I decided at random that I wanted to make slowcooker brisket my one ultimate dish, so I’m working on perfecting it. This third attempt was by far my best, so I wanted to share it here for y’all to use, or for any feedback on improving it!
**Dry rub:** (unfortunately don’t have exact amounts, just be generous and then some)
* Craft Spice Blends “Whiskey Maple Smoke Rub” * Fire & Smoke Society “Thundering Longhorn Beef Rub” * Black pepper * Meat Tenderizer
**The rest:**
* 1/2 bottle of Guinness Extra Stout * 1 1/2 bottles of Stubbs Original BBQ sauce * 1/2 Onion * 1 2/3 garlic cloves, crushed/diced * 2 capfulls of Liquid Smoke (hickory in this case, but I’ve used others without noticing a difference) * 3 capfulls of Worchestershire sauce.
**The process:**
* Trim excess fat from the brisket – you don’t want to trim it *all* off, but some places just have an excessive amount. You can toss this, or you can set it aside for other uses (see note below*) * Dry rub & vacuum seal – in this case, mine sat for 11 days, but I think after the first ~2 you’re probably good to go. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer that’s fine, you can tightly plastic wrap it or just go straight to dry brining. The goal is to just give the dry rub some time to soak in as opposed to going straight into the crockpot. * 24hr dry-brine/rind/however you want to call it – take it out of the vacuum seal, pat it down with paper towels, and then put it in the fridge with adequate airflow (in this case I used a cooling rack on a baking pan) for 24hrs. * Slice your onion and obliterate your garlic. Add some sliced onions to the bottom of the crockpot for the meat to sit on top of to get some space for the sauce to flow and move around the bottom of the meat, and then go ahead and add the meat and everything else to the crockpot. * Drink the other 1/2 of the beer somewhere along the way. * Set it on low for 10hrs * Get a friend to help you remove it after 10hrs, because if you just use tongs or such it will fall apart under it’s own weight. * Let rest for 30min (again, I used the same cooling rack on baking pan, works wonderfully), and make sure to set aside the onions and a fair bit of the remaining “soup” for later use. * Enjoy!
**Some random notes:**
* Obviously, the beer and bbq sauce flavor make a *significant* difference to the flavor. Another beer I’ve used in the past was a coconut porter (specifically a can of Plutonium-239 from Manhattan Project) to great effect, especially when the brisket was used for pineapple sliders. Do feel free to experiment with this, though I will say that using a “harsh” beer and sauce combo such as the guiness extra stout and spicy bbq sauce doesn’t yield as tasty results, and likewise going the opposite direction can come out too sweet. I think having these two parts counter each other on flavor types is important. * *I didn’t do it this time, but my roommate (better cook than I) recommended next time to add the trimmed fat back into the crockpot, so that it can be used later. Our current plan is to take the fat that did come off the cooked brisket and use it for fried rice, but there’s *always* extra uses for extremely flavorful fat, so adding what you trimmed off back in will give you more of it. * The onions and sauce you set aside afterwards make an *amazing* topping, but they’re actually not all that needed for re-heating. I did all my re-heating in a foil covered glass baking pan, and only “refreshed” it by basting it with the sauce once – and it never ended up tough. * Reheating can be done by leaving the brisket out (covered) for ~30min to get to room temp (not necessary, but did seem to help vs. throwing it straight in), and then heating in the oven at 325F for another 30min. So long as you have it so the fat cap is on top of the meat, it effectively continuously melts down *into* the meat every time you re-heat it, not only putting more flavor back into the brisket but also serving to keep it moist. This repeated re-heating will at the same time serve to get you some “burnt ends” with some of the fat, which are just wonderful treats. So don’t be afraid to keep this around for meal-prepping, because if anything it tasted *better* on the 8th day of eating it than it did on the 1st! You can also go the classic route of double-wrapping in foil to keep it sealed for re-heating (and taking up less space in the fridge), or at any time you feel a need to you can just re-baste with the sauce set aside.
​
This wasn’t the most concise writeup, I apologize, but please do let me know if y’all have any advice! I’m still new to slowcooking but absolutely loving it.
1 Comment
I decided at random that I wanted to make slowcooker brisket my one ultimate dish, so I’m working on perfecting it. This third attempt was by far my best, so I wanted to share it here for y’all to use, or for any feedback on improving it!
**Dry rub:** (unfortunately don’t have exact amounts, just be generous and then some)
* Craft Spice Blends “Whiskey Maple Smoke Rub”
* Fire & Smoke Society “Thundering Longhorn Beef Rub”
* Black pepper
* Meat Tenderizer
**The rest:**
* 1/2 bottle of Guinness Extra Stout
* 1 1/2 bottles of Stubbs Original BBQ sauce
* 1/2 Onion
* 1 2/3 garlic cloves, crushed/diced
* 2 capfulls of Liquid Smoke (hickory in this case, but I’ve used others without noticing a difference)
* 3 capfulls of Worchestershire sauce.
**The process:**
* Trim excess fat from the brisket – you don’t want to trim it *all* off, but some places just have an excessive amount. You can toss this, or you can set it aside for other uses (see note below*)
* Dry rub & vacuum seal – in this case, mine sat for 11 days, but I think after the first ~2 you’re probably good to go. If you don’t have a vacuum sealer that’s fine, you can tightly plastic wrap it or just go straight to dry brining. The goal is to just give the dry rub some time to soak in as opposed to going straight into the crockpot.
* 24hr dry-brine/rind/however you want to call it – take it out of the vacuum seal, pat it down with paper towels, and then put it in the fridge with adequate airflow (in this case I used a cooling rack on a baking pan) for 24hrs.
* Slice your onion and obliterate your garlic. Add some sliced onions to the bottom of the crockpot for the meat to sit on top of to get some space for the sauce to flow and move around the bottom of the meat, and then go ahead and add the meat and everything else to the crockpot.
* Drink the other 1/2 of the beer somewhere along the way.
* Set it on low for 10hrs
* Get a friend to help you remove it after 10hrs, because if you just use tongs or such it will fall apart under it’s own weight.
* Let rest for 30min (again, I used the same cooling rack on baking pan, works wonderfully), and make sure to set aside the onions and a fair bit of the remaining “soup” for later use.
* Enjoy!
**Some random notes:**
* Obviously, the beer and bbq sauce flavor make a *significant* difference to the flavor. Another beer I’ve used in the past was a coconut porter (specifically a can of Plutonium-239 from Manhattan Project) to great effect, especially when the brisket was used for pineapple sliders. Do feel free to experiment with this, though I will say that using a “harsh” beer and sauce combo such as the guiness extra stout and spicy bbq sauce doesn’t yield as tasty results, and likewise going the opposite direction can come out too sweet. I think having these two parts counter each other on flavor types is important.
* *I didn’t do it this time, but my roommate (better cook than I) recommended next time to add the trimmed fat back into the crockpot, so that it can be used later. Our current plan is to take the fat that did come off the cooked brisket and use it for fried rice, but there’s *always* extra uses for extremely flavorful fat, so adding what you trimmed off back in will give you more of it.
* The onions and sauce you set aside afterwards make an *amazing* topping, but they’re actually not all that needed for re-heating. I did all my re-heating in a foil covered glass baking pan, and only “refreshed” it by basting it with the sauce once – and it never ended up tough.
* Reheating can be done by leaving the brisket out (covered) for ~30min to get to room temp (not necessary, but did seem to help vs. throwing it straight in), and then heating in the oven at 325F for another 30min. So long as you have it so the fat cap is on top of the meat, it effectively continuously melts down *into* the meat every time you re-heat it, not only putting more flavor back into the brisket but also serving to keep it moist. This repeated re-heating will at the same time serve to get you some “burnt ends” with some of the fat, which are just wonderful treats. So don’t be afraid to keep this around for meal-prepping, because if anything it tasted *better* on the 8th day of eating it than it did on the 1st! You can also go the classic route of double-wrapping in foil to keep it sealed for re-heating (and taking up less space in the fridge), or at any time you feel a need to you can just re-baste with the sauce set aside.
​
This wasn’t the most concise writeup, I apologize, but please do let me know if y’all have any advice! I’m still new to slowcooking but absolutely loving it.