Considering how obsessed I am with barbecue it's odd how many legitimate north east joints I have yet to taste. I'm one step closer to correcting that travesty today after visiting Rub BBQ on 23rd street in Manhattan. I hit them up right when they opened, and was told the infamous burnt ends were not quite ready. In their place I ordered a half slab of st louis ribs (short end), a 1/4 pound of pork shoulder, and a side of slaw. Read on for my quick review!

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It's that time of year when you might have a crazy amount of leftover brisket in your fridge after celebrating the Jewish New Year. Brisket can be super tasty, but too much brisket is... well, just TOO MUCH BRISKET. Following is a recipe for a beef brisket chili that I've come up with to get through the massive amounts of leftover brisket I have after barbecue competitions. I usually don't add additional spices to that chili because the smoked brisket is already jam-packed with seasonings and smoke... but a typical Rosh Hashanah brisket is not overly seasoned. So I have included my standby chili spices. Interetsed? Read on for the recipe. 

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Folks say brisket is one of the hardest pieces of meat to barbecue well... I've only done a full-packer once before this competition and I have to say I'm totally into smoking brisket! I trimmed this 14 pounder at 8pm on saturday night, removing about 2 pounds of fat. I then coated it with my BBQB rub in a 2 parts rub to 1 part granulated brown sugar ratio. The brisket went on the WSM18 at 10pm, and came off at 9:30am on Sunday having already passed my 190 target temp. I checked the WSM temps at 1am, 3 am, 5 am, and 8:30am.... always hovering around 210-230. Gotta love that minion method of lighting coals! I should have checked meat temps earlier because when I finally took it the flat was at 200-205 (bummer), but the point was at 185-190 (woohoo!). So we decided to only serve the point, and sliced it in long slices like one usually reserves for the flat. We dipped each slice quickly in the cider/drippings from the smoker to keep things hot and moist. We scored 24th out of 40 competitors in brisket, and it's the proudest place of the competition for me. I figure I'll try an injection for our next comp, and I'd like to increase the salt-levels in the rub... and Bert had a killer suggestion of adding a few jalapenos or chipotles to the water pan throughout the cook to boost the flavor in that drippings baste. But even with all those revisions in mind, I'm super excited we did this well in brisket. Go Brisket! 

I tried my hand at an overnight smoked whole brisket this week, and for a first run I was pretty happy with the results. I almost always prefer the "moist" to the "lean" sections of brisket, and while that held true here as well, I could appreciate the lean slices in this smoke. I think it sat too long in the warming cooler, but overall a solid effort in preparation for my first KCBS sanctioned competition in mid-august. If you want to take a deep dive into my notes on the smoke, read on! 

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The northeast is not known for its barbecue. Typically you find yourself wanting more real flavor from a joint in these parts... but Percy Street is onto something. Make no mistake, they have some killer 'cue right on South Street in Philly. Jumping at the opportunity to catch my Bruins in game 2 of the Flyers matchup with a Philly buddy of mine, we arranged for some pre-game barbecue festivities at Percy Street last night. Earlier in the week I had asked the folks at Percy Street on twitter what pit they use, and they responded with J&R, so I had a suspicion they'd know what they were doing. Here's what i found: 

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I'm not entirely sure where the inspiration came from, but I was struck with the thought of a BBQ Dinner for Christmas Eve this year. Growing up, Christmas Eve's dinner was a bigger (eating) event to me than anything on Christmas day, mostly because it was usually our immediate family only, and we sat in the dining room for just the 2nd time that year. Plus my mother almost always made this incredibly rich (and beefy!) beef stroganoff that I absolutely loved. So perhaps in an effort to carry on that tradition, I decided to pick up a brisket flat and fire up the smoker on the 24th, in about 6 inches of snow on a steady 20 degree afternoon: 

I used briquets for the first time in the smoker, and they held a constant temperature waaaaay better than my normal hardwood charcoal. BBQ people always say this, but I never tried because the concept of a briquette seems too industrial to me. I also couldn't find hickory chunks in December (come on people, we bbq all year long!), so i had just a few leftover chucks, and then opted for the mesquite infused briquette in combination with kingsford's "competition" briquettes. Ultimately the smoke flavor was good, but more subtle than i would have pulled from a full smoke of hickory. 

I contemplated making a bbq sauce for this, but then remembered our friends Jamie and Amanda gave us some Iron Works sauce as a gift this past fall, and I figured why make a sauce when an authentic bbq joint in texas already has... and that sauce is sitting in my cupboard? It did not disappoint. That's a solid sauce! Rich, sweet, savory, a nice bite, a little heat... it married perfectly with the smoked brisket. 

So here's what I did this time around:

I started with a 5 lb brisket flat and had the butcher trim all but a 1/4 inch of fat from the top. He was a little overzealous on that trimming, but everything turned out fine. I then read a great tip on the virtual weber bullet site about cutting a small corner off the raw brisket to show which way the grain runs in the beef. Once the beef comes off the smoker its tough to tell how to cut against the grain, so this little tip makes it super easy to start cutting. Thanks guys! I then marinated this in a beer/vinegar/rub concoction overnight. And the next morning rubbed it with my new favorite beef rub I created for this fall's chili competitions. I'm keeping that one a secret, 'cause I kind of think i need to sell the damn thing its that good! Anyway, here are a few shots of this process:

I then smoked it at 220-20 for 4.5 hrs, wrapped it in foil and continued smoking for another 2.5 hrs. It came off smelling amazing, and after letting it rest for about 45 minutes I sliced it up:

We served it with classic collards and some orange/maple roasted sweet potato spears: 

The final verdict? Overall flavor was really, really (really!) great. The sauce and rub combination was killer. The crust was a little soft which i attribute to no sugar in the rub, a heavy hand when applying it that morning,  and maybe wrapping in foil a touch early. The flavor was totally there, I just missed the crust texture. It also could have been a bit smokier, but when I make this baby again it'll kill! Great winter meal, and makes me realize winter really is the time to serve up some bbq.