Milton Greenbank is the owner and president of Greenbank Mobile Wheat Cleaning, in Fort Morgan, Colorado. The firm serves clients by processing their harvests to remove all but the desired grain; for example, wheat harvests are cleaned of wild oats, cheatgrass, and other weeds, leaving only wheat. An avid auto and motorcycle enthusiast, Milton Greenbank also enjoys barbecuing and smoking meats, especially beef brisket.
Smoking is a style of cooking food that involves slowly heating it and letting it absorb the flavor of wood smoke. It’s an excellent way to prepare meats that are tough or contain a large amount of gristle because the long exposure to the low cooking temperature breaks down connective tissue and gristle, making the meat more tender.
There are countless ways to smoke a brisket, a relatively tough piece of beef that benefits greatly from smoking. Most cooks prepare the brisket by rinsing and drying it thoroughly, rubbing it down with a mixture of spices and herbs, and letting it sit for several hours to absorb the rub’s flavor. Some cooks also use a “mopping sauce” to baste the brisket as it’s smoking.
Prepare the smoker by pre-heating it to a temperature of around 200 to 225 degrees Fahrenheit before adding the meat. When cooked by this “low and slow” process, it takes several hours for the internal temperature to reach its target of 190 – 200 degrees. This is essential to the breakdown of the gristle and connective tissue.
Although some cooks who apply a mopping sauce during the process advocate smoking a brisket with its fatty side, called the fat cap, down, most cook the brisket with the fat cap on top, so that the fat and other juices released during smoking drip through the meet, distributing flavor and keeping the meat moist.
A brisket is done when the internal temperature is between 190 and 200 degrees. As with all cooked meats, it’s best to let it sit a while before cutting and serving, to permit the juices to draw back into the meat.
