Brielle's Avalon

Brisket was on sale. I got a smallish one I could afford. I’ll have beef for meals for a couple months, now! I forgot to prep it this morning for grilling this afternoon, but other things took precedence and got done anyway so I’ll prep the brisket tonight and start the fire tomorrow after I get home from running errands. I only do this about once a year, it’s such a production.

Tonight. though, I put the brisket on a rimmed cookie sheet and cut it into 2 pieces, the point and flat ends. It’s easier to handle this way. If your grill’s big enough and whoever’s doing the grilling can manage go ahead and leave it whole.

Then I trimmed off some excess fat,

Salted the meat well on all sides,

Covered it with waxed paper and plastic cling wrap,

Then somehow managed to fit it all into the fridge to sit overnight. I’ll render the fat tomorrow so I can use it in soap-making…but that’s another blog post.

After morning errands I started the fire in the firepit and put the brisket on the grill as soon as the coals were ready. After starting the fire it took about 30 minutes for the coals to be ready.

Put the point side on the ‘cooler’ side of the grill and the flat end on the ‘hotter’ side, fat side down. In about 30 minutes turn them over.

When the fat starts to render and flares up have a glass of water ready to splash on the fire. You’re not wanting to put it out, just tame the flames.

Have tools ready and don’t forget to have something to drink for yourself.

Enjoy the company

and have something to do while you’re waiting for the meat to get there. Today I’m working on a surprise project, carving some stamps made from clay from Burning Man.

After about an hour (just before noon) I got tired of hanging out in 90 degrees, 2 of the stamps I was carving were done and I was out of water so I took the brisket in and put in in a 300 degree oven with some onions. They should be done around 4ish. About 3ish I put a bunch of sliced mushrooms in the pan around the brisket.

I put a curfew (old word, I use a big flowerpot saucer for this) and finished watering down around the firepit. Finally I could go in for lunch. Of course, after lunch I checked on the coals and also periodically as I did other stuff, too, to make sure nothing flared up. Safety first.

While the brisket was cooking I put up a shade on the porch, raked the remnants of last year’s garden into the compost bin, wedged and wrapped some reconstituted clay and added to some blog posts. I finally pulled the brisket out of the oven and let it rest while I took a shower. I almost forgot to take pictures!

When we were done with dinner I cut the leftovers into more or less equal pieces and wrapped them in plastic wrap and aluminum foil before putting them in the freezer. Well, one went into the fridge for later in the week. We’ll be eating this for a while as I make stews, soups, enchiladas, sloppy Joes, French dip, stroganoff, tacos, shepherd’s pie and all sorts of yummy dinners.