Carving Beef Brisket

Carving beef brisket is really easy. It may seem daunting because once you complete your beef brisket recipe, you have one big piece of blackened meat with no apparent road map on how to cut it up!

So, how to cut brisket? You just follow the direction of the muscle. Also, when carving brisket, you cut the meat against the grain.(meaning, the finished cut of meat should not appear to have long strands of meat all running the same direction)

To carve: you start at the triangular front called "the point" (many bbq restaurant customers will specify the point, or lean, or fat, or cutters choice). Slice on a bias, working your way back.

About midway, you are going to see a membrane and fat separating a meaty/fatty top portion. This is called "the deckle." You have two choices: you can continue on cutting the way you are. I do not recommend this.

Instead, when carving beef brisket, I run my knife through the fat and remove the deckle. Now, you can clean and trim both of these chunks up to your liking and start carving again.

Please, don't cut more than you need or it will dry out.

Now, brisket grasshopper, you MUST serve this meat with dill pickle chips and sliced onions. Sounds weird, I know, but once you try it this way, your life will change forever.

On a sandwich- hamburger bun or hoagie roll, it goes something like this: 6 oz. brisket pickles onions and sauce. For me, I like to get all white trash on it and put mayonnaise on the bun.
OK, a party's over. Now, what?

If you have some brisket left, I would chill it, then slice it. Trim it if you must but fat is good for you.

Now wrap it in saran and freeze - or better yet, vacuum seal it for your next bbq party or drunken office party where you come home half-in-the-bag and absolutely has to have some bbq beef brisket.

Oh- 1 tip- Restaurants always talk about "yield." This is how much actual servable meat you get after you cook it and it shrinks. Typically a 10-11# brisket yields about 6-7# of meat. So, it is about a 50% shrinkage. If you care, you can see that this effectively raises your cost per pound from $1.86 at the time of this writing, to about $3.60 per pound. FYI.

Oh- 1 more tip- this meat is so damn good, and, in many cases reminds me of Mexican barbacoa.

So, in addition to serving it the traditional way,I like to make FRESH refried beans, guacamole, and rice.

Next, I squeeze a bunch of limes and make real margaritas.

Rolled in flour tortillas, eating the brisket this way is nirvana.

Namaste.

BBQ Tips and Some Slick BBQ Restaurant Tricks

BBQ Tips? What kind of tips?

This tips page will run the gamut from what kind of wood to use, to food temperature guidelines, to how to pick out your meat.

From the restaurant world, we'll look at how many ounces of cooked meat or ribs to allow for per person when planning you are next to get together. I'll even tell you how to do what no bbq restaurant will admit to: reheat your meat.

Also, since no man is an island and I really have no idea what in the hell that means-I'll gives you some ideas on what to do with that beautiful meat you've smoked other than a standard bbq plate or sandwich.

Smoking tips for brisket Before you smoke your brisket read these tips as well as some restaurant blasphemies.

Instructions on how to cut pork spareribs If you have pork spareribs just off the smoker or out of the oven click here for a guide how to cut them!

How to cut your beef brisket A big 'ole brisket can seem daunting but click here on how to cut it up..

How to Make Fry Bread

In this article, we gonna show you simply how to make fry bread. It can be used to make tacos, desserts, sandwiches, etc.

RECIPE:

• 2 cups flour 
• 2 tsp baking powder 
• 1 Tbsp canola oil OR vegetable oil 
• ¾ cups water (can also use milk or buttermilk) 

Any desired toppings such as taco fixings, powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, chocolate sauce, honey, cheese, etc.

**You may need more/less water and flour as you mix to get dough to correct consistency

DIRECTION:

1. Preheat a skillet filled with about ¾ of an inch of canola or vegetable oil. 
2. In a mixing bowl mix together flour, baking powder, and salt. 
3. Make a well in center and pour in oil and water. 
4. Mix together with the spoon or by hand until dough comes together. 
5. If too dry add a little more water. If a mixture is too wet add a little more flour. 
6. Continue to mix or knead dough until it holds together well and is not too sticky, should take less than 5 minutes. 
7. Divide dough into 8-10 balls. 
8. Flatten each dough ball into a disc shape and poke a small hole in the center. 
9. It’s best to keep dough discs separate because they may begin to stick together if you don’t fry them right away. 
10. Fry the discs in hot oil until puffed and pale golden brown on each side, about 20-30 seconds per side. 
11. Remove to a paper-towel lined plate to drain briefly. 

Top as desired and serve immediately.

Bacon Wrapped Chicken Recipe

I stumbled across this recipe while searching for something else. I tried it the other night and really enjoyed it so I figured I'd pass it along.

4 chicken cutlets (Even though I use cutlets, I still pounded them out to make them thinner)
chive and onion cream cheese
bacon
salt and pepper

Pound out the chicken cutlets. If you use breasts, you'll really have to pound them out. Season with salt and pepper. Smear your desired amount of cream cheese on each chicken breast and roll them up. Wrap a slice of bacon around each chicken breast. You can secure it with a toothpick if you think it's necessary.
It's up to you what pan to bake it on- if you use a baking dish, it'll keep the chicken moister because the juices will stay with the chicken. The downside is that the bacon on the bottom will not be crispy. If you cook it on a broiler pan you will have crispier bacon all around but you risk your chicken being drier if you over cook. Do what you want! Personally, I backed it in a glass dish and then switched it to a broiler pan. Bake 35 minute at 400 and broil for another 5 to get the bacon crispy.

Banana-Pecan Rum Cake Recipe

This is basically banana bread, in a cast iron skillet, with a crunchy top.  And to be honest, it's the second time I have baked it in 24 hours.  The first time I wasn't paying attention and dumped the entire container of sour cream into the batter rather than just 1/2 cup and then couldn't figure out why it wasn't baking.  And then it overflowed inside the oven.   

Banana-Pecan Rum Cake 
8oz cream cheese
1 stick softened butter
1 1/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
3 mashed bananas
1/2 cup sour cream 
1 tsp rum extract
2 1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
 chopped pecans
Extra brown sugar for topping 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 12" cast iron skillet with flour cooking spray. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, and brown sugar until just combined.  Add eggs one at a time.
3. In a small bowl, mash 3 bananas until just mashed but leaving a flew chunks.   Add bananas and sour cream to cream cheese mixture and mix.
4. Add flour, one 1/2 cup at a time, to the wet mixture until just combined.  Do not over mix and liquefy.  Add remaining dry ingredients.
5. Pour batter into cast iron skillet and sprinkle top with a good amount of extra brown sugar and chopped pecans.  It creates a crust on top that is my favorite part.
6. Bake for 30+ minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

A little note about this cast iron skillet in particular....My grandmother gave it to me for Christmas 2 years ago.  She wasn't able to be there with us that year so she included a card explaining that this cast iron skillet was now 5 generations old and she wanted me to have it.  It is probably one of the most special gifts I've ever received. 

Homemade Blueberry Muffins Recipe

Blueberries will be coming into season pretty soon- a lot earlier than normal because of how warm it's been.  I've seen blueberry bushes at the nursery with full-size blueberries on them already.

 If you haven't ever tried to make homemade blueberry muffins you really need to.  That box mixes with the little can of blueberries the size of peas is nothing compared to homemade blueberry muffins with giant blueberries.  This recipe is really easy and really good- even Todd who hates blueberry muffins said, "those are really good....I'll eat those."  I'll be honest...I have more kitchen disasters than I care to admit.  I made these last night and used self-rising flour by accident.  They exploded all over my oven.  So we went for round two today....this time with all purpose flour.

Homemade Blueberry Muffins
2 cups all-purpose flour (not self-rising..note to self...)
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs 
2 cups blueberries 

Crumble topping
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cinnamon 
1/4 cup butter (cool...not solid but cold enough that you can make a crumble out of it)

Direction:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl beat flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, room temperature butter, vanilla, milk, and eggs until combined.  Gently fold in blueberries.
3. Fill muffin liners 1/2 to 2/3 full with batter.  (I used jumbo liners and got 11 muffins out of this batter).
4. To make crumble topping mix dry ingredients in a small bowl and add butter that you've cut into small cubes.  With your hands "snap" the butter cubes with the flour mixture until it begins to come together and becomes a crumble.  Stick with it...as your hands melt the butter a little it will start to make a crumble.  Top each muffin with a little crumble topping.
5. Bake 20-30 minutes depending on your oven and the size of your muffins.

How To Make Blueberry Lavender Jam

Lavender is a weird thing.  Either you love it or you hate it.  There is the hippie-type pungent lavender that lines the aisles of Whole Foods in the form of goat's milk soap and bath salts.  File that under gross...right after patchouli. 

Then there is the sweet smelling lavender that has a hint of vanilla.  That's good lavender.  I have several different types of lavender in my yard.  It's really too humid and hot here for lavender to grow and bloom like it should but I like them just the same. 

I happen to also love the taste of lavender.  It's not all that common to find lavender as a flavor in foods (I first tried it in a popsicle) so when I wanted how to make blueberry lavender jam, I had some work to do.  I found a few recipes with lavender buds added directly to the jam but really, who wants to eat a dried flower bud on toast? Not me.

I started with a basic blueberry jam recipe.  If you're looking for a good starting point for canning, I recommend Food In Jars.  (Steer clear of any pectin-free jam recipes.  I'd like to consider myself fairly experienced at this point and I can't even make those work.)

Ingredient:
6 cups of smashed blueberries (about 8 cups whole berries)
5 cups sugar 
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 (3oz) packets of liquid pectin
1/2 ounce dried lavender buds (found at Fresh Market) that have been steeped in 3/4 cup boiling water for 10 minutes to make a "tea". 

Direction:
1. Combine smashed blueberries and sugar in a large pot.  Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently so the bottom doesn't burn.  
2. Add lemon juice and cook for about 15 minutes until jam starts to thicken and is shiny.
3. Add pectin packets and return to a boil for a full 5 minutes.
4. Remove pot from heat and ladle into sterilized jars.  (Sterilized = washed in the dishwasher and kept hot in a 200-degree oven while you are making your jam.)
5. Fill each jar leaving 1/2" room at the top of the jar. Wipe off any jam on the rims of the jars before putting sterilized hot lids and rings on.

Now..if you want plain ole blueberry jam you're done! If you want to add lavender, you're almost there.  I tried a few batches and what I discovered is no matter how much lavender "tea" I added to my jam while it was cooking, I could never really taste it in the finished product.  What I did instead added 1 1/2 Tbsp of lavender tea to each pint after I filled them and then gave them a quick stir.  For some reason, adding the lavender at the end helps the flavor really come through.

My absolute favorite way to eat this blueberry lavender jam is on a piece of crusty bread with goat cheese.  Publix has honey goat cheese that goes perfectly.  Delicious!