The day I realized I'd been trimming briskets wrong for 8 years

Back in 2016, a retired butcher from Detroit stopped by my shop and watched me trim a brisket for about 30 seconds. He asked why I was cutting off so much fat cap near the point end. I told him that's how I always did it, everyone I knew did it that way. He just shook his head and showed me to leave at least a quarter inch there so the meat doesn't dry out during the stall. I pulled up a YouTube video later that week and saw he was right. Has anyone else had an old timer call out something you thought was standard practice?

2 comments

2 Comments

derek9949d ago

The thing nobody talks about is how your trimming style changes the whole cooking timeline. Leaving that quarter inch on the point end actually slows down the cook but it gives the fat more time to render deep into the meat fibers. I started timing my briskets differently after learning that trick and now I budget an extra hour or so for the stall. It's wild how one small cut can throw off your whole temperature game plan.

gavin_hill279d ago

Holy cow man, that story hits way too close to home. I spent like my first three briskets trimming off nearly all the fat cap because I thought I was being smart and making it "leaner." Turns out I was just making expensive beef jerky