Two-Step, No-Fuss Brisket
2 Comments
You know how I can't stand the words quick, easy, or simple in food writing. They're knee-jerks at best, a way to deflect criticism. Did you read Michael Pollan's piece in the New York Times Magazine this weekend, "Out Of The Kitchen, Onto The Couch"? You should--although it'll depress the heck out of you. Basically, he claims that within fifty years, people will see cooking as quaint as they do canning now: a weird throwback to an earlier age when everyone had more time.
Indeed, supermarkets are piling up more and more prepared and packaged foods. Remember just a few years ago when Pollan's advice was to shop the market's perimeter for the food that was somehow real? It seems almost silly these days. Walk in and the perimeter has been taken over with prepared foods, bakeries, deli cases, and racks of rotisserie chickens. I read a recent report that the fresh produce/vegetable sections were often the loss leaders in supermarkets--but that they were kept in place because people liked to walk through them to remind them of real food, to feel as if they were in a place that served real food, despite buying the canned, processed, preserved, and presliced stuff.
Sigh.
So when it comes to talking about sweating hunks of meat that most people don't cook anymore, we food writers can get a little apologetic. Or defensive. Thus, simple, quick, and easy.
But if you want a brisket this weekend, I don't know a--cough--simpler, quicker, or easier way to do it.
First, put a 4-pound brisket in a big, sealable plastic bag and pour in some Worcestershire sauce, maybe 1/4 cup. Seal the bag and rub the sauce into the meat through the plastic. Then toss the thing into the refrigerator and leave it there overnight.
The next day, prepare a grill for low-heat, indirect cooking. In other words, heat half a gas grill to low heat (about 300F) or build a low heat, well-ashed coal bed in a charcoal grill and then rake the coals to the perimeter.
Set a heat-safe roasting pan over the unheated section of the grill grate and pour about 1 cup bottled barbecue sauce into the middle of the pan. Set the brisket and any juice from the bag on top of the barbecue sauce; seal the pan shut with aluminum foil. Close the grill and barbecue (over indirect heat) for about 3 1/2 hours. If you're working on a charcoal grill, you occasionally have to add extra briquets to keep the heat going.
Uncover the roasting pan, then keep cooking the brisket over indirect heat. Bruce also added a little smoke--some wood chips in a smoking pan, set right over the heat source. You needn't but it sure doesn't hurt. Keep cooking the brisket in the pan, turning it every once in a while, until it's tender, maybe about another 1 1/2 to 2 hours. How do you know? You have to poke it to see if it's falling-apart tender. Some of the liquid in the roasting pan may evaporate too quickly, so add a little extra beer (you know you're drinking it) to the pan for more moisture if it dries out.
Done. Transfer the brisket to a cutting board, let it stand at room temperature for 10 minutes, then slice into thin strips against the grain, serving the pan juices on the side and drizzling it with a little extra barbecue sauce if you like.
Delicious. Who cares if it's quick, easy, or simple?
Reader Comments (2)
The brisket looks delicious, but I disagree with your assesment of the Pollan piece. I've been a fan of Pollan's work--both books and NYTimes articles--but this piece seemed rather shoddy and poorly argued, to say nothing of its sexism (reread it--he insinuates the problem is that WOMEN have dropped the "cooking bal"). He's been (rightly) called on this in numerous places. I don't think we need to worry about people not doing any cooking in 50 years. Those for whom cooking is a joy will continue to do so and those for whom it's a chore aren't cooking now!
Petra:
How right you are in his insinuations. I actually have quite a few problems with the article. For one thing, I don't think Julia Child was somehow teaching Americans (read "women") to cook. In fact, stats show that cooking at home was already in BIG decline by the early '60s, continuing unabated through all her shows. Indeed, I think Child is the first of the aspirational cooks, not really educative. And in fact, this notion of aspirational cooking (not really doing it, just thinking about doing it) is now the world we live in.
All that said, I do think Pollan's comments are correct. I do think that people will see cooking as quaint. I already think many do. I'm not saying it won't happen. It will. People still can, after all. But it's hardly an everyday occurrence. And indeed, the "fresh" food sections of supermarkets continue to be the loss-leader sections of the store.
But again, your criticisms are just and on the money. Any one else want to weigh in on this?
Mark