Brisket Burnt Ends | Smoked Beef Brisket and Burnt Ends on Ole Hickory

Hey, welcome back to How to Barbecue Right. I'm Malcolm Reed. Today I'm going to show you how I make brisket burnt ends. Now the burnt ends come from that fatty point end of the brisket. It's got all that marbling in it and as it melts it's going to make those burnt ends taste awesome. That's what gives them so much juice, so much flavor. Now when you're cooking burnt ends, if you can source just the point that's great, but I always have trouble finding it. So I'm cooking a whole brisket today. I've got the flat end and the point. We're going to season that flat. We're I'm really concentrating on these burnt ends today and I want to show you how I turn them into that awesome brisket burnt end. It's the best part of that point. They're going to be great. Let's get to cooking. So for these burnt ends, I'm starting with the whole 18 pound packer brisket. Now we want to get a lot of the fat off and get this thing trimmed up. There's a lot of drop on brisket, but you don't want to throw any of this fat or extra meat we're taking off because it's great to grind or turn into hamburgers. The first thing I'm going to do is kind of cut a line down right beside where that thick vein of fat is. We're going to separate that off the top of the brisket. It kind of connects the flat part and the point. Once you get it open, you can see where the point starts and we're just going to start carving out the flat. We're going to cut it down and separate it all the way right up under the flat. That lets us work with just the point end and the point's covered in fat. When you flip it over, you're going to see a lot of the thick fat and we want to cut all this off. We want to expose the meat. There's so much marbling in it that we don't need the excess fat for flavor because it's going to melt from the inside and lend us some juice to that brisket. Once we get the point all cleaned up, just want to remove any connective tissue that's on it, any of that sinew. It's ready to go. Now for the flat portion of this brisket, I'm just cutting the fat off the bottom to a quarter inch and taking a little bit of the fat off the top. I'm not getting real aggressive here. I just want to clean it up a little so it makes some nice even slices. So now that we've got the brisket trimmed, this is what we have. We've got the flat separated out. It's shaped. It's going to make some awesome slices down it, but then we've got our point and this is what we're concentrating today for our burnt ends. See, we've took the fat off of it. You can still see that marbling through it and we're going to be able to cook this whole, get some bark and some smoke on the outside and then we're going to cube it up later on into those burnt ends. The first thing we're going to do is get our seasoning on it and brisket needs a ton of salt and a ton of pepper. So my AP rub works perfect here. Hey, if you just want to use salt and pepper, go ahead. That makes a great brisket too, but I'm giving it a good dose of AP to start. Front side and back side. While I'm here, I'm going to go ahead and season this flat. You can see we still have a quarter inch of fat on the bottom of that flat. That's perfect. I like a little bit of fat on the bottom of each slice. That looks good. Let's get it flipped over a little bit of that salt and pepper, garlic, AP rub right on top of this flat. Hey, now we need some barbecue flavors on this brisket and I'm going with my The Barbecue Rub. You can use your favorite rub, whatever you like. Flat's going to get the same treatment. A little barbecue rub on bottom, flip it over, a little rub on top. It's going to make some good bark on this brisket. The last thing that I add to my brisket is a little texture, a little bit of pop from some salt, some extra coarse ground peppers. That's my steak rub and you don't have to put it on bottom. It's just going on top. It'll cook down into the meat. It's going to create that crust, that good bark on top. All right, we're going to let the briskets hang out here on the cutting board. Let these rubs work on those flavors getting into the meat. Then we're going to fire up our smoker. I'm cooking on my old Hickory today, but you can cook on any pit you want. Let's get them fired up. To get my old Hickory pit going, I'm just starting with the chimney full of charcoal. Use a couple of wax starter cubes to get the fire going. After about 20 minutes, those coals are good and hot. We're going to add them to the firebox of the old Hickory pit. Slide it back in and just let the temperature come up to about 250. We're going to put the meat on then we'll add some wood. So just shut the door and let the temps climb. If you're cooking on any other pit, just hold it steady at 250 degrees. All right, I got the old Hickory fired up. It's up to about 250. Actually, it crept just a little bit over. That's okay because we don't have anything on it. We'll get it opened up here, get a rack out. We're going to be ready to put these briskets on. First, we're going to put our point on. You want to make sure whenever you're putting brisket on the grate that you place it exactly like you want it to cook because that's the way it's going to start forming. I've got it spread nice, shaped up. It's kind of flat. That's the even cook that I want it to get. Same thing goes for the flat end here. Make sure it's straight. It's laying flat on the rack. Now we're ready to close it up and get it in some smoke. Now's when you want to add your wood to the fire. We're just going to put a couple chunks of pecan right in the firebox. It's going to make some good smoke for us. We'll replace it as it burns out. Get the door closed. So now we got the meat on the pit. We got some wood on the fire. We just want to let those briskets hang out in that smoke, 250 degrees. We're just looking for color at this point. We want that good mahogany color on the outside to make that bark. Then I'll show you what we're going to do these burn in is to get them turned into the best thing you've ever ate on a brisket. Y'all stick around. All right, our point and our flat's been on for about four hours and you can see this is the color I was talking about. I want to get that mahogany look, that dark. This is plenty of bark on the outside of that brisket. Color's just right. This is when we want to get them wrapped. We really want to get them tender. Not worried about putting more smoke on it. I'm going to grab the point here. We're going to go over to the cutting board. So I've got a half pan here on my cutting board and this point fits in it just perfect. And what we're going to do is we're going to add just a little bit more moisture to this pan. And I've just got some regular beef broth. It's just the kind that comes out of a can. We just want to pour a little bit in the bottom. We're still going to catch all this juice that's going to render out of the point, but I want it to mix and fortify with some of that beef stock flavor. It's going to be great when we're cooking these burnt ends down. We're going to mix a little sauce with it and that's what we're going to toss at the very end. You just want to take a piece of foil, cover the pan. Now let's go right back on the pit in the same spot. Now I'm going to grab this flat. So for the flat, I'm not really worried about catching the juice today. I'm making me just a good flat to eat. I've got it laid here on my butcher paper. I'm going to flip it bark down at first. We're going to bring the paper around it. I'm just double wrapping it in this butcher paper, but I want my seam to be on the bottom and that's why I kind of flip it bark down first. Just bring the paper up around it, tuck it in the best you can. So we've got the flat wrapped up. I can get a probe right in the center of it and watch it. We're going to get it back on the pit. I know it's still got four or five more hours to cook. We just want to get the pit closed and hold those temps steady at 250. So I got the flat sitting right back in the same place. Let's close the lid on the old hickory, lock her down, let it restabilize, and we're just going to watch them. I'll stick a probe in it here in about an hour or so, see where we're at. But the point is what we're worried about today and I'm going to take it up to about 210, 12 degrees. It's got a lot of fat in it. It's got to really render down. It goes a lot higher than that flat needs to. That's how we're going to make these burnt ends melt in your mouth. You're going to love them. Stick around. All right, our brisket's been on for about seven and a half hours and I want to get the point out at this point and check it out. So we're going to take the foil off here and I'm just going to use my Thermapen. I'm really not worried about what the internal temp is. I'm checking for real softness and you can see it's running about 210, 211. It's steady ticking up. This is where you want it, but what the most important part is that feel. There should be no resistance in this point end. We've taken it up, rendered all that fat. We've got all these good drippings in the pan. We're not going to throw those out. That's what's going to make our burnt end sauce. So what I want to do is carefully lift the point out of the pan. Wear some gloves because it is hot and we're going to lay it here on the cutting board. Then with the drippings, I want to get the fat off of it. So I've got a fat separator and this is just a container that lets us draw off the bottom. We can pour our liquid in the top, give it a few minutes to settle out and you'll see the fat will kind of rise to the top. That lets us take the fat off. So now we're going to work on the point and I want you to see it still has that beautiful color that we had when we put it in the pan. We've just rendered it down. You see the bark on it, some of the rub, the seasonings. They made this awesome outside and I know it's going to taste great, but to turn it into burnt ends, we need to cube it up. So I'm just going to start on the end. Use a sharp knife and you just want to cut it into cubes. First it's going into strips and it's super soft. That's what you want to see. Now we're going to take our ends and we're just going to start cubing it. We've got our strips cut. You want to kind of keep it together. Just go slow because it's still super hot and we're cutting it into burnt end size pieces. And these cubes are what we're going to toss in our sauce and get back on the smoker and you know they're going to be good. So now I'm just separating the fat from our liquid. That looks about right to me. And I'm going to pour in just a little bit of barbecue sauce. That's what's going to really glaze these burnt ends. I've probably got a quarter cup. That's about all that was in that bottle. I'm just going to kind of mix it around, incorporate it with the drippings that cooked out of that point. So we're just tossing each one of these burnt end cubes in our sauce mixture here and we're just lining them back up in the pan. We're going to stick them back on the cooker just for a few minutes. Tighten that bark up and we only need 15-20 more minutes tops to set these burnt ends because you can see they're super soft. I mean they're just packed with juice, packed with flavor. All that fat's rendered in them. So all I'm going to do is just drizzle the tops. Just a little bit more sauce right on the bark side. We'll use our brush. We're just going to glaze each one of those just a little bit on the bark. They're not covered in barbecue sauce, just the tops. Now we're ready to take our pan of burnt ends back to the cooker. We're going to need about 10-15 minutes tops and these burnt ends are going to be ready. So I put the burnt ends back on to glaze and the flat's ready to come off. I want to show you all what it looks like. Let's get it out of this butcher paper. We've got one awesome brisket flat. That's what I'm talking about. I'm going to show you how I'd cut this up. You're going to serve it. You just want to get a good brisket knife. Check that out. I mean if that ain't perfect, I don't know what is. Start getting into some good pieces right in here. I mean look at that. Folds over, separates like it's supposed to. Comes right apart. Got a little fat on bottom. That's okay. That's textbook brisket right there. It's awesome. Seasonings are great on the outside. It's good and beefy. Got a little bit of fat on bottom. I'm going to go ahead and slice the rest of it up here. And that's it right there. Perfectly cooked flat. See that smoke ring in it. Got a lot of moisture still left in that meat. Talk about some good eating. A little bit of fat left on bottom. That's what I want to see. Hey this flat is awesome, but I'm more excited about these burnt ends. They're going to be done in just a second. All right, 15 minutes and it doesn't take long. You can see that sauce has already set on top of those burnt ends. They're looking great. I'm just going to get them out here on the pan and put them on the cutting board. I usually just give them one last little mix around in the sauce. You want them to be sticky, juicy, saucy. That's what burnt ends are supposed to be. Super soft, melt in your mouth almost texture. You shouldn't have to work too hard to chew one of these burnt ends. And that's why it's the best part of the brisket. It's just all cooked down. You've got all that flavor that's in the point from that fat that renders down through it. The rubs, the seasoning, the smoke. Hey now that's what I call a pile of burnt ends and you know they're good. I can't wait to try one, but real quick before I try one let's talk about what we did. Now I started with that whole pack of brisket and I trimmed it down, separated the flat and the point. So I was really just concentrating on making burnt ends. We seasoned that point up, the AP rub, barbecue rub, got a little bit of that steak and chop all over the top of it. Got it in some smoke. Yeah we had that flat on there too. We're going to eat that later on, but we're really wanting to watch that point, get it rendered and then get it tender. That's what it's all about and that's what we did. It took about seven and a half hours and then we glazed them for 15 minutes. We put them in a pan with a little beef broth halfway through, covered it up. That's what broke them down and then we cubed them when they got really good and soft. The temps was over about 210 degrees and I've got one right here with my name on it. I can't wait to try it. Look how soft that is. I mean that's exactly how I want a burnt end to taste. It's got all that great beefy flavor and the rub and the smoke and we've got it sweetened up with a little bit of sauce mixed back with those meat juices that cooked out. I mean it is on time. I'm going in for another one. All that needs a little bit of these red onions, put a little spicy pickles and jalapenos on there, that sweet fire. It is super easy to turn one of these brisket points into these mouthwatering burnt ends. Hey if y'all are firing up the grill this Labor Day weekend, go ahead and give this recipe a try. You can pick up that whole brisket, trim it, nothing to it and get it on your pit. Run it about 250 degrees until it gets tender. Thanks for checking out our video today. If you want to find out we're putting out more videos, just subscribe to our channel. It'll let you know we got new stuff coming out. You can also send those comments and questions to Facebook or Twitter. We love those. We'll see y'all next time. I want to get one. I got to put a jalapeno, some of this pickled onion. That's what I'm talking about. Doesn't that look awesome? I'm gonna make some happy judges right there.