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Choosing A Brisket

Findng a Good Brisket at the Store

First, decide which cut of the brisket you would like to cook. That will depend on the size of your BBQ pit if you are going to smoke the brisket. If you are going to be cooking in a crock pot then size will be important. Most ovens will handle cooking either one of these.

Another question that you should ask yourself is how long do I have to cook this brisket? The biger the brisket, the longer the cook time will be. So, decide how much time you have to cook your brisket. e are going to save you a ton of time on the preparation of the brisket, but you still will need the time to cook it properly.

So, you walk into your favorite store and head over to the meat department. You see a few briskets stackedup, and now you think to yourself... 'how do I find a good brisket in this pile'?


Here is how you choose a great brisket to cook

What you are going to be looking for are four or five specific things that will indicate the brisket you are choosing to take home fromthe store and cook will be a great brisket. It would really be nice to find a brisket that has all these traits, but to be quite honest with you, it is not always that easy to find one with all of these traits. So, get one that has most of these.

  1. You need to think about the size of the brisket
  2. You are looking for a brisket that has a nice white fat
  3. You are looking for a brisket that has nice dark red meat
  4. You are wanting a brisket with nice marbling
  5. You want a brisket that does not taper to a real thin end on the flat end
  6. Make sure the cryovac packaging has not been ripped. The package should not have any air in it.
  7. Is the brisket flexible? Does it bend easily in the packag? Can you touch teh ends together?
  8. You can also look at the grade of the brisket. Select grade for whole briskets is the most common. You can find both select and choe briskets in the trimmd brisket. This one is not all that important in my opinion.

The very first thingto look for in a brisket is the really white fat of the brisket. With several lying next to eachother, look for the briskets with the whitest fa. This is an indication the cow has some grain feeding. Don't worry if the fat on the top of the brisket is hard to the touch. Stay away from the yellowing color of the fat.


Once you find a brsket with great white fat, you will want to look at the color of the meat. Find the brisket with the best dark red meat. Make sure there is not a lot of browning of the meat, and the blood in the package is a nice and deep red.

Out of the few that you have found, look for good marbling in the red meat of the brisket. That is just some fat running with the grain of the red meat.


Next, and I think the hardest trait to find in a whole untrimmed brisket, is to find a brisket that has pretty consistent thickness over teh flat of the brisket. All you can usually do is to just try and find one that does not taper down to nothing. A pefect brisket would have a nice consistent thickness of about 1 1/2 inches acros the flat, but they are realy hard to find.


Now, pick up the brisket and see if you can bend it in half while examining the cryovac packaging for tears. Usually, you will not find tears very easily, so just look at the package to make sure it does not have any air in it. The cryovac package should be snug down on the meat.


Last, find a good sized brisket to cook. Try to find a brisket in the 10 to 12 pound range for teh whole untrimmed brisket (packer cut) and in the 4 to 7 pound range for trimmed brisket (brisket flat). Don't worry if your brisket is a bit larger or smaller.


Ok. Pick up that brisket and let's get it home and in the refrigerator. Do you feel the confidence and excitement building nowthat you have found a good brisket you cook?

So, let's move on to the preparation of your brisket.