Why the brisket is only on Friday and Saturday

People ask fairly often why the brisket is not on every day. It is a reasonable question, and the honest answer is more interesting than a scheduling note: a brisket cannot be cooked to order, and a kitchen that pretends otherwise is either holding yesterday's or serving you something that was rushed.

What the cut actually is

Brisket comes from the front of the animal, from muscle that worked hard for the whole of its life. Hard working muscle is full of connective tissue, which is what makes the cut tough if you treat it like a steak and what makes it extraordinary if you do not.

Cooked hot and fast, that connective tissue seizes and the meat turns to rope. Held for hours at a low temperature, the same tissue breaks down into gelatin, which is where the texture and almost all of the flavour of good barbecue comes from. There is no shortcut. The transformation takes the time it takes.

Why that forces a calendar

A long smoke has to start long before the doors open, it occupies the smoker for the whole of that time, and it finishes when it finishes rather than when the lunch rush arrives. It is not a dish you can add to a Tuesday because somebody asked.

Running it Friday and Saturday means the brisket and the pulled pork that come out are the ones that had the full time, on the days the shop can give the smoker its full attention. The alternative, spreading it thinly across seven days, would mean either shorter smokes or older meat. Neither is worth doing.

Buy it by the pound, not only in a sandwich

The house smoked brisket sandwich comes with pickled red onions and barbecue on a brioche bun. The pulled pork comes with creamy slaw, house made pickles and barbecue on the same bun. Both are also available by the pound, and that is the part people miss.

Buying by the pound is the better move if you are feeding a household or taking something to somebody else's table. You are buying the part that took fourteen hours and adding your own bread, which is the cheap part and the part that is better fresh anyway.

How to look after it once it is home

• Keep it in the piece until you are ready to eat. Sliced meat dries out far faster than a whole piece.
• Reheat gently and covered. A low oven with a splash of liquid and foil over the top is the whole technique.
• Never reheat barbecue uncovered on high heat. You will undo the day it spent in the smoker in about six minutes.
• Slice across the grain, not along it. On a brisket the grain changes direction partway through, so look at the piece before you cut.

If you want it for a crowd

Catering is built around exactly this. Texas style barbecue, brisket and ribs and pulled pork, brought to weddings, corporate lunches, graduations and fundraisers, with the menu built around the event and the guest count rather than picked off a fixed list. One customer summarised a family reunion as eighty plus guests and every single person impressed, which is the only review of a caterer that matters.

Either way, ring ahead. Brisket and pulled pork are the two things most likely to sell out on the days they run, and a phone call to 440 999 0990 is the difference between planning a meal and finding out.

The shop is at 33475 Station St in Solon, open Tuesday through Friday from ten until six and Saturday from ten until four, closed Sunday and Monday.

What happens during those hours

Smoking is doing two jobs at once, and they run on different clocks. The first is flavour, which happens early: smoke sticks to a wet surface, so most of what a brisket takes on happens in the opening stretch while the outside is still damp. After that the exterior dries and sets, and the meat stops absorbing much of anything.

The second job is texture, and it takes far longer. Connective tissue does not break down at any particular moment, it renders gradually across hours of low heat. This is why an impatient brisket is a specific kind of bad rather than just underdone. It can have plenty of smoke flavour and still be tough, because the flavour arrived on schedule and the texture never did.

The bark is not burnt

The dark, almost black crust on a properly smoked brisket surprises people the first time. It is not burning. It is the surface of the meat, the rub and the smoke drying together into a firm layer over many hours, and it carries a good deal of the seasoning.

It is also the thing most damaged by careless reheating. A covered, gentle reheat protects the meat but softens the bark. An uncovered blast of high heat preserves nothing and dries the whole piece. If you care about the crust, warm it gently covered and then give it a couple of minutes uncovered at the end.