Meat + Poultry - June 2017 - 28

E D U C AT I O N

After Savell and Griffin led a discussion of
knife selection for trimming uncooked briskets
and slicing cooked briskets, campers were
given the opportunity to taste and rank the first
of many meals featuring the
beef prepared and cooked
by A&M staffers, students
and a handful of pitmasters.
Food writer, Daniel
Vaughn, barbecue editor
of Dallas Monthly, also
"Meat is 70 percent water - we're in
regularly participates in
the water management business."
the camp and this year
served as a moderator of a
After cooking, allow the brisket to rest until it
panel discussion focused
gets down to 140° F, before slicing.
on "Wood and smoke" with
input from the owners
"There's not enough Creekstone Farms
Prime briskets out there to satisfy the demand." and operators of some
of Texas' most iconic
barbecue joints, including:
Southside Market & BBQ,
Louie Mueller Barbecue,
Snow's BBQ and Roegels
Barbecue Co., who openly
"Anything bigger than our leg we split."
shared their hard-earned
"Never use wood that's been struck by lightning wisdom and tips from
the pits with attendees.
because it's already been burned by God!"
Topics ranged from the
"Put your brisket in the freezer for 30 minutes availability and types of
before cooking it to get a better smoke ring."
wood commonly used for
cooking, cost of wood, the
Slather brisket with pickle juice and mustard
ideal moisture level, bark
before applying rub.
thickness and the science
behind smoking meat.
Other panel discussions and presentations
with pitmasters and camp instructors
examined the fundamentals of building
a good fire, the many varieties and styles
of commercial and custom cooking rigs
available, the ABCs of seasonings and rubs,
the science of barbecue and finally, the
"Life as a Pitmaster" panel discussion that
concluded the event.

Quips, tips and
techniques overheard
at Camp Brisket 2017:

Regarding wood,
smoking and more:

BRISKET WHISPERER
Aaron Franklin, founder of Austin, Texasbased Franklin Barbecue, is regarded as a
brisket guru by most people in the world
of barbecue and his participation and
presentations at Camp Brisket have become
a main attraction at the event. A celebrity
barbecue chef and cookbook author, Franklin
is a master of his trade. He plays an active

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MEAT+ POULTRY | 06.17 | www.meatpoultry.com

and informative role during Camp Brisket.
Attendees hang on his every word and relish
the opportunity to meet him in person and
pick his brain between presentations and
during the many brisket-based meals and
socializing opportunities. His appreciation and
understanding of all the factors that go into
the production of cattle and how they impact
the quality attributes of the brisket are evident
and for him, consistent and quality brisket on
his menu begins with the selection of the most
desirable briskets for his restaurant.
"I want the one that has a pretty wide flat
to it," he said, "and that changes throughout
the year depending on how the harvest is,
how the cows are looking, what the weather
was like and what they were fed and even
their age. But in a perfect world I want a wide
and really thick flat," to allow for sufficient
trimming before the cooking process. At
Franklin's, where hundreds of briskets are
cooked overnight and sliced and served
each day, consistent size makes a difference
in each step of the process. Taste, texture
and tenderness can vary dramatically inside
the same cooker at the same time based on
nothing more than their size and shape, so
Franklin and his team make it a priority to
control these factors.
He contends, too, that cattle produced
using growth hormones typically have a
different type of fat than those not treated with
hormones, an attribute he uses trained fingers
to feel for during the selection process and
later, as he surgically trims each muscle. His
eye is trained to identify flaws such as: gashes
or tears in the thin part of the flat; a point that is
less than ideal; tears between the point and the
flat (which he says occurs when the hide of the
animal is pulled off too fast). Briskets that are
excessively bloody looking in the package are a
sign the meat has been frozen, he says. "I don't
cook frozen meat," he adds.
Aging is an important factor too, according
to Franklin, and his restaurant holds briskets
for about 21 days from the packing date, which
means the 40 cases delivered at his facility
each day get in line and are aged in individual
Cryovac bags for this time period.
"It's a massive amount of storage," he
says of the holding process and the target
temperature of about 32˚ F. Typical retail
brisket is aged about 15 days from harvest
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