Party Short-cut

Next time you are going to have a party where you are serving for a large group, go straight to Sam's Club, go to the meat counter then STOP, turn around and walk to the refrigerator cases and...well stay tuned to find out...

This past weekend I had a birthday party for the boyfriend. It was a pretty big one, the big 4-0, and when I asked him what he wanted to serve he said brisket. I secretly freaked out because I've never cooked brisket before and as much as I love brisket I HATE a dry brisket. Yes hate is a strong word but nothing is worse than an overcooked, dry brisket.

So I was thinking about all my options when I asked my very smart friend Christy if I could cook a brisket and keep it in a crock pot, because yes did I mention that we were not only having a party, but we were also going to be camping the whole time in the horse trailer? so I wasn't going to have the convenience of the stove at home. Anyway back to my smart friend, she said that a friend of hers that works for a caterer said they always get the presmoked/precooked, presliced briskets from Sam's Club...enter angels singing and lots of glowing light.

So when I was at Sam's picking up beer and buns, I strolled over to the meat area, by passed the uncooked stuff and pulled out beautiful presmoked/precooked, presliced briskets in their special 7 pound package and started putting them into my cart. The meat manager at Sam's Club told me that a sandwich would have approximately 3 ounces of meat on it, knowing this was going to be a bunch of farmers and cowboys I estimated a little higher.

The day of the party, about 5 hours before we were going to serve the meat, my trusty assistant, my mom (or Jane with a T as she is lovingly referred to), and I took them out of the packages and cut the long strips of brisket in half, broke up the slices and put them into crock pots with some beef broth and of course Worcestershire Sauce, I didn't measure them I just poured until I liked it. My trusty assistant tended to the meat while I was on the next trail ride turning the meat every 45 minutes or so to get it all on the bottom and in the juice. We kept the crock pots on low and even turned them off for about an hour because the liquid was boiling.

The brisket was served on buns with tinfoil onions (I'll post about those some other time), cheese, pickles and an assortment of BBQ sauce. In addition we had fresh made salsa, cowboy beans, cauliflower/broccoli salad and good ol' fashioned potato chips.