Big Holiday Barbecue Begs for Baked Beans

My husband, it can be stated without hesitation, is a guy who knows what he wants. For his birthday, which happens to fall on Memorial Day weekend this year, he was given the choice of what to do over the long weekend to celebrate his special day. No restrictions…anything he wants, I'll do my best to accomodate.

No "trip to Paris" crossed his lips, no "dinner at _________" restaurant. Without hesitation, he answered, "Brisket."

Dave's brisket.

You see, Dave is a guy who loves his smoke. The last brisket he made (left) used a method called the "Texas crutch" where the meat is first smoked for several hours, then wrapped in butcher paper and returned to the smoker. After a few more hours, it goes into a cooler to rest and break down any remaining collagen that has withstood the battering of heat, smoke and time. At the end of which emerged the most succulent, tender and delicious hunk of meat he'd ever made.

Ayers Creek Farm borlotto beans.

The pressure to come up with appropriate sides then lands on me. My fallback is always my mother's potato salad, a family favorite that pairs perfectly with smoky protein. I was struggling with what else would be appropriate when I remembered a baked bean dish I'd made a couple of years ago that had the slightest bite of vinegar, an Italian-inflected version based on a recipe from contributor Jim Dixon.

So the menu is set, and if you want updates I'll be posting photos of the results to my social media feeds (Twitter, Instagram and Facebook). But if you're simply want to make the baked beans for yourself this weekend, you can find the instructions below.

Baked Beans Italian Style

2 c. dried beans (I'm using borlotti beans from Ayers Creek Farm)
Water
2 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 bay leaves
1/4 lb. bacon
1 large onion, chopped fine
1/2 c. honey
1/2 c. red wine vinegar
1/4 c. sage leaves, chopped fine

Put dried beans in a pot and add water to cover by at least 2”. Cover and soak overnight on the counter.

Preheat oven to 250°.

Drain water from beans and add fresh water to cover by 1”. Add bacon, bay leaves, salt and olive oil. Cover, place in oven and bake 5 to 7 hours until beans are tender (a slow cooker would work well, too).

One hour before the end of the cooking time for the beans, combine the onions, honey, vinegar and sage in a small saucepan and simmer for 1 hour. When beans are tender, add onion mixture to them and combine, then bake for an additional hour. Remove the bay leaves. Remove the piece of bacon and slice it into pieces or shred it, then stir it back into the beans. Taste for salt and adjust as desired. This is great served right out of the oven but is also spectacular made a day ahead for dinner or a picnic the next day.

* My last batch had quite a bit of liquid left after cooking, so I simmered it on the stovetop for several hours, uncovered, to evaporate the liquid, stirring it occasionally to keep the beans from sticking. It worked like a charm, and the liquid turned into a luscious, beany sauce.

Smoking the Perfect Brisket

Ask my husband what he'd like to grill for any given event and, barring Thanksgiving and Christmas when he smokes a whole turkey, there is only one answer.

His birthday? Brisket. Friends gathering for barbecue? Brisket. Anniversary dinner? Brisket. Our son's birthday (assuming we can get him to agree…)? Brisket.

Six hours in the smoker, many more to go.

There's something about that giant piece of meat that calls his name, that sings a siren song of smoke and meat and juicy perfection like no other. He's grilled and smoked dozens of them over the years, and they've all been deliciously satisfying. Smoke rings, that little red line just inside the surface of the slices that signals smoke-infused perfection? He's had them.

At 170°, ready to wrap.

But recently he read a recipe by Julia Moskin in the New York Times that piqued his brisket-loving soul. It called for a very simple crusting with peppercorns and salt, smoking the brisket for several hours—and here's the part that got him salivating—then it said to wrap the meat in unwaxed butcher paper and return it to the grill for another several hours.

Further research revealed that this method, called the "Texas crutch" by purists, allows the meat to cook in its own juices and better break down the collagen so that it melts into the meat. The brisket is then wrapped in foil and deposited in a closed ice chest to rest.

Wrapped, tied and going back in the smoker.

We happened to have friends coming for a Labor Day barbecue, so I called our new favorite meat source (and advertiser on this blog), Ben Meyer of Old Salt Marketplace, requesting a full brisket from Bill Hoyt's Hawley Ranch grass-fed cattle. A full brisket includes the flat, the meatier end of the cut, and the point or deckle, which has more fat. It also includes a thick cap of fat, which adds moisture when smoking or grilling for long periods.

The result? Smoky perfection, a big hunk of heaven that was meltingly tender yet still intact enough to slice and serve. And one that was crowned "Best Ever" by a very discerning group of carnivores.

Here's Dave's adaptation with his own step-by-step instructions.

Dave's Perfect Brisket
Loosely adapted from Julia Moskin's recipe in the New York Times.

I used an 18-inch Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, for which these instructions apply. The Times article tells how to do it on a kettle grill.

1 whole beef brisket, 10-12 pounds
1/2 c. black peppercorns
1/3 c. coarse kosher salt
Hardwood briquets
Several chunks of oak wood

The night before smoking:

• Grind the peppercorns very coarsely. Sift through a fine sieve to remove the fine pepper dust. Use only the coarse peppers. Mix the salt and pepper. Trim the brisket fat to 1/4 inch if necessary. Rub the salt and pepper mix on the brisket. Wrap in plastic and place in a baking sheet in refrigerator overnight.
• Put a half dozen small chunks of oak in a pan of water to soak overnight.
• Cover outside of smoker’s water pan with aluminum foil to make cleanup easier.
• Clean cooking grates.
• Fill the charcoal ring to an inch or so from the top with charcoal.

On smoking day, flip the charcoal chimney upside down. Put 20-15 briquets in the upended chimney. Place paper in the chimney below the charcoal and light it. When the coals are flaming and are covered with ash, spread the lit charcoal over the charcoal in the ring. Open the bottom vents all the way.

Assemble the rest of the smoker. Fill the water pan 2/3 full with hot tap water. Oil the top cooking grate. Remove the brisket from the refrigerator and place on the top cooking grate. I had to place it very carefully so that it would fit.

Place top dome on smoker. Open the top vent all the way. Close bottom vents to about 25 percent open. Put three chunks of the wet oak on the charcoal.

In a half hour check the temperature and adjust the bottom vents as necessary to keep the smoker temperature to 225-240. Add the remaining wet oak to the charcoal.

I checked the temperature about every hour or more frequently if necessary. The charcoal should smolder for hours without needing a refill.

I put the brisket on the smoker at 6 am.

At about 11 am the internal temperature was 175-180. I then wrapped the brisket in butcher paper, tying it with string, and put it back on the smoker.

After an hour I began poking it with my finger, testing to see if it was becoming more soft and jiggly as the fat, meat and collagen softened. At 3:30, 3 1/2 hours after wrapping the brisket and 9 1/2 hours after putting the brisket in the smoker, I pulled it from the smoker and wrapped it, paper and all, in aluminum foil. I then placed it into a cooler to await dinnertime. At 6 pm it was still hot.

Howdy Podnah's!

It's a little embarrassing to admit, but despite all the buzz when it opened and the subsequent oohing and aahing over its Texas-style barbecued meats, including some mighty fine Carolina pulled pork, we had never made it into Podnah's Pit Barbecue.

This was made worse by the fact that Rodney Muirhead's original place was only a few blocks, nay, a three-minute stroll from home. That and the fact that the residents of my household are fanatical consumers of anything grilled or smoked. And therein lay my shame.

Fortunately the new location of Podnah's is just a hop, skip and a jump farther away in a brand-new building on a corner of NE 17th and Killingsworth known more for abandoned washing machines, drug dealers and gangbangers than good eatin'. Fortunately on most days now all you'll see is 'cue-loving folks lining up for the smoky goodness of the pork, beef, chicken and fish that have been lounging in the smoker since the early hours of the morning.

Open the door and a wall of that smoky aroma hits you. Take a seat at the counter or at one of the sun-soaked tables in the dining room and prepare to be overwhelmed by the choices on the menu. Not only is there brisket, chili, pulled pork, lamb and pork spareribs, chicken, hot links and trout, but then you have to choose between some kick-ass sides (and these are truly great, believe me) like collards bathed in bacon fat, a sprightly black-eyed pea salad, coleslaw, pinto beans, barbecued beans and mac & cheese. Oh, and cornbread that treads that lovely line between moist and just-crumbly-enough. Talk about the horns of a dilemma!

Because it was a late-ish lunch and we were heading out that evening to see what just-returned Chef Cafiero had managed to cadge from his travels in Spain (post to come), we decided to split an entrée of the brisket (smoked for 10 hours) with two sides and a wedge of cornbread. A couple of beers were de riguer, and Podnah's has a very decent lineup of mostly Northwest choices on tap.

The brisket, with its telltale smoke ring, was four very thin slices of not-yet-falling-apart meat, lovely and smoky though a bit skimpy in the portion department when you think of brisket plates at other barbecue joints. The above-mentioned collards were flavorful and retained enough texture to make me want to do this preparation at home soon, and the black-eyed pea salad with crunchy bits of celery was the perfect brightness in contrast to the smoky brisket.

It actually inspired Dave to stop at the store on the way home to get his own nearly six pound hunk of brisket to smoke the next day. Which is a good reason to stop in again and have another inspiring dish in the near future.

Details: Podnah's Pit Barbecue, 1625 NE Killingsworth St. 503-281-3700.

St. Paddy and the Zombie

Zombies aren't something you normally associate with St. Paddy's Day. That's normally left to shamrocks, leprechauns and green Peeps. Yes, green Peeps. Because who doesn't think of green marshmallow chicks on a holiday celebrating an Irish saint?

Radicchio strudel.

The zombie part came in when I was walking past the meat counter of my neighborhood grocery store the other day and saw a pile of briskets on sale for $5.49 a pound. They'd been brined and were covered with pickling spices, all set to make corned beef for the St. Patrick's Day holiday. Not really having time to cook it for dinner that night, I moved on with my cart, but the image of those gigantic briskets stayed with me.

The next day all I could think of were those briskets gleaming in the case, and pretty soon I found myself standing zombie-like in front of them pointing at a four pound monster with its half-inch cap of fat. I'd also run across a recipe for a radicchio-filled potato strudel that had intrigued me, so I picked up a couple of heads of chicory, came home and got busy, my craving for corned beef about to be satisfied.

Corned Beef and Cabbage

The recipe assumes the meat has already been brined, but there are lots of recipes available online if you want to do your own. You can put potatoes and carrots in the pot, as well, though since I was making the strudel (below) I didn't feel it was necessary.

4-5 lb. brined brisket of beef
1 Tbsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 bay leaves
2 large onions, cut in wedges
1 head cabbage, cut in wedges
1 pt. dark beer like Cascadian Dark Ale or Porter
Water

Preheat oven to 300°. In deep casserole or Le Creuset pot large enough to hold the brisket, place the brisket fat-side up in the bottom of the pot. Top with bay leaves, wedges of onion and cabbage. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Pour beer over the top and add enough water to barely cover the meat. Place in oven for 3 hours or until meat is cooked through and tender. Slice thinly and serve warm on platter with cabbage and onions.

Radicchio Strudel
By Chef Walter Potenza

For the Dough:
1 lb. potatoes
1 1/4 cups flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp. grated cheese (Montasio cheese, or Parmigiano)
Salt
Olive oil

For the Filling:
1/3 c. olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 1/4 lbs. radicchio
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 c. grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Melted unsalted butter

Boil the potatoes until just tender, then peel them and mash them in a medium-sized bowl. Let them cool and combine them with the flour, eggs and cheese. Work the mixture into durable and uniform dough. Oil a cloth well and roll the dough out into a half-inch thick layer on it.

To make the filling, cut the radicchio into thin strips and sauté it with the garlic over a very low flame with the olive oil, covered, for about 20 minutes. While it's cooking heat a large pot of water. Discard the garlic clove and spread the sautéed radicchio over the dough.

Season to taste with salt and pepper, roll up the dough, wrap it in the cloth and tie the cloth shut. Salt the water, which will by now be boiling. Slide the strudel into it, and simmer it for about 20 minutes. Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

Serve it, sliced, with melted butter and grated Parmigiano Reggiano, and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil if desired.

Back to the Smoker

Most wives would find a husband's new romance to be somewhat threatening. I, on the other hand, heartily encourage these dalliances, since Dave's tend to take the form of comestibles, either liquid or grill-related.

As mentioned previously, this is the summer of the smoker and his latest experiments have been turning out magnificently. The most recent, a nearly-six-pound hunk of brisket, went in the smoker for about six hours and came out with the requisite smoke ring (that pink edge in the photo) and a melt-in-your-mouth texture that rivaled the pernil he smoked earlier for its meaty deliciousness.

Brisket

5-6 pound beef brisket

Rub
1 Tbsp. cumin
1/4 c. Kosher salt
5 or six garlic cloves, crushed
3 Tbsp. paprika
1/4 c. brown sugar
3 Tbsp. ground black pepper
2 dried red peppers, finely chopped

Mix non-meat ingredients together and pat it firmly onto the brisket. Save a little bit of the rub for the barbecue sausce. Put the brisket into a container, cover it and put it into the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Remove it from the refrigerator a half-hour or so before the smoker is ready.

When coals are ready and in the smoker, add four or five bigger chunks of hickory or other wood that has been soaking in water for at least an hour. After about an hour of smoking, add four or five more chunks.

The barbecue sauce is basically the same as the one for the baby back ribs, with the addition of two tablespoons of the rub.