Brisket: Trim or Do Not Trim Fat

cinmur · Aug 24, 2014

I have a large cook coming up...doing 10 briskets in a uds hanging on hooks. I usually trim off the big hard fat and leave around 1/4 inch where there is fat. I notice that some do not trim at all...I know this is a can of worms to open, but would appreciate some guidance as I will be doing these by myself and it will take a lot of time to do a lot of trimming. If we don't trim, there will be good amount of fat in the bottom of the UDS.

smoke ninja · Aug 24, 2014

Your gonna put ten briskets in one drum, pics please.

Bludawg · Aug 24, 2014

JM2C I'd trim 'em all that fat rendering out can make for 1) a big mess to clean up after the cook 2) the chance of getting soot from burning grease wafting up and depositing it's self on the meat 3) might lead to the towering inferno of beef when you remove the lid if all that grease lights off with the top open.

cinmur · Aug 24, 2014

Bludawg said:
JM2C I'd trim 'em all that fat rendering out can make for 1) a big mess to clean up after the cook 2) the chance of getting soot from burning grease wafting up and depositing it's self on the meat 3) might lead to the towering inferno of beef when you remove the lid if all that grease lights off with the top open.

That was my thought.....last fall we cooked 60 lbs of briskets in PBC replica, which I built myself...briskets were trimmed...not sure why it worked, but they came out really good...only problem we had not enough room after we wrapped them and laid on a rack...when they were hanging it was FULL.

oldbill · Aug 24, 2014

cinmur said:
I have a large cook coming up...doing 10 briskets in a uds hanging on hooks. I usually trim off the big hard fat and leave around 1/4 inch where there is fat. I notice that some do not trim at all...I know this is a can of worms to open, but would appreciate some guidance as I will be doing these by myself and it will take a lot of time to do a lot of trimming. If we don't trim, there will be good amount of fat in the bottom of the UDS.

I always trim to 1/4 inch or less because,...
1.) I want the thin layer of fat that's left to become part of the bark as it renders down and marries up with the spices in the rub.
2.) I consider a thick fat cap as a barrier between the meat and the rub and most people don't want to eat a bunch of fat, so as folks are trimming the fat off they're also trimming off rub and smoke (the flavor of the brisket) that never made it to the meat.

retired trucker · Aug 24, 2014

oldbill said:
I always trim to 1/4 inch or less because,...
1.) I want the thin layer of fat that's left to become part of the bark as it renders down and marries up with the spices in the rub.
2.) I consider a thick fat cap as a barrier between the meat and the rub and most people don't want to eat a bunch of fat, so as folks are trimming the fat off they're also trimming off rub and smoke (the flavor of the brisket) that never made it to the meat.

Good points I haven't ever considered before. I hardly ever trim the fat cap on mine, just some of the hard fat on the point. I may have to re-think my method now! I do use the fat cap as a barrier, but routinely just scrape/cut it off after it is ready to serve.
Amazing what you can learn on here if you read and study the things posted by the knowledge base available.

Have a Blessed day!

Omar

Greg.K · Aug 24, 2014

Funny. I just posted today about a problem brisket cook. Suggestions included that the fat dripping may choke down the fire and be causing a bad smoke flavor. You had 60 lbs dripping on coals.

darkoozy · Aug 24, 2014

oldbill said:
I always trim to 1/4 inch or less because,...
1.) I want the thin layer of fat that's left to become part of the bark as it renders down and marries up with the spices in the rub.
2.) I consider a thick fat cap as a barrier between the meat and the rub and most people don't want to eat a bunch of fat, so as folks are trimming the fat off they're also trimming off rub and smoke (the flavor of the brisket) that never made it to the meat.

^^^^^good advice here.

seaham358 · Aug 25, 2014

I'm with oldbill..
Not much I hate more then a big old piece.of fat on top of my brisket. I always cut it off and there goes a lot of the rub and smoke flavor.
The last couple packers I smoked I trimmed as much of the fat off as I could. They came out great.
There are many ways of smoking and there is no one right way. As long as you end up with great Q it dosent matter how you get there.

Brisket: Trim or Do Not Trim Fat

cinmur

Knows what a fatty is.

smoke ninja

somebody shut me the fark up.

Bludawg

somebody shut me the fark up.

cinmur

Knows what a fatty is.

oldbill

is One Chatty Farker

retired trucker

is Blowin Smoke!

Greg.K

Is lookin for wood to cook with.

darkoozy

is Blowin Smoke!

seaham358

Knows what a fatty is.

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