There are a couple of things you need to bear in mind when taking on a brisket:

• Where to get the meat
• Being able to tell a good brisket from a bad one
• What you need
• Knowing that you’re in for quite a long, stressful ride!

The plan was always to try and launch RMB on 24 September 2020, coinciding with Heritage Day. We of course all know it as Braai day and given the momentous occasion, there was no better time to be bold and tackle something different (or so I thought!). Launch with a bang and get some awesome pics up of an enormous brisket.

Choose a good butcher

Head over to Greefs if you’re ever in Knysna like I was. They’re a magnificent butcher, very helpful and I’ve never been let down. Their prices are also very good.

To be honest, I felt comfortable taking on the brisket challenge knowing that Greefs would be able to get me a quality piece of meat and so, I went in on the Monday, explained to the owner that I wanted a 5KG brisket and he told me he’d have one ready for me on the Wednesday. Fantastic! Unfortunately, the excitement got the better of me and I decided to go back a day early and pick it up. The owner wasn’t there, and I saw another chap who brought out what must have been a 10KG untrimmed brisket on the bone. He removed the bone and gave it to me. I paid and left.

Know your brisket!

Sound ridiculous as we all know our meat, don’t we? But I hadn’t done enough research because if I had, I wouldn’t have walked out of the butcher with the piece I was sold. All I knew was there needed to be the Point (the thick end) and the Flat (the thinner end). All the pictures I’d seen were of nice plump briskets and mine was far from it. The Point was fine, but the Flat was 2mm and over half the length of the whole joint. In no world would it have cooked evenly and so, 24 hours later, I had no option but to head back down to Greefs, tail between legs asking for help. As I walked in, enormous brisket in hand, the owner smiled:

“You said you were going to come in Wednesday and I’d prepared a great piece for you.”

Yep and that was the point (excuse the pun). The nerves / excitement got the better of me and I’d put some serious brisket pressure on my shoulders. I couldn’t balls up our launch! But luckily, I took the correct piece and went on my way.

What do you need

It’s a low and slow, smokey cook on the kettle, not your typical medium rare so you need the right bits and pieces. I used:

• A well seasoned brisket (per the above picture)  – I used 40% salt, 40% pepper, 10% paprika and 10% smoked paprika. People have been known to put the rub on 12+ hrs before the cook.
• Snake method briquettes – 2 domino lines going round half of the kettle with 1 domino line on top
• A smokey flavor – I used Hickory woodchips
• Temperature gauge – I know, it’s taboo for the ‘real’ braaimasters but I invested in an iGrill2 for this braai

It’s a stressful process but oh so worth it!

A brisket is not for the faint of heart – it’s all about temperatures. You don’t want the internal temp of the brisket to go above 91 degrees and ideally, you want the ambient temp of the braai to sit somewhere between 120-130. For me, this was the hardest bit of all. After lighting the braai at 1030 pm, it took a full hour to get a constant ambient temperature and of course, as soon as the lid comes off to get the meat on, you’re right back down in temperature and it’s another hour of waiting for the heat to slowly rise.

Approaching 1am, the braai was sitting at 122 degrees and I called it a day. You get to the point where you can’t keep tweaking the top vent anymore and it’s either going to work, or it isn’t. The fear was that the snake would not burn all the way round while I was asleep, and I’d wake up in the morning to find a totally undercooked brisket. But at 4am, I woke up and checked my phone which was still connected by Bluetooth to the iGrill. Incredibly, the temperature had levelled out overnight and was sitting comfortably at 125 degrees. I have to say, the relief was huge.

At 7am, I had an internal temp of 85 degrees and I decided to change the ambient temperature settings to between 105-120 degrees just to give it that bit longer to get to where it should. At 9am the brisket hit 90 degrees and the ambient temp was sitting at 112 degrees. It was taken off and tightly double wrapped in foil. On top of this, I then wrapped it in a towel and sealed it in a cool box. It reappeared 7 hours later at 4pm, still warm!

I cannot advocate enough the iGrill. I’ve never been a fan of cooking with gauges but then again, I’ve never tackled a brisket! If you’re a newbie like I was, do yourself a favour!

Would I do it again?

It felt like a serious effort but my word, was it worth it! It’s the ‘pulled pork’ of beef and I now understand why the Americans go crazy for it. Done properly, it’s seriously juicy and incredibly tender. It’s also not the most expensive cut so give it a go and let us know how you found it. I personally would love to hear how others do it and if you leave it resting as long as me!? I’d also like to know who has got a perfect result without using any temperature gauges, or cheating as my wife said to me!