RCP: Texas Style Bar-B-Q Sauce for Beef Brisket

We think this is the best barbecue sauce we have ever had and with a brisket, it is over the top.

1 4.5 to 5 pound beef brisket*
grill brisket on your gas or charcoal grill on all sides until nicely browned

Texas Style Sauce

2 1/2 cups good catsup
3/4 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups good chili sauce
1 1/2 cups red wine vinegar
1 cup water
3/4 can beer
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup prepared mustard (I used Sierra Nevada Brown and Stout)
1 Tbs. celery seed
4 Tbs. Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tbs. low -sodium soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used a lot more)
dash of bottled "hot" pepper sauce
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Place all ingredients into a large bowl, stir well and set aside

Place meat into a large Dutch oven, add sauce until it comes half way up the meat, be sure to ladle some on top of the meat. Put into fridge and marinate all night. The next day, place into a 325° oven and cook for about 5 hours or until meat is tender and will slice nicely.

*I have no idea what cut of brisket I had as I purchased it from a local cattle rancher at the Farmer's Market and forgot to ask. It did have a good fat cap on it and a layer of fat through the middle of the roast.
Since there was a good deal of fat in the sauce and I wanted to use the meat that night, when it was finished cooking I removed the meat from the pan, and put the sauce into a stainless steel bowl. Then I put the brisket back into the dutch oven, added more sauce, and continued to cook until it was heated through. The sauce I removed was put into the fridge so the fat would congeal.
You will have sauce left over to freeze or use for another purpose.

Karen,

The brisket cut you describe sounds like "packer-trim brisket". As shipped by the meat packing houses, the brisket comes with the fat cap and internal fat layer intact. This is what you want for Texas-style barbecue. At least here in New England, the brisket we see for sale in the supermarket has had the fat layers trimmed off. This is fine for New England Boiled Dinner or corned beef stew, but you need the fat layers for barbecue.

I've always had to special order packer-trim brisket.

-Paul W.

Karen,

The brisket cut you describe sounds like "packer-trim brisket". As shipped by the meat packing houses, the brisket comes with the fat cap and internal fat layer intact. This is what you want for Texas-style barbecue. At least here in New England, the brisket we see for sale in the supermarket has had the fat layers trimmed off. This is fine for New England Boiled Dinner or corned beef stew, but you need the fat layers for barbecue.

I've always had to special order packer-trim brisket.

-Paul W.

Well, it certainly was delicious, but I did have to remove the sauce it cooked in, and add some fresh bbq sauce, then cook for about 30 more minutes, for us to eat it that night. It was excellent. Once the fat congealed with the first cooking sauce, I removed it and put it in the freezer. All good!
In the past 6 years or so, we have become aware of several organic cattle ranches in our area. I am thrilled about this, and will certainly be buying more beef from the folks at the Farmer's Market

I've used Joseph Carey's BBQ sauce, as printed in "Chef On Fire", so I had to compare your ingredients with his. Some similarities and some differences. He doesn't say that his is "Texas" style, but I think he worked in Memphis at one time. Here are his ingredients:
Ingredient Quantity
Onions, yellow, minced 2 Cups
Garlic, finely minced 12 Cloves
Fresh ginger, finely minced 2 Tablespoons
Peanut oil ½ Cup
Cayenne 1 TBSP
Chile powder 4 Tablespoons
Catsup 6 cups
Dry mustard 3 Tablespoons
Dry red wine 2 Cups
Apple cider vinegar 1 Cup
Apple juice 1 Cup
Brown sugar 1 Cup
Paprika 5 Tablespoons
Soy sauce ½ Cup
Tabasco To taste
Pepper, black 1 Teaspoon

Similar...not sure where mine came from...I've had it for years. As you can see, it is old and splattered. It is on a stickable removable label and I adhered the recipe to the back of the label. Must have come off of a jar of something, or even the meat package.