When you’re in North Carolina and you ask for barbecue, you’ll get pulled pork with vinegar sauce. When you’re in Kansas City, you’ll get sweet pork spareribs. When in Memphis, it’s dry or wet tangy sweet baby-back ribs. When in California, you’ll get salty garlicky beef tri tip. When in Texas, you’ll get Texas-style brisket.

In my travels across the barbecue states, I’ve always been impressed by the diverse barbecue traditions and styles of this only true and authentic American food. During the 2012 Christmas break I had a great time eating my way through over a dozen barbecue joints in Austin, Texas]. I wanted to return to Texas as that was where my first blush with American barbecue began when I arrived in Lubbock, Texas, as an international student in the early 1980’s to attend Texas Tech University. My classmate took me out for some brisket, and I fell in love with Texas-style barbecue brisket. Brisket in Texas has a distinctive smokey, salty, and peppery flavor that will melt in your mouth and transport you to beef heaven. That experience left an unforgettable memory, and I spent the next 20 years trying to replicate that magical first bite.

As a professional pitmaster since 2008, I’ve cooked my fair share of first place briskets in KCBS, IBCA, and PNWBA sanctioned contests. In 2010, I was pleasantly surprised that I won first place in the nation in the 2010 KCBS Ranchers Reserve Brisket Cup Grand Championships. My 2012 trip to Austin rekindled my taste buds for Texas-style beef brisket which is quite different than the briskets I’ve cooked and won on the West Coast (CA, AZ, NV) contest circuit. For example, I’ve done well on the West Coast by saucing my brisket, but I suspect the practice would be frowned upon in Texas as I did not taste any sauce on briskets during my Austin barbecue crawl. I’ve also notice that the California flavor profile leans towards spicy flavors while Texas has more peppery nuances.

In this article, I share my version of a Texas-style brisket recipe which uses no brisket injection. Instead of aluminum foil, the brisket is wrapped in pink butcher paper which seems to be a page (pun intended) taken from the French en papillote technique of cooking in parchment paper. When I talked to pitmasters in Texas about their use of butcher paper, I got the impression that they felt butcher paper was superior to aluminum foil as it allowed the brisket to “breathe” better. This resulted in a crust that was crispier than the somewhat soggy crust resulting from foiling. Also, the oil from the brisket coats the paper and forms and watertight seal so the juices don’t leak out. The butcher paper also minimizes over-smoking and also helps to keep the brisket moist.

Whether you use regular brown or white butcher paper is up to you but I went the extra mile to order pink butcher paper from Amazon.com because I wanted to stay true to the Texas technique. Trimming is also minimal as it’s common to serve the charred beef fat with the brisket meat. You can ask for lean which is the flat slice with the fat cap attached or the fatty brisket which is the point with the fatty bits attached.

There is a special searing phase in my recipe where you char the fat to get that special Texas brisket flavor. Regardless of which cuts you prefer, the Texas-style brisket is always smokey, salty, and delicious!

It should look charred like a meteorite.