COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KRHD) — If you’re firing up that grill this Memorial Day, here are some expert tips from Texas A&M’s ‘Three Brisketeers.’ Here are the top three tricks for a juicy barbecue.
- Reaching the perfect internal temperature. For a rare cook, you want that temperature around 130 degrees. For well done, you’re aiming for the 155-160 range.
- After reaching the target temperature, let the meat sit on the counter for about 15 minutes.
- Choose a prime meat grade. This means there are abundant flecks of fat speckled through the meat.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
If you’re preparing for that Memorial Day barbecue, this probably isn’t what you had in mind. But this is where it all starts.
We’re learning about the science of the perfect barbecue from one of Texas A&M’s Three Brisketeers.
“We have, hopefully lovingly, been given that title over time but yeah, we're the Three Brisketeers," Dr. Davey Griffin said.
Dr. Griffin is a professor and meat specialist at Texas A&M University. He and Dr. Jeffrey Savell, and Ray Riley have been crowned the Three Brisketeers after they extended their food and science knowledge to barbecue.
So here’s the secret to making the perfect barbecue.
“The biggest thing with those I think is to be sure that you have the right temperature internally for what you want that steak to be like," Dr. Griffin said.
For a rare cook, you want that temperature around 130 degrees. For well done, you’re aiming for the 155-160 range.
“One of the things that we really recommend is, once you get them cooked to about the temperature you want, let that meat rest. When I say rest, that just means bring it off the fire," Dr. Griffin said.
Wrap it in aluminum foil or butcher paper and let it sit on the counter for about 15 minutes. And if you want that soft, juicy barbecue, meat grade matters.
"The top grade in the U.S. grading system is prime. And we used to always say we only have 2 or 3 percent, so you're not going to find it, only at the best restaurants. Today, beef producers are producing cattle that have about... the average last week was about 11 percent prime. And so you're seeing it in a lot of stores. Here locally, we see it in a lot of stores," Dr. Griffin said.
When it comes to dousing your meat in barbecue sauce, Griffin said it’s best to keep it simple.
“People that are selling these high quality briskets, they're using salt and pepper. They're not using a strange concoction of spices. We want the meat to do most of the talking," Dr. Griffin said.