked. For this smoked brisket, the ingredients will be used in a coarsely ground and dried form. Finely ground is okay, if that is what you have available, but seek the more coarse textures if possible. Here is the list:
- 2 tablespoons granulated garlic
- 2 tablespoons granulated onion
- 2 tablespoons ginger powder
- 2 tablespoons ground cardamom
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
- 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon ground cayenne or chipotle pepper
- 1 tablespoon ground Thai chili or birdseye pepper
- 1/2 tablespoon salt
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and whisk until they are thoroughly mixed.
Smoking the Brisket via the 4-2-10 Method
It had been a while since my last brisket smoking, and I wanted to do it all with the best odds of success, as the meal would feed a bunch of visitors who loved seafood and poultry, but were not the biggest fans of red meat. Except they really liked my style of prepariing ribs (grinning); that will be a story for another day. This will be a nearly foolproof running of 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 some olive oil into the meat, to serve as a binder. When that is done, rub the spice mix into the brisket. Spread the spices evenly and liberally. Rub them in with moderate pressure. Let the meat sit for several hours to absorb the peri peri 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 peri peri 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 peri peri 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 harder bark.
When the two hours has elapsed, get some butcher's paper ready to wrap the brisket. Spread some of the taloe drippings from the pan generously on the paper, saturating it. Pour the remaining beef taloe into a different container to save for future cooking.
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
Discard whatever is remaining in the pan, after you have harvested any taloe you want. Put 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 peri peri 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 used for interesting and creative meals you might not think would work. This peri peri style was something I had thought about a few times, but was unsure of how to handle a usually moist and saucy seasoning. Using a dry rub with an olive oil binder worked well. Butter or avocado oil binders might be interesting too.
To save time on the next one, I may try a ready-made spice mix, as I have seen a couple of them advertized. 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.
If you enjoyed this smoked brisket recipe and want to try another one, see my Smoked Jamaican Jerk Spiced Brisket, prepared using the 4-2-10 method.
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