British Brisket


 
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Dear all,

I'm looking for advice on brisket, my problem comes from the fact that in UK we cannot walk into a supermarket and by brisket as most of you can. I have to go to a butcher and order it, most brisket is minced or used for sausages etc the only other brisket available is boned and rolled.

My local butcher supplied me with a brisket last week weighing 7lbs, it was on the bone and to be honest didn't look anyhting like the pictures Chris has posted on the web site. Having no idea what to do with the lump of meat in terms of trying to relate it to the info generally supplied I just put it on the WSM as it came from the butcher.

I started it at 11am and took it off the WSM at 8pm with an internal temp of 185 degrees, having never eaten brisket let alone smoked beef, I didn't have any idea what to expect. Meat was very moist, tender and tasted pretty good, however it did have rather a lot of fat surrounding the meat.

I would like to cook this properly so I wondered whether you can enlighten me on the finer points of brisket. I have listed some questions below and I would be very grateful if anyone can help me out with the answers.

1 Should the brisket be on bone ?

2 If not how should I remove the bone to get the correct joint.

3 People talk about point and flat, I have no idea which way is up!

4 My joint was layered bone thin meat then a large vein of fat and the a much thicker layer of meat was I supposed to remove the fat?

5 People say about trimming obviously I just didn't know what to trim.

6 Faced with large beef bones on one side and skin on the other I just couldn't seem where to apply any rub ?
Hopefully I'll get there when I get some proper knowledge drummed into me by Chris and all the other very knowledgable folk who use this board.

Regards from London,

Iain
 
Iain
The brisket that we would get in the States would be off the bone and skin removed.
Cut the meat off the bone as close to the bone as possible and remove skin.
The flat is the thinner piece you described and the point is the thicker portion.
Once off the bone one side will be free of most all fat. The fat on other side trim to aprox 1/4" thick (don't have that in metric).
There is a large amount of fat that separates the point from the flat, remove some of that fat but not so much that you would cut the point from the flat.
Rub both sides and let set over night in the refrig if you have time.
Wish I was a better writer, hope this helps.
Jim
 
I have some good pictures that I plan to use in a new Brisket Selection & Preparation topic for the website, but I won't get that published until December or January at the rate I'm going.

Regards,
Chris
 
Thanks everyone for the info, the mist is now clearing somewhat. Jim I understand what you mean, however if the FAT as I understand it between the flat and the point is within the meat joint why would you want to remove it? Surely this bastes the meat and keeps it moist? If you cut into this area you would to my reckoning be cutting into the joint so much as you could place more rub in this area? BTW thanks Doug for the pictures very useful. On a general note as I cooked my brisket on the bone did I compromise my cooking time, why don't you cookit on the bone is it because the bone acts as a conductor and the meat gets cooked before the colagen has time to break down?

Regards as ever,

Iain
 
Iain
The fat you are talking about is very large
piece. When competing I remove it for
presentation purposes, cooking for yourself
it's not going to hurt anything.
The reason we don't cook with the bone in is because we get to buy it with the bone removed and don't have to pay for the bone at the going rate per pound.
Jim
 
On the fat side of the brisket, I trim the fat down to 1/8-1/4". Then I make sort of a "V" cut into the large area of fat between the flat and point to take out some of the extra fat. You can leave that fat in, but you don't really need all of it, it increases your cooking time, smoke and rub don't penetrate it, and you're not going to eat it, anyway.

Keep at it, Iain!

Regards,
Chris
 
Well, I guess that just goes to show that there is no one right way. I never trim the fat, either off the fat side or from between the flat and the point. I don't think trimming is wrong, I just don't know if it's needed. I wouldn't trim the fat from between the point and the flat if I planned on making "burnt ends" from the point.

Iain, the tone of your second post makes me think the brisket didn't come out that good. Let us know what happened, maybe we can help.

regards,
Doug
 
Doug

You're right, there are many who don't do any trimming of briskets before cooking. That's OK. I had never even seen a whole brisket before I took Paul Kirk's Pitmaster class in which he taught the basic trimming technique that I described and that I have been using ever since. I think a lot of us stick with whatever technique we learn when we first start out.

My feeling is to do what works for you, there's no absolute right or wrong in this instance.

Best regards,
Chris
 
Hello all,

right I now understand where you are all coming from, in answer to Doug no the brisket came out ok, well as ok as I can tell never having been invited to Chris's to try the real thing I haven't had anything to compare against
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No seriously it's a bit of an uphill struggle over here as BBQ is not really understood. Having a beer down the local pub waffling on about the joys of smoking a brisket etc on a WSM gets you some very strange looks
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Jim,
as a point of interest it is far cheaper for me to buy Brisket on the bone than off as you get it, on average I pay $1.40 per pound on the bone, if it was off bone the cost would be $3.00.

It's off topic I know but a quick question on storage, as we have a fairly damp climate, I'm suffering with my WSM condesating and building a ash lake in the bottom between use any tips ?

Regards as ever to all,

Iain
 
Iain,

Take some of that brisket down to the pub, and make believers out of those guys. Maybe start a fad.

As for the ashes, I recommend that you hose out the bottom after every cooking session. Rinse it well, and then let it dry (Or, fire it back up!). Ashes + water = lye. And, while the porcelainized steel is fairly impervious, the vents are raw aluminum, and more susceptible to corrosion.

Enjoy,
George
 
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