BBQ with Franklin: The Brisket

Today we're gonna go shopping for a brisket. We're gonna decide what's a good brisket, what's a bad brisket. We're gonna learn how to trim it, and we're gonna finally make a very secret rub. You're watching Barbecue with Franklin. This is a brisket. It comes off the cow. This is the point. This part's the flat right here. So this is gonna be the leaner half. This is gonna be the fattier half. The way it's situated on a cow is right through here. The lean part goes over the rib cage. The fattier part goes up towards the collarbone, and that's the fattier part. Typically the problem that most people have is that it's kind of a tough, unsavory cut of meat. So it really does need to be cooked low and slow. What we're really looking for, you can see the marbling right there. That's a good sign. That means it's gonna cook down well. It's gonna have a lot of flavor. And you're also looking for a thick flat right there. That gives you the idea that maybe this leaner part is gonna cook at almost the same rate as the larger part. So we're gonna open up this here brisket. I'm gonna put on a glove so I don't have any cross-contamination. Got my clean hand and my right hand so I can hold the knife and not get any blood anywhere that I don't want it to go. The knife that I'm using is a narrow curved boning knife. And this is just a real basic one you can get at any restaurant supply store. My dad bought me this one for Christmas years ago. I've been using it forever. And now we've got 40 of them. So anyway, kinda open this thing up. You always wanna be a little careful not to splatter blood anywhere. I like to use the clean hand. Use the knife a lot, just gotta pull stuff out of the way. Don't want any splatters. And then this is what they call a packer cut brisket. This is what you'll get at the grocery store. Still, this is the flat, this is the point. Lean part, fatty part. And here in Texas, we split these up when we're cutting them. If you don't trim any fat off of it, it's likely gonna end up too fatty after you cook it, or if you trim too much off and then you try to cook it, it's gonna run out of fat and it's gonna be dry. So you wanna have just about the right amount of fat. For me, it's about a quarter inch. It could vary, it could be different for everybody. It just depends on your cooker and it depends a lot on how hot you're cooking it. So I kinda start right here. Be very, very careful. Really looking to get about a quarter inch. And then, this is pretty good. And briskets are a lot easier to trim up if they're cold. If you let them warm up too much, if you let it sit on the counter, then the fat will get real hard to cut through and you'll increase your risk for injury. So again, dirty hand. So I've got that right there. I've got about a quarter inch to a half inch. Gonna turn it around. This part right here, this is the deckle that goes underneath right in here. So I'm gonna kinda cut this down like that. There's a wee bit of a membrane right there that's not necessarily gonna render out. And then this whole thing, this is the deckle, I'm gonna cut that out a smidge. And if you pull it with your hand, you can just lightly follow it with a knife and then just trim that little guy off. Big ol' hunk of fat. In Kansas City, this is where the burn ends would come from. But we're not in Kansas City, we're in Texas, and I'm gonna cut that off because it's gonna burn. And I only know that from experience. You could leave it on there and get some great meat, but it's most likely gonna burn a little bit. So at this point, you're really looking for a shape. This part's really, really super thin right there. So I'm actually gonna trim it just a little bit. Right there, you can see how marbled that is and it's a much coarser grain as opposed to this down here being the leaner part. It's a much tighter. So it's kinda ribeye versus sirloin a little bit. This is where the heat's gonna be coming from on the cooker. So you definitely wanna leave plenty of fat there to kinda protect it. Looking pretty good. So between the two muscles right here, the flat and the point right there, there's a huge layer of fat that goes through there. And if you flip it over, it'll manifest itself right here. And we definitely don't want that because there's no way that's gonna turn out good. It's a huge chunk of fat. It's not gonna render. It's not a kind of fat that's gonna add any flavor. Not a kind of fat that's gonna render out properly. Not even a kind of fat that you could really use to make sausage. So we're just gonna get rid of it and trim it off. We don't wanna carve any more into this brisket than that. It's kinda aerodynamic. It's enough where the smoke will kinda go over it. The heat will go over it. So that's good enough. We're gonna leave that. The other thing is there's a lot of silver skin on the bottom of this. If I was only doing one or two briskets, I definitely would trim this. If I was doing a competition, I would also very, very much trim this. And you pretty much trim until you're sick of trimming. You can spend a lot of time or a little time doing this. Me, I don't like to spend much time doing this. Get kinda as much of the silver skin off as you want to. If you get tired of trimming, it's not the end of the world. If you wanna really go spend a lot of time on this, it's okay. It'll work out fine either way. A lot of briskets, if you'll look right here, it's got a huge gash in there. That came from the processing plant where this thing came from. And that's something that isn't necessarily a good thing. But when we rub it later, we're gonna have to be real careful not to get rub in there. Because if we do, then we're gonna have a pocket of rub once this thing's cooked. And that's not necessarily a good thing either. So, this thing's trimmed up. We got about a quarter inch of fat all the way across. It's looking good. That's trimmed out. It's shaped real nicely. I think we're ready to put some rub on it. About to share some secrets. It's pretty complicated stuff. A lot of people have really complex rubs. A lot of people put chili powder, cumin, paprika, all kinds of stuff. The way we roll it here in Central Texas, it's half salt and half pepper. Kinda swirl it up a bit. If you had a shaker, it'd be pretty neat. And there you go. So, I normally start off, you wanna keep this thing moving. The granules of the salt are a lot heavier than the pepper, so the salt's gonna settle to the bottom. So, you wanna kinda keep it going. I always start on the flat side. Kinda get it in my hand like that. Sprinkle it. And I normally go around the edge. And this is just because I do a lot of these things. It's kinda just the habit that I've developed. But it doesn't really matter, as long as you're getting it on there. A lot of people put a whole lot of rub on a brisket. In my opinion, it's better to go a little conservative on how much rub. You really want the flavor of the meat to shine through. You know, this is barbecue. You can put a lot of rub on something, cook it in the oven, and get whatever flavor you want, but it's salt and pepper. It's super simple. I feel pretty strongly about that. Flip it over. Keep it moving. Shlurping, shlurping. A lot of people also really go in there and massage the piece of meat. And really, I think the biggest mistake people make across the board is just putting too much rub on this stuff. I don't want it to be cakey, and I don't want it to be overpowering when it's finished. So that right there, in my opinion, is a perfectly rubbed brisket. So there's kinda two camps on whether or not you should let meat come up to room temperature, or you should put it on cold. A lot of people wanna put this stuff on cold because they think it gives them kind of a fake smoke ring. But I think you only really need a fake smoke ring if you're not getting a real smoke ring. So being that this is beef, I'm gonna let it warm up to room temperature for about an hour before I put it on the hot cooker. Two reasons for that. Beef is about the only meat that you can let warm up to room temperature. You'd never wanna do that with poultry or pork or anything else. Beef is really the only one that you can do that with. I do it for steaks. I do it for brisket. I think it will yield a much more even cook. So we've got this thing rubbed down. We've got it warmed up to room temperature. Cooker's hot. I'm gonna put it on. Thanks for watching Barbecue with Franklin. If you wanna watch more episodes, subscribe to our YouTube channel right here. Right there, that's the one. Click it.