Smoked Stuffed Barbeque Brisket

Ingredients

1 - beef brisket

1lb - bulk sausage

2 - Polish Kielbasas

1 - medium onion

2 - stalks celery

2 - medium carrots

2 - cloves garlic

8oz - apple cider vinegar

8oz - Jack Daniels Whiskey

2 quarts bargeque sauce, whatever you like

Miscelaneous Equipment

Butcher's String

A Tire Needle (for installing plugs in holes)

1 Misting spray bottle

Your favorite beef brine

Your favorite beef rub

Mesquite chips (or what ever you like)

18+ pounds of charcoal

Preparation

Before you begin read the directions all the way through.

Brine the brisket using your favorite brine recipe. Most recipes state that you can leave the meat in the brine for up to 48 hours in the refrigerator. It's your call as to how long.

Butterfly cut the brisket so that the large piece along the straight back part of the width provides a hinge. You don't want to sew more than you have to. The purpose of butterfly cutting the brisket is to split the thickness in half to double the surface area.

Open the butterflied brisket and apply your favorite beef rub to all surfaces of the meat. You can let this age in the refrigerator over night prior to cooking it. Again, this is your call.

Peal and mince the garlic. Slice the carrots in thin circular disks. Slice the celery in thin slices cross sectionally along the length. Peal and dice the onion then combine all of the vegetables mixing together.

Slice the Polish Kielbasas into thin lengthwise strips. Watch your fingers.

Open the butterflied brisket, spread the sausage in a layer on the bottom portion of the open brisket. Spread it all the way to the edges leaving about one half inch of uncoated meat at the edge all the way around. Layer the vegetable mixture on top of that. Next add the sliced kielbasa to completely cover the vegetable mixture.

None of these things should extend to the very edge of the meat as you will next sew the stuffed brisket together. This is where the tire needle comes in handy. Make sure it is well cleaned or buy a new one and don't use it for anything else. Proceed as follows:

1. close the butterfly top over the stuffing (close the book) and make sure the top cover extends all the way across the stuffing so that the top and bottom edges of the brisket meet all the way around.
   
2. thread the butcher's string through the eye of the needle.
3. starting at one corner of the brisket where the hinge begins and the top and the bottom of the edges meet, push the needle throug the top and bottom layer of meat. Make sure the butcher's string stays in the eye and that the eye goes all the way through the meat.
4. Grab and hold the string on the eye side of the meat and slowly pull the needle out. If you did this right you should have a loop between your fingers with two pieces of string sticking out the whole that you pushed the needle through (before pulling it back out). If you did not do this right, repeat it until you get it right. The needle should have pulled free of the butcher's string as the needle has a split in the end of the tip.
   
5. Taking the short end of string, wrap it around the edge of the beef and pass it through the loop on the other side and tie it into a knot so that it will not slip out.
6. From this first stitch advance the needle about an inch down the edge and pass the butcher's string through the split in the needle then push the needle through both edges of the meat again. Grab the string from the eye on the other side of the edges and pull the needle out again.  Make the loop large and make pass the ball of string through the loop then pull the string tight to make stitch two.
7. Repeat this process all the way around and again tie the string off at the other hinged edge. The brisket should be complete closed now.

The brisket should be slowly cooked over wood smoke. If you know what you are doing go ahead. If not, here is what I do. If you know how to smoke one just follow the time and temperature guidelines.

Mix the vinegar and Jack Daniels Whiskey in the spray bottle.

Cooking

I use a 17" deep MACA dutch over with a small metal container in the center of the bottom filled with water. I spread a layer of chips on the bottom around the container and then position a lid stand on the bottom. I place a 14" pizza pan on the lid stand and put a rack on that. The brisket sits on the rack, fat side up (this promotes self basting).

I use two digital thermometers during cooking. I consider them to be essential. The bodies of the thermometers sit outside the oven but the probes are placed into the oven. One probe sits on the rack beside the brisket. The other probe is placed into the brisket at an obtuse angle so that the tip of the probe is positioned in the center of the meat in all dimensions ( The thickest part of the brisket). I monitor the oven temperature shooting for a target temperature close to 225 degrees.

The meat temperature is monitored for three temperatures. Inside the Dutch Oven I want it to reach 140 degrees in two hours or less. From there I track it until it hits 160 degrees. This is considered to be safe for beef. However we want to cook it at a high enough temperature to break down the collagen in the beef so the brisket is soft.  Over time we want the temperature to get over 200 degrees internally. It should cook at 200+ degrees for about 30 minutes. 200+ degrees does not mean anyting you want. If it climbs slowly to 212 for the finish that would be fine but it should not spend much time at a heat that high.

For my method of cooking there is a lot of drainage that I don't want running out of the pizza pan into the bottom of the Dutch Oven, so I use a basting syringe to pump out the juice periodically. The juice can be used later for other recipes so save it if you are inclined. Whenever you take the lid of the pot, spray the brisket with the Whiskey mixture to keep it moist.

When cooking in the Dutch Oven I put a fair amount of charcoal under the pot and a small to moderate amount on top. The idea is to roast the meat with bottom heat while bathing it with smoke. Some coal on top will help it to brown, but you don't want to burn the top.

Ultimately the interior cooking temperature is essential. it takes however long it takes to get the interior temperature over 200 degrees. Don't over bake it.

If you are using some other method to cook it you're on your own. just be forwarned, If you decide to cook it in the oven without smoking, it's NOT the same thing. I've tried short cuts.

After the meat has cooked to the proper internal temperature I put it in a 12" deep dutch oven and simmer it in barbeque sauce for 3 to 4 hours. Keep the heat low as you don't want to scorch the brisket or burn the barbeque sauce.

When the brisket is done, remove it from the heat and into a serving pan. Scoop out the barbeque sauce and place it on the brisket.

Serve immediately. You'll be eating brisket for days!

I have tried several different barbeque sauces. I've even made my own. This just winds up being personal preference.

History

A coworker who does a lot of cooking put me up to this. He likes to smoke meats and had been telling me that I didn't need a smoker, that I'd be perfectly OK doing it in a Dutch Oven (I have several).

Then one day he began to relate this elaborate recipe for smoking a brisket. We will not mention any names but his initials are Jeff Piper. Notice how I conveniently phonenticized the alphabet using some know words so that readers would get the initials right! Using a phonetic alphabet helps, doesn't it Jeff (just in case he ever sees this)?

Anyway, I asked him if he had ever made the recipe to which re replied "No". I think he suckered me into doing it. He knows I like elaborate, complex things!

So I followed his directions religiously except for one small thing. Did I mention that I don't like green peppers? To do something really different I substituted carrots for peppers. I know there's no comparison but isn't  that great? Remember,  I said to read the whole thing before starting? if you want to use green peppers, go ahead. It will not hurt my feeling at all. I'm the on that doesn't like green peppers.

The method to stitch up the brisket is purely my own. It works better than the other techniques I tried. First I used a big needle and strong thread. That took forever. Then I tried the leather punch on my pocket knife and strong thread. That was even worse. What I provided above worked pretty good, I thought. Now the tire needle is in my kitchen cooking gadget drawer!

So the end of the story is the recipe with all the directions above.  If it sounds like experimental cooking that's because it is! But that's half the fun!!!

If you use the rub recipe I provided keep in mind that it makes a WARM brisket. I like it that way but you may not.

If you are inclined to try this. please leave comments.

Thanks,

John Hayes