I have an interesting history with beef brisket. First of all, I didn’t grow up on brisket so I wasn’t familiar with it. But to be fair, when I got married and started cooking regularly, I wasn’t that familiar with many cuts of meat because I had never cooked meat for myself much. I wasn’t a vegetarian, I was just on a budget, and cooking for one is not as easy as cooking for two or four.
So one day, probably in 1982, I asked my husband what kind of meat he liked. He told me, among others, that he enjoyed brisket. I had to look it up. I found one brisket recipe in all of my cookbooks, which probably already numbered around 100 back then, and it was a German brisket recipe.
So that’s what I decided to make for an evening when we had company. I was definitely not impressed with the brisket itself, even though I’d followed the recipe. And I’m pretty sure no one else enjoyed it, either. It was dry and stringy. And now that I’m thinking back on the experience, I’m positive my husband was actually thinking barbecued brisket when he suggested the cut of meat. But I wasn’t that familiar with barbeque back then, either!
Over the many years of living in Oklahoma and Texas, I have gained respect for brisket. It can, indeed, make a wonderful meal when cooked and smoked at low temperatures for many, many hours. Or, cooked with a sous vide.
As you know, I’ve been experimenting with my sous vide, and I realized that a good test of the sous vide process would be to use a brisket. According to Stefan’s guidelines at the Stefan Gourmet Blog, I was to cook the brisket for two days in 135 degree F water. So that’s what I did two days ago.
To make things more festive, I decided to embrace St. Patrick’s Day – the day I would serve the brisket. So I also made a Guinness-based barbecue sauce.
Guinness Barbecue Sauce
1 – 14.9 ounce can Guinness
1 star anise
1 cup ketchup
3 tablespoons brown mustard
2 tablespoons honey
1 – 2 teaspoons hot sauce
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons butter
Pour the Guinness into a medium-sized pot, and simmer it over medium heat with the star anise until it is reduced by at least half.
Meanwhile, place all ingredients but the butter in a bowl.
When the Guinness has reduced, whisk in the other ingredients, and simmer until the sauce thickens a bit.
Add the butter and whisk it in.
I like all the flavors in this barbecue sauce, although I can definitely detect the Guinness after taste. I’m not a fan of dark beer, but Guinness is my husband’s favorite beer, so I knew he’d enjoy the sauce.
For the sous vide brisket, I preheated the sous vide to 135 degrees. Then I placed my three pound piece of brisket into a vacuum seal bag and sealed her up. I completely forgot about any seasoning, but that’s okay.
Just for fun, on Saint Patrick’s day, I cooked some rice called Bamboo rice, which I got from Marx Foods.
Unfortunately, it lost some of its green from the cooking process!
Then it was time for the brisket to come out of the sous vide. It looked like this:
I patted it completely dry, and trimmed off as much fat as I could from the one side.
Then I heated some oil in a grill pan over high heat. I seasoned the brisket generously with seasoning salt and garlic pepper.
I placed the brisket in the pan and browned the meat for about 2 minutes per side, and put on a clean cutting board.
Then I sliced it up. It wasn’t very pink. I asked my husband to test the brisket and when he did, he almost fainted. So I had to try it. Oh my, this was the most tender beef I’ve ever had, let alone the most tender brisket!!! I was so excited. This is what the sous vide is all about! I wish the photos could convey the tenderness.
Place the green rice on a serving plate, if you have some, topped by the slices of brisket, followed by the sauce.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!