Preparing Brisket

[Taliesin]

I'm going to have another go at brisket tomorrow and was hoping for some advice on if I should cut the fat off one side or both sides of the meat? (I've ordered a whole flat brisket from my butcher)

[Taliesin]

Thanks, it's a WSM and I usually aim to keep it between 225 and 250. I've overcooked the last couple and made them a bit too dry.

[All Weather Griller]

As Al has said there is a lot of school on this.

Are you using a probe to see what temps you are cooking at? For the first few cooks to get it right you may want to know where it's at as opposed to the touch and feel method.

If you have any idea of where your meat temps are you can see when the collagens have broken down. There is a fine line between between undercooked and chewy and over cooked and mushy.

Cheers Adie

[jotch]

I cooked a brisket over the weekend and trimmed the fat down on the top to just under half a centimetre or 1/4 inch. (The top being with the point on top)

The underside didn't actually require much trimming at all, however the piece was that massive that I had to ask the butcher to cut off about a kg of the point so that it would fit on my WSM! No burnt ends, some shredded point instead.

Still it took about 14-15 hours to cook overnight and tasted beautiful...never had non-rare beef that tasted soo good and not dried out either - froze a load and will have sandwiches most of this week too.

However I think I need to get a probe that lets me monitor the internal temps from the outside!! Any recommendations anyone?? I think I've just been a little lucky up until now.

[nick9one1]

Im yet to receive it but I have just bought one of these..

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Digital-LCD-F ... 3cb9ecf859

Hopefully it will be cheap and cheerful!

[Taliesin]

The latest brisket was an improvement, I took it off when it reached 195 F. I'm not sure all the fat had broken down but it wasn't as dry. I've been using a Thermapen but I've just ordered the Maverick ET-732 so I can leave a probe in the meat while it's cooking. If anyone uses Aussie Heat Beads then Plumb Products have a good sale on at the moment.

[wade]

I have experimented with and without fat and have found that it is a compromise. Leaving on too much fat can often make for unpleasant eating (especially the internal fat layers) and can sometimes actually make the good meat taste too fatty. Trimming off all the fat can lead to a dry meat which is also not good.

What I do now is trim off almost all of the fat (including the internal layers) but I keep it. I have a wire rack that I stand over the brisket as it cooks and I place all of the trimmed off fat on that so that during the cooking time the fat continually drips onto the meat from above. At the end the old fat remains are discarded.

If you think that the brisket is drying out towards the end of the cooking time there is nothing wrong with wrapping it in a little foil. You will not be losing flavour at that stage but could end up with a better eating meat.

[wade]

Thanks Taliesin. I go through a lot of Heat Beads and PenBeads so I have just taken the opportunity to stock up. Though I see that B&Q have just reduced the price of Penbeads (3.5Kg) to £4.