Fat cap up or down?


 
Andrew Binkard

Andrew Binkard

New member
Watching Aaron Franklin's brisket series, he says there are two types of people in this world: those who smoke brisket fat cap up and those who smoke fat cap down. However, he doesn't really go into explaining why. Maybe my internet research skills suck, too, because I haven't been able to find very conclusive reasons for doing it one way or the other.

So... fat cap up or down? What are the pros and cons of each? Doing a brisket low and slow in a kettle w/ indirect heat, would there be a particular way that would work better?
 
Water or no water in the pan, Chevy or Ford, fat cap up or down....
I could give you a long list of reasons that I've heard over the years, but there is no real right or wrong way that I know of.
For the record, I'm a fat down kind of guy
 
Now you done it...lol
Everyone has their reasons... I do fat cap up. I like how it comes out like that. I never done fat cap down. I just feel you get a better bark with fat cap up.
 
I cook fat cap up too. Why??? The best answer I can give you is because. It has to go one way or the other and I always seem to place it up, it looks better on the smoker that way.
 
Franklin is wrong. I'm in the third group--fat cap off.

I trim my briskets and butts to completely remove the fat cap. I don't like eating it, and it gives me bark on all 4 sides of a brisket slice.

If I start running my WSM with the water pan removed, I'll probably leave the caps to go fat side down, so it's a shield from the direct heat and will drip more fat on the fire.
 
I so far have trimmed the fat cap to a 1/4" or less and remove the hard fat and cook fat cap down. Seems to work very well but have never done the other way. may try it once and see.
 
Fat Cap down here. I have been using a UDS and the heat from the bottom. Fat cap cushions the heat. With the WSM, same.
 
Seees I remember seeing a video where Franklin removed his fat cap.....am I wrong? As for me, I remove it...................d
 
David said:
Seees I remember seeing a video where Franklin removed his fat cap.....am I wrong? As for me, I remove it...................d
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The main thing he does is what I think most people do, and that's trim it down. If there is an inch and a half of fat, it wouldn't render down if the brisket was cooked at 300 for 3 days.

I realize not everyone coks for comps, but I think the appeal is the same for backyard guests...so, most will trim to about a 1/4-inch or so, and then cook fat-side down for a great bark on top. For those who cook fat-cap up, it's mostly as you've (the original poster) heard, it just fits into the conventional wisdom from their perspective or field of experience, and isn't wrong by any stretch. I do believe that most who do this do it with the mindset the fat will somehow seep into the meat as it melts, although this has been disproven scientifically because of the density of the mass of meat. However, it absolutely doesn't make the way wrong at all. I've had briskets that were cooked by fat-side up pitmasters and I very much enjoyed them. I don't think that internally they were any more moist or flavorful than one that was cooked fat-side down properly, but they were still quite good.

A suggestion would be to pick a side and try it out, make some notes, and then try the other side and see how they work out for you best.
 
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I don't think it matters one way or the other, fire management, rubs, wood, etc is the key. That said I go down to hopefully shield from the fire.
 
I do fat down with no water. I like that at the end of the cook all the fat has rendered, dripped away with none left
 
The fat side up/down debate has always made me laugh because the most important element in the equasion never seems to get mentioned. What type of pit are you cooking on? It seems so many have their opinion of up or down and insists that it is the only way to do it. Well, I believe the type of pit you are using should determine which way to go. For instance, if I am cooking a brisket in my WSM it really doesn’t matter which side is up. But if I am cooking a brisket in my Drum smoker it makes a hell of a difference. With direct heat coming from down low and nothing between the coals and the meat I start fat side down but have to turn it every 1.5 hours. If I am cooking in my Lang offset then I may want to go fat side up because the heat is traveling over the brisket more than under it. Aaron franklin explained his reasoning for cooking fat side up this way. Because the heat is coming from the right and traveling across the meat to exit on the left side of his pit he positions the brisket with the point side towards the heat. He also sets it fat side up. This way the point will take the brunt of the heat before it travels over the top of the less fatty flat side and out thru the smokestack. Franklin figures with the heat traveling over the brisket the fat cap will prevent it from drying out. This is of course after he has trimmed it down to about 1/4 to 1/8 of an inch.
 
Dwain Pannell said:
I second that suggestion.
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That's good advice for any part of the BBQ process. What temperature to cook on? What internal temp to cook at? Foiling vs Not Foiling? Wood choices, etc. The list goes on.

BBQ can be both simple and extremely complex. It is still amazing to me how many different opinions I hear watching BBQ Pitmasters! Clearly you can be successful using many different methods. You just have to find what works for you.
 
Steve Whiting said:
The fat side up/down debate has always made me laugh because the most important element in the equasion never seems to get mentioned. What type of pit are you cooking on? .
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I'm actually doing it on a 22" kettle. I have the coals/wood off to one side, a big foil pan full of water directly below the meat.
 
Fat cap down. Only trim off the hard fat.

About 10 years ago I hesitantly posted on this board asking for Best Practices for Smoking a brisket for a rookie.

A guy named Jim Minion bothered to answer, that's what he told me, and I've followed his advice ever since. I'm indebted to Jim for that advice and I hope you'll follow his posts to see if he can help you as well.
 
If I were doing a brisket on a kettle, I would use the snake method with a chunk of wood every couple of inches. You can get 6-8 hours out of it and run between 225-250 the entire time. Try it sometime.
 
Andrew Binkard said:
I'm actually doing it on a 22" kettle. I have the coals/wood off to one side, a big foil pan full of water directly below the meat.
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In that case I would suggest fat cap down. The heat will becoming from the opposite side of the meat but it will be coming from below so fat side down would help protect the brisket from drying out.
 
Randy W said:
A suggestion would be to pick a side and try it out, make some notes, and then try the other side and see how they work out for you best.
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OK. Let's have a little fun.... I'll do 2 at once next weekend. I'll do 1 up and 1 down at the same time.

I'd originally planned to do a 20+ lb packer but my butcher came up short getting anything over 15lbs.

I'll do this:

- 14 lb packer. Fat side down. Bottom rack. I don't trim. Just dig out the hard fat and score the cap. Rub both sides.
- 8lb back cut [Sometimes called a second cut. All of the point and only the first cut section below the point]. Will do this on the top rack Fat side down.

That way we'll have "scientific" **Hhmmm** comparison.

I'll post up a cook plan around sometime around Wednesday evening.
 
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