Scotch and Brisket

The best brisket sandwiches ever!

How does it get better than enjoying Scotch and brisket on the back deck as the sun is setting! While on the Oregon coast we make it a habit to drive along the Umpqua river to Elkton where we browse the wineries. Our favorite is Bradley Winery, and the owner just happened to be in the tasting room. As usual we purchased quite a bit of wine for the cellar and chatted with her for a bit. She told us her son works at River’s Edge so we visited that winery on the way back to Winchester Bay. The former winemaker also just happened to be there told us about “the best restaurant within 50 miles!” so we just had to visit Tomasellis.

I enjoyed their burger special which was beef, pork, and I believe elk or deer. The burger had crisp edges and was quite lean, but most excellent. Cheri had the brisket sandwich, and had to needle me into trying a bite. I never order brisket sandwiches because I have always failed to enjoy the shoe leather texture of commercial brisket. I had to admit that I regretted ordering the game burger because the brisket sandwich was the best I have ever eaten! I’ve never had commercial brisket that tender ever! We asked how they make it and the staff told us that the former owner makes it in his back yard, but he was not there to speak with.

Back at home

Fast forward a few days: on the way back home to Cd’A our intent was to stop at Tomasellis in Elkton to get a couple of brisket sammies for the road home. There we were luck enough to meet the pit master (former owner) of Tomasellis. We started chatting as we were waiting for the brisket sandwiches, and discovered he was the guy that made the fantastic brisket. He told us all about it, and said he uses Jim Goode’s rub and mop (guessing here because he makes some kind of jus). He smokes for a shorter time kind of like I do my ribs (a couple of hours or enough to give it a good color, then transfers to foil pan with ingredients that sounds much like Jim Goode’s Brisket Mop. 

Back at home Cheri wanted me to recreate the brisket we had at Tomasellis so we went to Cash and Carry to get a packer for about $3.65/lb which trimmed to be a bit over 10 lbs for the smoker. I separated point from flat which I had to cut into slabs so it would fit onto the smoker.

I did manage to take pictures of the smoke and finished product, but because we were so excited to eat the sandwiches, I forgot to take pictures of them!  The sammies were as good as we experienced at Tomasellis, savory and the brisket butter tender.  We used Costco hot dog rolls. Cheri now wants me to prepare brisket that way all the time.

Yeah, enjoying Scotch and brisket is one of life’s simple pleasures.

Another simple pleasure: Wood Fired Pizza

Here is a link to Jim Goode’s brisket mop, which we adapted to our braising liquid