BRISKETU
Perfecting the Art of Texas Barbeque
By KATIE JAMES
B
arbeque is a staple of Texas culture,
but it can be notoriously difficult for
the amateur chef to perfect, especially
when it comes to cooking a good brisket.
Barbeque lovers Mike Albrecht and Jon
Kane saw the need for an accessible class
to teach people how to properly smoke
a brisket in their own backyard, and
BrisketU was born.
“We teach the ins and outs of smoking,
one of the hardest things to master, so
people can make something they’re proud
to serve family and friends,” says Albrecht,
one of the owners of BrisketU. “Over 8,000
people have been through the class since it
started [in 2016].”
BrisketU holds classes on the weekends
in breweries in Houston, Austin, and
Bryan. Blackwater Draw in downtown
12
INSITE March 2020
Bryan hosts the local classes, and each
attendee gets their first beer free. The
$74 cost also gets you professional
instruction; Texas course-ground sausage
to snack on; hands-on experience; a taste
of the end product; and a Pit Side Pocket
Guide with charts, relevant information,
and space for notes.
“It’s for beginners to restaurateurs,” says
Albrecht. “It’s a laid-back class that lasts
two and a half to three hours with lots of
room for questions. All of us that put it on
are Kansas City Barbeque Society certified
competition judges, so we know the
competition circuit, but that’s not at all the
tone of the class. When you graduate [from
BrisketU], you get a diploma — suitable for
framing for your man cave — that shows
you’re a Certified Backyard Pitmaster.”
The class covers all the major topics of
smoking: what tools you’ll need, what
types of wood are best for smoking, how
to trim the meat, how to shop for the best
meat, how to apply rubs, how to maintain
the proper cooking temperature, how long
to cook it, and how to slice it. At the end of
the class, you’ll get to taste both the point
(moist) and flat (lean) cuts of a brisket
they cooked through the night.
“At the end of the class, they should be
able to know how to buy the right kind
of brisket and to prepare and cook it at a
level where they would look experienced
and not have any issues,” says Albrecht.
“They’ll know everything they need to do
to smoke the perfect Texas brisket.”
Though brisket was the first class
they perfected, BrisketU has expanded