200 hour smokerless Brisket
Big fan of smoked meat and brisket in particular, unfortunately living in an apartment achieving this is almost impossible. However, I recently stumbled across Chef Step's recipe for smoked brisket without a smoker, I thought this is going to be terrible! But was sufficently intrigued to find out what the end result would be like so thought i would give it a go with my own twist.
It turned out excellently, the most succulent brisket with a great crust. I was so surprised by how good this turned out it has now become my default approach to brisket until I have access to a smoker. It might even, dare I say it, be better!
So I picked up this full packer Blackmore Wagyu brisket BMS 5+ from Vic's Meat to try this new way out. On reflection, this was probably a bit of a risky piece of meat to use for the first try of this method, thankfully it turned out well.
Trimming
First job preparing any brisket is to trim the fat, this is quite a skill, recommend taking it slow the first few times. Meat Church have an excellent guide, linked below on how to trim effectively. For this method I took most of the visible fat off the top given this piece of meat had such deep quality marbling throughout.
Once I've trimmed all the fat off I keep it all in a bowl to later render down to make Wagyu Beef Tallow or fat. This is amazing as a substitute to oil, I use it in loads of recipes to add further depth of flavour, also great to sear steaks in.
Prague Powder
Chef Steps references using this, I don't use Prague Powder as it's not available in Australia and the only addition is cosmetic. It adds a pink ring to simulate the smoke ring you would get on your brisket after smoking all day, a nice touch but not really necessary.
Equipment
Sous Vide
French for under vacuum, I almost only now cook steaks sous vide. I've had a few different circulators but Anova has been the best - simple and easy to use and it's Wi-Fi connected making control and monitoring a breeze.
However if you're really serious and are looking to do some really long cooks and or will be a heavier user I would go straight for the pro version. I recently upgraded to this and it's an absolute workhorse.
Vacuum Sealer
For Sous Vide you also need a vacuum sealer for best results. I've had the below model since I started and it has been an absolute workhorse.
Vacuum bags
There are loads of bags out there but I've found quality is a bit of an issue with some brands. I keep coming back to only using FoodSaver rolls. The quality is high and I've never experienced any failures.
Large Sous Vide Container
I use the same container for both brining brisket and for Sous Vide. I've cut a small hole in the corner of the lid with a Dremmel to fit the circulator in.
Smoked salt
Maldon salt is recognised as some of the best salt around and is my go to for finishing salt. This smoked sea salt is perfect for imparting the smoked flavour on our brisket.
Liquid smoke
This is the secret to smokerless brisket, liquid smoke imparts the smoked flavour but be careful this stuff is ultra potent. Wrights is the only brand I use, some of the others impart an acrid flavour on the meat.
Liquid aminos
Liquid aminos are just concentrated amino acids and drive umami flavour. You can use soy sauce as a substitute but it's worth the small investment to really amp things up.
200 hour smokerless Brisket
Ingredients
Instructions
- Brine Brisket - In your container mix together 8L of water, 240g smoked salt, 160g brown sugar, 120ml Liquid Smoke until fully incorporated.
- Trim brisket to your desired level, I go hard on fat removal. Be sure to keep all your offcuts to turn into beef tallow.
- Place brisket in your brine and store in the fridge covered for seven days. Be sure to label with the date.
- Remove your brisket from your container and thoroughly clean container.
- Fill container with enough water to cover brisket and turn on set to heat 68 degrees or 155 farenheit.
- Mix molasses, 120ml liquid smoke and liquid aminos in a bowl.
- Remove from bag and pat down your brisket with paper towel until as dry as possible. Discard the juices as these will be VERY salty.
- Glaze the entire brisket using about half of the glaze.
- Bag up using a FoodSaver bag with a vacuum sealer. I double bag cooks like this for insurance, nothing worse than a bag splitting and ruining your food.
- Now cook - place your bagged up brisket in your water bath once at temperature and cook for 24 hours.
- Pre-heat oven to 125 degrees or 257 Fahrenheit.
- Mix the rest of your dry ingredients - 300g smoked salt, 200g brown sugar, 120g chipotle Chile powder, 100g black pepper, 45g mustard powder, 30g onion powder and 15g Garlic powder.
- Once brisket has finished remove from water bath and pat dry.
- Brush the remaining glaze onto the brisket
- Apply the rub liberally to the entire brisket.
- Place brisket on a baking rack and place in the oven for between 3 and 4 hours. You will know once there is a crusty bark has developed the brisket is done.
Notes
- Make sure you double bag your brisket, long cooks like this can sometimes break the bag.
- There is an 280 hour version of this brisket where instead of cooking the brisket for 24 hours @ 68 degrees I go for 80 hours @ 57 degrees. This is excellent but has a different texture to what people typically expect from a smoked brisket.
- The liquid that is left in the bag after Sous Vide is usually an excellent liquid to use for sauces or as a stock substitute. However in this recipe because there is so much salt in the brine and in the glaze the liquid that is left over is VERY salty. I have previously made the mistake of blowing out a dish using this as a stock.
- Eight kilo's of brisket is a lot, once I've finished this very long cook I separate the flat and the point and then chunk into a few groups for specific use cases like tacos, burnt ends and brisket sandwiches. I've found the best way to store brisket is in food saver bags sealed and frozen, making for brisket on hand all year round with minimal effort. Thank me later, there's nothing quite like a late night brisket roll after a few beers.