Sunday’s One Keto Meal: smoked brisket
For 2020 (so far) Miriam and Chris (that’s me) are both doing either one keto meal a day (OMAD) or having 3 Keto Chow shakes for all our food. Thus far it’s been working out great with most of the days as 3xKC and the occasional OMAD so that we can have something amazing with our family. “Take time to cook when it matters” is my philosophy!
If you happened to catch our Saturday, Jan 4 live stream, Miriam wanted brisket for her “One Meal A Day” – so I trimmed one that we had in the freezer – it’s actually a pretty simple process and makes for a bunch of amazing “meat candy” (as we call it) – absolutely delicious. Here’s my process:
- Get a whole brisket, frankly I usually get the “choice” ones because they’re cheaper and the “prime” ones end up about the same after trimming and smoking.
- Separate the “Point” from the “Flat” – there are two muscles that make up a brisket, the “point” overlays the larger part at a funny angle and makes that section cook slower and cut weird. There’s a lot of controversy about doing this among the purists. I don’t care. This is easy and makes the whole thing cook the same.
- Trim it down – I used to leave on the fat but now I trim the fat and render it into beef tallow using a crockpot. Then I filter it into a casserole dish, refrigerate it, and cut it into cubes. That all goes into a freezer bag and now I have nicely portioned cubes of tallow for cooking.
- Cover it in salt and pepper and rub that in. Some regions of the world think that meat needs sauce and sugar. Texas knows they are wrong, and I agree =) Miriam bought me a case of Blacks Original 1932 Dry Rub – it’s salt and different peppers, that’s it.
- Stick it in a smoker, pellet smokers are nice and low-maintenance (no babysitting). I usually put mine in before I go to bed and take it out when I wake up. If I have the time I’ll smoke it at 180 degrees (f) if I’m in a hurry I’ll do it at 225.
- Wake up, take it out, wrap it in sturdy foil. The warehouse stores by us have giant rolls of thicker aluminum foil that work great. I fold the foil over and roll up the edges a few times. Be careful you don’t get any holes or it’ll dry out.
- Stick that on a cookie sheet in the over at 225. Now go do something for a few hours. The brisket will keep in there getting juicy and tender for as long as you need it.
- Take it out, slice it up, pour the dripping back over the meat after you cut it. If you’re lucky the foil stayed intact and you have a bunch of delicious salty fat to pour over it.
- Enjoy! Once you refrigerate the leftovers it becomes “meat candy” when you sneak some cold from the fridge.
