Brisket Point - Burnt End practice


 
H

Howard Warren

TVWBB Fan
Happy Monday!

I've been smoking a lot of years doing pork shoulder and baby back ribs. But middle-age dating means adapting and the GF prefers brisket. I've smoked a handful of flats for her and she likes them. For me, I love burnt ends, but a packer is way too much meat for just two people. My local meat shops will not sell just a point, but I found a meat processor the next state over who would. Last Friday I received four trimmed brisket points. Each one is about 2.5 pounds, and seem to be trimmed reasonably well. Grass-fed beef, not grain-fed. As marbled as they are, I don't see a reason to inject.

So now I'm ready to try burnt end practice and I'm looking for advice on technique. My plans are something like this:
  • Basic salt/pepper rub (GF likes sweet paprika and a splash of onion powder and garlic powder too, but no sugar.)
  • Smoke to internal temp of 160 then wrap in a pan.
  • Pull at 190-ish, cube, soak in a 2-1 or 3-1 mixture of sauce and beef stock.
  • Put the cubes on an aluminum pan, return to the smoker to set the sauce.
Anybody see anything obvious that I would be doing wrong? Hate to waste one of these points over a dumb error!

IMG_0251.jpg
 
I've only done them once but there was only one thing I really wish I had done differently, and that's cook them longer. I think your finishing temp is too low. I pulled mine at 200 and still wish they were more tender. I'd use the probe test. You can cook it too far though where the meat want to pull. The problem is the burnt ends really won't cook much more after you cube them. Also you might try butterflying the thick end for more crust.
 
I cooked the packer until probe tender. I separated the muscles and put the point back on the smoker for 2 more hours at 225. Then I cubed , sauced, and put back on at 300 for 1 hr. and 15 min.. They were melt in the mouth tender.
 
What Dustin said about cooking longer. The real magic in the point happens when you've rendered all the internal marbling to pure liquid flavor. I also like his idea of butterflying the thick part. I like to trim packers so that there's a little ridge of point that sticks out an inch or so. It only ends up making about 6 1x1 pieces, but oh man are they good with no sauce at all.

If your main goal is burnt ends, you may want to consider no wrapping at all. A tasty crust on a fatty chunk of point is beef candy at its best.

Good luck.

Jeff
 
Thanks everybody!

I've always wrapped in the past (pork shoulder and brisket flats), but that was to get through the stall. Wild guess, how long would this take to cook unwrapped? 2.5 pounds.
 
I wrapped mine after the bark set and made sure to wrap tightly. I don't think the bark suffered much because it came back after I put the burnt ends back on. Expect a long cook but not as long as a packer. I think mine was 8 or 9 hours but it was a bigger point.
 
Yesterday I ran the smoker for an early Mother's Day. I put a mustard slather on the point, followed by the rub I described above. I smoked at 250 for 6 hours, then I was afraid it was drying out in the stall so wrapped for another 2 hours. I pulled from the wrap at 210 degrees. Here is the appearance when I sliced it.

IMG_0319.jpg

I cubed the slices, soaked them in a 50-50 mix of Memphis style BBQ sauce and beef stock, then put them back on the smoker for 30 mins to set the glaze. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the finished cubes... I brought them in, but got sidetracked with the sides and when I turned around, my mother and GF had already attacked them.

But... damn, they were good! Thank you everybody for the tips and suggestions!
 
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