Small brisket, can I smoke it

[Lisa.Hagemann]

I'm new to wood smoking, bought my first WMS 14" earlier this summer.

I ordered a brisket from my favorite small local farm. They have their meat butchered locally. Because they are a smaller farm, and use a local butcher, their cuts are generally smaller; For example, most of their pork roasts are in the 3-4 lb range. But, this is a good size for just the two of us. Since they are doing on-line ordering, with community pick-up I decided to throw a brisket into the basket. Figuring … generally 1/2 the size of normal, I’ll get a 6-7 lb brisket and it’ll be a good thing to get some experience with, since I’ve never cooked a brisket before.

Well, it came in at about 1.5#. It's frozen, but appears to have a flat and point.

So, is it worth it to try to smoke this, or find another use?

 

[Brad Olson]

Is there a breed of dwarf cattle?

How does it look as far as fat and marbling go? My first thought is that if it's from a very young animal it might be extremely lean, although on the flip side it might also be more tender than an older brisket. For some reason the idea of satays has popped into my head, if you could slice it very thin.

 

[Chris Allingham]

Sounds like it's a portion of a whole brisket. Even a veal brisket weighs about 4 pounds.

I feel like it's too small for the smoker by itself. It's not even a whole chicken. My advice would be to get that 7 pound brisket you mentioned, cook it on the top grate, and throw this little fella on the bottom grate and see what happens. Worst case you can chop it, mix it with sauce, and put it on a sandwich, in a baked potato, on a pizza, on nachos, etc.

Good luck!

 

[Lisa.Hagemann]

Sounds like it's a portion of a whole brisket. Even a veal brisket weighs about 4 pounds.

Oh, I'm sure it's a small cross cut of a full brisket based on the dimensions.

Since it's frozen I can hold onto it until another time, and give your advice a shot.