BBQ Contests: Judging Brisket and Sauce at Blues, Views and BBQ

So, we're finally in the homestretch of judging at Connecticut's Views, Blues and BBQ festival. 3 categories down and one left to go; brisket. Brisket, the hardest piece of meat to get right and my least favorite of the competition meats.

At this event, every brisket box presented to my table contained slices and burnt ends. Or what may or may not have been the cook's attempt at burnt ends, as most were cubes of very chewy, but tender meat. None were particularly smokey as burnt ends tend to be. All of the slices in the boxes were on the thick side, but most were very tender.

In terms of flavors, no one entry sticks out in my mind. Two reminded me of pot roast with no noticeable smokey taste. One had an odd sauce on it that I've tasted before at other contests and in other categories. This sauce always leaves me with a strange apple cider vinegary after taste that lingers long. Little did I know it would reappear in the sauce category.

With the judging of brisket, the official KCBS part of the contest was over and we judges were asked to stay and judge a sauce category. I've never judged a sauce category before so I had some quick discussions with a couple of other judges looking for tips. My main concern was on appearance of sauce. How do you judge that? KCBS rules are not comparative judging, so you are to judge each sauce on its own merits. One judge came up with a good set of guidelines and that's what I tried to follow.

When I was told it was a sauce category, I expected that the "sauce" we were to judge would be a barbecue sauce, but no, the reps repeatedly pointed out that this was a "sauce" contest, not a BARBEQUE sauce contest. Any type of sauce was a legal entry.

They then told us how we were to judge the sauce. Sauce would be presented to us in small plastic cups with lids. We were told to take each cup, open it and judge it for appearance. Each sauce was to be judged for appearance before we could move on to taste.

For taste, we were told to break a saltine cracker in half. We were told to dip one piece of the cracker into the sauce and to taste that. Then we were instructed to dunk and swirl the other piece of cracker, taste it and then score each sauce for taste. Again, we were told to judge each sauce for taste before we could move on to the final judging criteria, tenderness.

Judging a sauce for tenderness is a kin to judging water for wetness, so the reps came up with an interesting twist on scoring the final criteria. Instead of judging for tenderness, we were told to judge each sauce against the other, to comparatively rate the sauces, based simply on which one we liked best. The top sauce was to receive a score of 9, the next 8 and so forth until the lowest rated sauce on your table would receive a 4.

I thought judging the sauces was difficult up to that point, but when asked to lay them out, for lack of a better term, in best to worst, now that was close to impossible. It wasn't that hard to pick out my favorite sauce, it was fairly difficult to pick out my least favorite sauce, and it was close to impossible to rate the sauces in between.

I was glad that my table received only bbq sauces. I know one team submitted a caramel sauce. While I would have liked to have tried it, it raised an interesting question; how do you comparatively rate a caramel dessert sauce against a vinegar bbq sauce? I don't think it can be done. It's really comparing apples to oranges.

But everyone had a good time in the end and that's all that matters.

A final note about this contest. From my point of view as a judge and from my experiences there, this was a first rate, well run event. The reps, the ever lovely, Lovelys did a great job. Talking with the cooks after the event, they told me that everything was great the entire weekend and that the organizers did a fantastic job of making them feel welcome and appreciated. I hope this becomes an annual contest. Connecticut needs one.

Diagram of the cow courtesy of Wikipedia.

Brisket Anyone?

This is an edit to the original post. I apologize that I unintentionally insulted Neil with my original posting. It's not the greatest picture, but I'm sure that brisket was outstanding. In my experience, Neil is very good cook.

These are pictures of award winning brisket from La Quinta Brews, Blues and Barbecue contest. That's the 3rd place brisket cooked by the 4 Q BBQ team of California. The 4 Q team has a very interesting history as the only team I know of that originated as bloggers.

BBQ Recipes: The SmokieOkie Brisket Smoking Method

One of the great things about the internet is all the wonderful subscriptions to email lists. Oh I know they also come with spam, but some are worth the trouble. One of the best for me is from SmokingMeat.Com.

Here's their recipe for "The SmokieOkie Brisket Smoking Method"

This is actually more of a cooking method than a recipe. If all steps are followed, you will not have any problem with any of the assertions in the name. You will get melt in your mouth brisket that is so juicy it won't hardly accept any BBQ sauce, but the flavor will be so good that you probably won't want any. If you want burnt ends, you can certainly make them, but it's doubtful that you will want to. You will need a hot charcoal fire, extra long handled tongs, a smoker large enough to accomodate the meat, a large H.D. foil pan large enough to accomodate the brisket, 8-12 hours, smoking wood (We prefer hickory or mesquite), your favorite BBQ rub.


Ingredients:

12 1/2 lbs beef brisket
6 ounces of your favorite barbecue rub

How it's done:

1. Select the best brisket by wiggling the brisket back and forth@ the middle of the point end. This will tell you how fatty the point cut is, and how much fat layer there is between the point and flat cut. The easier it wiggles, the better. Buy the cheapest grade you can get. We want as little marbling as possible. Be sure you have a whole "packer trim" brisket, and not a flat cut or point cut. 12-13# is optimum for this application.

2. 1-2 days before, rub brisket well with rub, and wrap tightly with H.D. plastic wrap, place in pan and refrigerate, or place in ice chest.

3. The day of the cook, start early by moving the brisket out of the fridge and packing it with black pepper.

4. Prepare your fire for the smoker, and, on a separate grill, prepare a VERY hot fire for searing the brisket.

5. When smoker is up to temp(250*-275*) sear brisket thoroughly on all sides and ends as well. We're talking so black that it looks like it's ruined, but don't worry, it's not. While it's OK to pierce the meat with a fork 2 this point, it's preferable not to. You may need help turning it w/ tongs.

6. Once seared, place brisket in foil pan, fat side up, and smoke, uncovered for 2 hours.

7. Flip brisket and smoke for 1 hour. At this point, the juices inside are under a fair amount of pressure. It is important not to pierce the meat from this point until it is done.

8. Flip brisket back to fat side up, and cover with foil.

9. Continue to smoke until internal temperature of 200* is obtained. There will come a point where the temp won't go up no matter what you do. This is normal. Resist the temptation to kick up the temp in your smoker. Time remaining to achieve 200* should be 5-9 hours. The reason for such a large variable is that smoker temps are not precise, and amount of "open time" will vary from cook to cook.

10. When 200* is obtained, remove from smoker, and allow to cool until it is safe to handle, then carefully lift brisket out and remove to a cutting board, and tent w/ foil. A long spatula, or some other long support will be helpful, because it will probably try to break up on you. Run pan juices through a grease separator, and freeze smoky grease in ice cube trays for baked bean seasoning (folks that've never had beans that way will be in awe). Reserve pan juice to serve over brisket.

11. Once cooled enough, separate the point from the flat. There will be a fairly easy to follow fat layer separating the two. Just gently slide a knife through the fat and lift and pull the point away as you cut. If you accidentally cut into the meat, it's no tragedy, just back up a little, and go at it again.

12. Once separated, slice the point cross grain, trimming off excess fat as you go. You will likely find several slices that are too fatty to serve, or maybe some of the outer shell that's too dry to serve. Reserve this meat, chop it fine, freeze, and save for baked bean seasoning.

13. If you look at the flat, you will see that the grain of the meat changes direction about in the middle of the cut. Cut the flat in half at this point, and slice cross grain in 1/2"-3/4" slices.

14. Reheat the pan juices. There should be adequate juices to saturate the brisket. If not, supplement with store bought au jus.

15. Place sliced brisket in pan or dish with slices in the same shape as they were before slicing, and pour juices over the top.

16. Serve open faced on white bread with a little extra au jus over the top.

17. You should not need knives. In fact, our motto is "You Don't Need Teef To Eat Our Beef.

18. I know this is somewhat long and wordy, and may seem a little over simplified to the experienced pit meister, but we've tried to put it in a form that all can benefit from. Good tender, juicy smokey, brisket is too good a thing to only be enjoyed by a few, and is very hard to come by at BBQ joints.

BBQ Recipes: Bruce's Brisket

This recipe comes to us from Extreme Barbecue which I reviewed yesterday. If you remember in my review I mentioned that this book had a couple of techniques I've never encountered before. Bruce's Brisket is one of those recipes. I'm not going to tell you what makes this technique unique, I'll let you discover that for yourself. But I plan on trying this out soon. Take it away Bruce...

Most recipes for smoked meats require them to be wrapped in aluminum foil at some point during the cooking. This recipe calls for red butcher paper, which Bruce Schatte says is the secret to the moistness and flavor of his brisket - a cut of meat that is notoriously difficult to tenderize. (Light colored paper doesn't work as well, he says, because it reflects the heat off the meat.) "Foil seals the steam inside and boils the brisket, and it's like mush," says Bruce. "The paper breathes, and it doesn't trap all the hot steam and oil. It helps you not ruin a $25 to $30 piece of meat."

• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/4 cup freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 cup cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup garlic powder
• 1 beef brisket - about 10 pounds

Build a fire in a smoker/grill for indirect heat. Maintain a temperature of 350 degrees.

Sprinkle the salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper and garlic powder on both sides of the brisket. Sprinkle with just enough water to moisten the seasoning and run it into the meat.

Place the brisket, fat side up, in the smoker on the side opposite the coals. Cook for 1 1/2 hours or until the fat starts to bubble. Put on a thick pair or rubber gloves and turn the meat over. Cook for another 1 1/2 hours, or until the meat is brown and sizzling.

Transfer the brisket to a 3-by-6 foot sheet of red butcher paper, placing it crosswise 1 1/2 feet from the short end of the paper. Wrap the end of the paper over the brisket and fold it tightly. Roll the brisket up in the paper, continuing to pull the paper tightly over it, and finish with the fat side up.

Place the wrapped brisket back in the smoker, again fat side up (This will allow the juice from the fat to spread throughout the rest of the meat) with the thick end of the brisket facing the coals. Cook for 5 more hours, allowing the temperature of the pit to gradually drop to 250 degrees as the fire get lower.

Remove the brisket when the meat is so tender it gives when you poke it with a finger. Unwrap the paper, cut the brisket into 1/4" thick slices (cut it againist the grain, please!) and serve.