Demosthenes9
is One Chatty Farker
- Joined
- Apr 29, 2010
- Location
- Louisville
In other words, you suck at cooking briskets. :tongue:
Just about everything you mentioned above is kind of like the "321 method" for ribs. Not required to get good results, but can make things easier for those who don't know wtf they are doing. Guys that are cooking Wagyu for the most part are either well off and would buy Prime steaks for back yard cooks as well, or, they are trying to win competitions, where even a couple of percentage points can make a huge difference. Plenty of people make really great briskets out of what you find at the grocery store. They don't all go in and play with every brisket to find the perfect flop. They don't look for left hand briskets instead of right. Like I'd guess most discerning cooks do, they pick one up, give it a quick once over to make sure that it doesn't look crappy and into the cart it goes. Hell, some of the best "Texas brisket places" use freaking select brisket and have people lined out the door every day.
As for seasoning, I'd guess that all you do is sprinkle it with some salt and pepper or something like you would a steak. That's a mistake. It's a huge piece of meat that will be cut into somewhat thin slices with little exposed surface area, so you need to go much heavier. Doesn't need to be encrusted or anything like that, but just go really heavy on it.
As for the thin flat, that's usually just the last part of it if you selected wisely. Just cut that part off and do whatever you want with it. It's like taking off the piece of flap meat on the back of a rack of spare ribs.
On the issue of wrapping, again, that's just to make it easier for most folks. There's a reason why wrapping in foil is commonly known as "The Texas Crutch". It's actually very easy to cook successfully cook a delicious brisket "nekkid". Folks have been doing it for decades and still do.
Lastly, many of the vids you are probably referencing are trying to cook the "perfect" brisket. I.e., James Beard award winning, Michelen Star kind of thing. you don't have to achieve that level of perfection to do a really good brisket. Again, you just have to know wtf you are doing.
One more lastly. Funny that you list all those things then go on to talk up ribs and pulled pork (butts). Guess what ? Every single "negative" you mentioned for brisket would apply to both butts and ribs as well. Ribs get wrapped for Comps. Butts get thrown into pans and covered in foil. People are very picky about choosing their cuts. They go for higher quality product like Berkshire/Kurabota (kind of the pork equivalent of Wagyu._
In short, your little rant is a basically a load of bs. The fact is, you just don't know how to cook a brisket.
