BlackHawk Brisket Version 1.0 - The Details

[Moose]

Wow...just awesome! Definitely on my to do list...thanks for sharing!

Question: Was that meat USDA Prime? Sure looks like it...

[HogFan]

Thanks for sharing this.......I didn't realize PH affected the formation of bark so the baking soda is a great tip. I've cooked two briskets thus far (1 packet). The first was low and slow and may have had too much bark. The second was modified hot and fast and had decent bark but I wouldn't have minded a bit more. Next brisket I'll try the baking soda and still use the modified hot-n-fast where I cook at 230F till the meat temp is around 130F then crank the temp up.

[MattG]

Wow. Thats all I can think of is WOW. LOVE those burnt ends. WOW

[Boshizzle]

Originally Posted by Moose

Wow...just awesome! Definitely on my to do list...thanks for sharing!

Question: Was that meat USDA Prime? Sure looks like it...

It was a CAB brisket. I wish I could get my hands on a prime.

[Boshizzle]

Originally Posted by deguerre

Favor request. When your book is available, send me a PM or email.

I don't have enough material for a book. Perhaps in another 5 years I will. Right now, just keep an eye out for the next issue of Smoke Signals Magazine.

[retired trucker]

Wow, that is some interesting cook Boshizzle. Excellent looking brisket. I am bookmarking this thread for further use. Can't wait to try it out!

[Pyrotech]

Very interesting about the baking soda. I have been using it in my rub as a free flow agent. I never considered it was working with the brown sugar to get that nice bark that I get on my pork butts.

Now I am going to have to find a food chemist, I have several questions.

[bigabyte]

Well fark me!

Why didn't I see this before I rubbed my brisket?

[BRBBQ]

looks good for sure

[Pitmaster T]

pH ValueH+ Concentration Relative to Pure Water

10 000 000 battery acid
1 000 000 sulfuric acid
100 000 lemon juice, vinegar
10 000 orange juice, soda
1 000 tomato juice, acid rain
100 black coffee, bananas
10 urine, milk
1 pure water
0.1sea water, eggs
0.01baking soda
0.000 1 ammonia solution
0.000 01 soapy water
0.000 001 bleach, oven cleaner
0.000 000 1 liquid drain cleaner
The pH Scale: Some Examples

[Pitmaster T]

First let me temper what I am about to do by saying Boshizzle is doing excellent work and the pictures are awsome and the bark is excellent.

I have a few things to say... One is, please, whoever is reading this, do not get the impression that the baking soda is the trick. Look at where it is on the scale... whether you think raising or lowering the PH is the key... look at Baking soda on the scale... it's nearly neutral.

I will respond fully in a moment.

[Badgeman]

Yeah, the photos and technique are truly inspiring! Thanks for posting this.

[Pitmaster T]

Second, as the true arbitor of all this Hot and Fast nonsense, let me mention my credentials. No, I didn't invent it just seemed to revived it... and no that does not mean that I mentioned it first online... just made videos and commentary that made it a popular thing to try and some like it... I also erased the stigma that Low and Slow is the ONLY way and that Hot and Fast would make a leathery, non-traditional BBQ. I will warn you about thinking that EITHER Boshizzle's and I's method is the best way to make a bark. Lockhart, Tyler, Elgin have been making briskets for in some cases 90 years with no sugars - or lemon, or acidic or alkaline additives of any kind. Although if you look at Salt - its higher a bit than baking soda.

So that being said... let me say that the quote

"The biggest problem with hot and fast brisket is usually the bark. The bark just doesn't measure up to the bark of a brisket that is cooked low and slow. So, this recipe is my attempt to rectify that situation," is a bit bothersome

HOWEVER..... NOW THAT I THINK BACK TO WHEN I STARTED THIS WHOLE THING..... IT WAS 100 PERCENT TRUE!!!!!!

Bet you thought I was going to knock that.. NO! It took me 2 days and three whole briskets to fix the matter. BUT my process address it, without the added sugar though. I can make a solid argument that the baking soda matters little. If the recipe comes from our heritage I can explain why its there if asked but I won't right now.

I have been making Briskets with bark perfection for so long I forgot my struggles in getting around this little problem... and it is a little problem... or big one if you refuse to follow a proven method and go your own way.

Drying off the brisket... good tip, mostly because he is wiping off liquid that do not contribute to the bark to replace them with liquids that will. The peanut oil? No, not the key, any oil will do.

BUT, in his case the slathering of sugars and molasses in a liquid form (meaning that he makes a sort of gel) is a good key to this kind of bark and one I have done before. I used sir duke and molasses once with good results.... the base of sir duke is vinegar and look on the scale were it is?

So why is MY bark so stellar? Look where coffee, lemon and vinegar is on the scale. What goes on my meat in the end? Lemon Pepper. Also, many Texas cooks use Sour Salt or Citric Acids on their rubs... why... increases the acidity (of what you are putting it on), which in my opinion, releases acidic proteins in the meat to a gooey residue on the outside. But there is a trick of terminology. The things we think of as acidic, Battery Acid, Lemon Juice, Vinegar... are all actually ALKALINE. Remember, pure water has a neutral pH of 7. - pH values lower than 7 are acidic, and pH values higher than 7 are alkaline (basic).

The reason why all this is confusing is because we FORGET what we are doing. We add for instance "lemon juice" to increase the acidity of what it is we are trying to make more acidic. There is an exchange in hydrogen atoms... thus... we use an alkaline product to raise the PH of the meat. That being said, look at Baking soda on the scale... it is going to have little affect no matter what you use.

In addition, although some people may like the flavor profile of the "Blackhawk Method" (which was used on probably beef quarters at least as Walter Jetton would be really the first to use briskets once they became more readily available after WWII - all the Lockhart places never used Brisker originally), and since the Blackhawk Method may indeed be more popular than my "Tri Level Method," due to the amount of people that prefer the sugar profile (KCBS, a newcomers to beef brisket - meaning areas that never had it as a category 20 years ago) we can consider it a SECOND solution to the Hot and Fast bark debacle... or... the first, if this Blackhawk person did it in the 1800s.

However, once again, the secret (if you want to call it that) to my success in the Hot and Fast "Tri-Level" style is the lemon and the salt... the fuse of the pepper, and of course, not wrapping the damn thing until you have a real (not fake) bark that is the result of the Mailliard Reaction on the meat fibers and not the rubb itself. Boshizzle's method takes all the elements of the benifits of sugars without the burned result of the sugars.... meaning the sugars are soaked into the meat and the meat is affected - instead of sugar being affected.

Also, gear is a concern. I have cooked 50 - 100 briskets in once place at one time. This is vastly different that cooking one in my Kettle. There have been a few briskets I cooked in my Kettle that I WISH felt the foil. They burned up. So I am not knocking Jizzles use of foil either.

[grill 'em all]

It looks totally awesome from my chair..Great great great lookin brisket..

[fnnm358]

Nothing wrong with what's posted
That brisket looks Pharkin delicious
I love that bark
Thanks for sharing

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