The fragrance from the simmering pot filled the house — rich tomato, warm spices, and sharp vinegar. I was making a first try at slow cooker BBQ in the hopes of some culinary magic.  

For Father’s Day I was given a beef brisket — an unusual gift to be sure, but the kind of thing that someone who does what I do is delighted to get. 

It wasn’t an ordinary brisket. Shipped frozen by Crowd Cow, an on-line meat supplier, it was a special piece of meat from Royal Ranch Farms located midway between Seattle and Spokane in the Columbia River Basin.  Crowd Cow connects consumers with top-quality sustainably-raised meat from smaller ranchers. 

The substantial five-pound-plus hunk had to be kept until there was an occasion with a crowd.  A summer gathering of three generations plus some extended family was perfect. 

I knew I couldn’t compete with the world-class BBQ at some of our local restaurants, but I wanted to give home-barbecuing a try. 

The multi-day process began with a 48-hour slow thaw in the refrigerator.  When meat is frozen, water in the cells (the juicy part after cooking) expands, damaging the cell walls, which let the juice leak out when thawed. Quick low temperature commercial freezing minimizes the damage.  Long slow thawing further helps to retain the meat’s juiciness. 

Dry rub ingredients

The next step was an overnight dry rub. After checking several recipes, I settled on a mix of brown sugar, smoked paprika, both onion and garlic powders, dry mustard, salt, pepper, and ground cumin. The aromatic blend was rubbed on the meat the evening before for an overnight of seasoning in the refrigerator. 

The dry rub adds flavor, of course, but the sugar also helps the meat to caramelize and form a nice crust. There is some debate about how far in advance the meat should be rubbed. I went for overnight since I was getting an early start the next morning, but some authorities say it’s OK to rub it on and cook shortly after. 

I wanted to get the meat in the slow-cooker by 7:00 AM so that the large chuck of brisket could braise for ten hours.  It turned out to be a little long.  Recipes varied on the cooking time, but in all of them as the weight went up the time got longer. None of the recipes were for a brisket as large as mine, so I guessed.

In the morning, a scratch BBQ sauce was stirred up in the cold crock-pot.  Ketchup, cider vinegar, garlic cloves, and brown sugar, were blended with ground black pepper, onion powder, dry mustard, cayenne pepper and Worcestershire sauce.  It was a heady mix for the first thing in the morning.  

Out of the pot

The brisket had to be scrunched up a little to fit, but after the first hour, the pot was bubbling in the slow-but-steady way that slow cookers do. 

Everyone in the house said It smelled great. 

By 5:00 the meat was tender, ready to be browned on the grill. I’m told that there’s a school of BBQ fans that like the charred crunchy bits of meat on the outside. I hear some restaurants even charge more for them. But you don’t get any in the slow-cooker. 

After taking the mahogany colored brisket out to rest, the remaining sauce was strained into a pot.  After skimming the fat, the pot was put on to simmer and reduce the sauce. It was a little heavy on the cayenne, so I added a handful of brown sugar to smooth it out.  

Some recipes recommended a hot oven to brown and crisp up the brisket, but I opted for the grill. 

Charred from the grill

This is when things went wrong. 

A brisket is pretty lean anyway, and after ten hours of cooking, most of the fat had rendered out. Without the fat, the untended brisket quickly charred.  Instead of turning a glistening dark brown with crunchy edges as I had hoped, the outside gained a charred crust all over and the meat dried out. 

My fault. 

I left it for ten minutes with the heat on high. No amount of basting with the flavorful pan sauce could bring it back. 

Glazed with sauce

Still, it had good flavor and a generous pour of the sauce moistened it enough.   Everyone at the table said they liked it. I hope they weren’t just being polite. Cole slaw, corn on the cob, and a side dish of mac and cheese rounded out the menu. 

You can read all you want about cooking, but just like riding a bike, it takes some trial and error along with practice to get it right. I learned some things with this effort, but maybe not all I need to know.  The next time a nice brisket comes my way, I’ll take another crack at it. 

In the meantime, you might see me at BobbyQ’s, Hoodoo Brown, or the Banc House.  They’ve got their delicious BBQ brisket down pat. 

Frank Whitman can be reached at NotBreadAloneFW@gmail.com.