Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the eight beef primal cuts. The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectorals. As cattle do not have collar bones, these muscles support about 60% of the body weight of standing/moving cattle. This requires a significant amount of connective tissue, so the resulting meat must be cooked correctly to tenderize the connective tissue.
According to the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, the term derives from the Middle English "brusket" which comes from the earlier Old Norse "brjósk", meaning cartilage. The cut overlies the sternum, ribs and connecting costal cartilages.
Brisket can be cooked many ways. Slow and moist cooking methods are common to all.
Popular methods in the Southern United States include rubbing with a spice rub or marinating the meat, then cooking slowly over indirect heat from charcoal or wood. This is a form of smoking the meat. Additional basting of the meat is often done during the cooking process. This normally tough cut of meat, due to the collagen fibers that make up the significant connective tissue in the cut, is tenderized when the collagen gelatinizes, resulting in more tender brisket, despite the fact that the cut is usually cooked well beyond what would normally be considered "well done". The fat cap often left attached to the brisket helps to keep the meat from over-drying during the prolonged cooking necessary to break down the connective tissue in the meat. Water is necessary for the conversion of collagen to gelatin.[1]
A hardwood, such as oak, pecan, hickory, or mesquite, is sometimes added, alone or in combination with other hardwoods, to the main heat source. Sometimes, they make up all of the heat source, with chefs often prizing characteristics of certain woods. The smoke from these woods and from burnt dripping juices further enhances the flavor.
The finished meat is a variety of barbecue. Smoked brisket done this way is most popular in Texas barbecue.
Once finished, pieces of brisket can be returned to the smoker to make burnt ends. Burnt ends are most popular in Kansas City-style barbecue, where they are traditionally served open-faced on white bread.
In the U.S., the whole boneless brisket, based on the Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications (IMPS), as promulgated by the USDA, has the meat-cutting classification IMPS 120. The North American Meat Processors Association publishes a photographic version of IMPS called the Meat Buyer's Guide.[2] The brisket muscles are sometimes separated for retail cutting: the lean "first cut" or "flat cut" is the deep pectoral, while the fattier "second cut", "point", "fat end", or "triangular cut" is the superficial pectoral). For food service use, they are IMPS 120A and 120B, respectively.
In traditional Jewish cooking, brisket is most often braised as a pot roast, especially as a holiday main course, usually served at Rosh Hashannah, Passover, and Shabbat. For reasons of economics and Kashrut, it was historically one of the more popular cuts of beef among Ashkenazi Jews.
In Hong Kong, it is cooked with spices over low heat until tender, and is commonly served with noodles in soup or curry.[3]
In Korean cuisine, it is commonly cooked for a short period of time and eaten in thin slices.
In Thai cuisine, it is used to prepare suea rong hai, a popular grilled dish originally from Isan.
It is a common cut of meat for use in Vietnamese phở soup.
Brisket is also the most popular cut for corned beef, which can be further spiced and smoked to make pastrami.
In Britain, it is not generally smoked, but is one of a number of low cost cuts normally cooked very slowly in a lidded casserole dish with gravy. The dish, known as a pot roast, is often accompanied by root vegetables. Good results may also be achieved in a slow cooker. Cooked brisket, being boneless, carves well after refrigeration, and is a versatile cheaper cut.
In Mexican cuisine, brisket is known as suadero and it is commonly slowly cooked in a circular pan in taco stands all over the country.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||