Foolproof Brisket Trim

A methodical and easy to learn approach to trimming a brisket

Jonny

Backyahd BBQ pitmaster & gear reviewer

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Let’s talk about why we trim briskets. I want every slice of brisket to have a good fat-to-meat ratio. I’ve found that trimming the fat cap down to about a quarter of an inch works well. If you have too much fat, then you are building flavor into the fat only, which lots of folks won’t even eat. You want it thin enough that it takes on the smoke flavor and then renders down into the meat. I also want my briskets to look nice. If you don’t properly trim, you’ll likely have divots on the fat side where moisture will dwell and mess up the bark. Having an aerodynamic fat cap allows any moisture build up to roll off the surface, protecting your bark. I cut off anything that is sticking out or very thin. It will either burn before the rest of it is done or create more work for you during the cook. That means I cut off the mohawk and anything less than an inch of meat on the flat. I smoke on 18” Weber Smokey Mountains. So, my briskets can’t be much longer than 18”. The XL DripEZ tub is also about 18”, so I trim the brisket length to fit into the tub and I’m good for the smoker as well. If you have a rectangular or bigger smoker, then feel free not trim as much length. I also know that a 15lb brisket, trimmed to about 13 pounds, will cook in 12 hours. Having that predictability is crucial when cooking at scale. And that’s why I trim my briskets. Check out my feed for a step-by-step How to Trim a Brisket video. #bbq #brisket #smokedmeat #howto #learn #cooking
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Oct 22, 2023

Let’s talk about why we trim briskets. I want every slice of brisket to have a good fat-to-meat ratio. I’ve found that trimming the fat cap down to about a quarter of an inch works well. If you hav...

Quick Brisket Trim. Trimming a brisket shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes. You just need to remove fat that won’t render and remove any very thin or browned meat. That means you remove most of the hard deckle fat from the meat side. You can leave the rest alone or carve off some of thicker globs. You’ll also want to remove any of the dried or browned meat from the sides. On the fat side you’ll want to remove the part that sticks up like a lopsided mohawk - there’s a lot of fat under it that can be trimmed down. Save that fat and render it down into beef tallow or use in sausage. Then just try to get the fat cap down to about a quarter to a half an inch. If you have an inch of fat it won’t render and you’ll be left with bark on fat instead of bark on meat. You don’t have to round off the corners if you don’t want to - but those thin parts will likely dry out and cook a lot faster than the rest. Save any meat you trim off for burgers, sausage, tacos, or stews. I’ve been slathering my briskets with just worcestershire sauce lately because it’s easy and adds an umami profile. I use a homemade rub that has more than just salt and pepper. I’ll put it in the description and you can find it at bkyhd.com/brisket. Brisket Rub 1/4C Morton’s Kosher Salt, 72g 1/2C Coarse Black Pepper, 66g 1/8C Granulated Onion, 28g 1/8C Granulated Garlic, 24g 2t Chili Powder, 5g #bbq #brisket @Backyahd BBQ
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Brisket Trim IRL 4 of 4 This is the 4th and final brisket trim for a recent catering event for 70 people. This is the 22 pound on that needed a lot of help. In this video I’m going to show you some things I haven’t talked about yet and show you a bunch of mistakes I made to help you avoid them. I keep a honing rod near by and hone my knives between each brisket trim. I cut the wrapper along the deckle fat so I don’t gouge in to the meat. I pat it down with a paper towel so it’s easier to handle. I inspect the brisket to see what I’m working with. I notice that the mohawk is lopsided and there’s a lot of hard fat cap to remove. Ideally I should have put this in the freezer for an hour before slicing, but I didn’t have the freezer space or time. I cut off the mohawk, round of the point, and then clean up the fat that was under the mohawk. I square up the long side. A cut off the end of the flat to get it down to 18” to fit on my smoker. I’ll use that in burgers. I shave off the deckle fat. I don’t remove it entirely because I like some of it to render and keep the flat moist as it cooks. I shave off the fat build up on the meat side. Notice how I’m using my left hand to prop up the brisket - that helps get it at the right angle to shave off the fat. I square off the other long side and clean things up. I pound the point down to be more level with the flat. I move on to the fat cap. You can see here I start to cut into the meat - as soon as I notice that I can either back out and fold the fat back down, or I can angle my knife upwards and keep the exposed meat. In this case the gouge wasn’t too bad so I kept cutting with an upwards angle. You’ll notice here that I continually look under my knife to see if I’m starting to expose the meat. I inspect the fat and see that more needs to be trimmed off the top of the flat. I got a little to close with this cut, but you just have to keep moving. It’s not the end of the world. Here I’m lightly scraping the fat cap with the edge of my knife to see if anything pops out. I discover there’s some stringy fat and remove it. I put some final touches on the corners. I notice there’s a gouge from the butcher here, so I shave that lip off. I don’t want that hanging off and I want my rub to be applied evenly to the flat. I pound it out a little to even it out. And finish with a final inspection and move onto applying the rub. Hopefully these trim videos helped you out. I thought it would be cool to show my process when I just working on feeding people. #brisket #foodprep #catering #bbq #smokedmeat
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When I was first learning how to trim a brisket I stressed pretty hard about not gouging into the fat cap. I’m here to tell you that I’ve done it and I’ve survived and it’s okay. Exposing a little of the meat through the fat cap isn’t the end of the world and the brisket will still be fantastic. In fact, some briskets come with meat exposed and there’s nothing you can do about it and it still turns out great. Your goal should be to trim the fat cap down to about a quarter of an inch all the way around. Sometimes that means putting your knife in awkward positions. It helps to learn what a quarter inch of fat feels like - so once you get a section down to a quarter of an inch, push on the fat to get a sense for it. As you are trimming, feel and look around for anything that looks more than a quarter of an inch. Trim a little, then lift the fat, look under the knife, gauge the thickness, and keep cutting. When you’ve accidentally cut into the meat, and you will, you can either back out and cover it up or finish the cut and leave it exposed. I personally like to continue cutting because aesthetically I don’t want a piece of flappy fat left on top of my meat. Everything about bbq should be enjoyable, including brisket trimming, so go into it without stress and just move on if you make mistake. Music by @ianmullmusic amazing guitar work on his channel. Check him out! #gifted #affiliate #bbq #bbqtips #brisket #briskettrim #howto #learnontiktok #smokedmeat #smokedbrisket #brisketprep @backyahdbbq @backyahdbbq @backyahdbbq
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Brisket Pre-Trim It’s Thursday night and I have 4 briskets in the fridge for an event next week. We’re having friends over for birria tacos tomorrow and I wanted to make them with brisket trimmings. I don’t want to rub them days in advance because I don’t want to cure them. So the plan is to trim them all, re-vac seal them, put them back in the fridge, and then take them back out to rub on Monday, smoke on Tuesday, and serve on Wednesday. Put the briskets in the freezer for an hour or so before you trim them so the fat is easier to cut into. I cut the wrapper near the deckle fat so I don’t accidently gouge into the meat. I start on the fat side because it will get soft pretty quickly. I’m cutting off the mohawk, the part that sticks up. I round off the point. And then clean up the thick fat on the other side of the point. I square up the long sides and round off the corners. And get the fat cap down to about ¼ to ½ an inch all around. On the meat side - I clean up most of the big fat globs and don’t spend any time on the thin membrane - too much work to remove it all for little gain. I shave off the deckle fat until it’s mostly level with the meat and then continue cleaning up the fat globs. I then put on some unnecessary finishing touches that are most definitely a waste of time, but make it look a lot better. I section off a big vac seal bag and seal one end. One pro tip is to fold down the opening of the bag so the meat slides in there easier and you have a clean edge to seal. Then insert the brisket, vac seal it and move onto the next brisket. These will all go in the fridge until I rub them Monday. #brisket #bbq #foodprep
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Foolproof Brisket Trim method. The most methodical and easy to follow brisket trim method out there. #bbq #bbqtips #learnontiktok #howto #beef #brisket #briskettrim #knifeskills #tiptok #smokedmeat #didyouknow 🐄
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When I was first learning how to trim a brisket I stressed pretty hard about not gouging into the fat cap. I’m here to tell you that I’ve done it and I’ve survived and it’s okay. Exposing a little of the meat through the fat cap isn’t the end of the world and the brisket will still be fantastic. In fact, some briskets come with meat exposed and there’s nothing you can do about it and it still turns out great. Your goal should be to trim the fat cap down to about a quarter of an inch all the way around. Sometimes that means putting your knife in awkward positions. It helps to learn what a quarter inch of fat feels like - so once you get a section down to a quarter of an inch, push on the fat to get a sense for it. As you are trimming, feel and look around for anything that looks more than a quarter of an inch. Trim a little, then lift the fat, look under the knife, gauge the thickness, and keep cutting. When you’ve accidentally cut into the meat, and you will, you can either back out and cover it up or finish the cut and leave it exposed. I personally like to continue cutting because aesthetically I don’t want a piece of flappy fat left on top of my meat. Everything about bbq should be enjoyable, including brisket trimming, so go into it without stress and just move on if you make a mistake. Music by @ianmullmusic amazing guitar work on his channel. Check him out! #bbq #bbqtips #brisket #briskettrim #howto #learnontiktok #smokedmeat #smokedbrisket #brisketprep
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Brisket Trim IRL 1 of 4. This is brisket trim 1 out of 4 from a recent catering event for about 70 people. Cut the wrapper along the deckle fat so you don’t cut into the meat. Pat down with paper towel. Cut off the mohawk - to get consistent height across the whole point. Round off the point. Square off the long side - and round that corner. Trim off some of the fat that was under the mohawk. Shave off most of the deckle so it lays flat with the rest of the flat muscle. Trim off the big fat globs from the flat meat. Square off the other long side. I usually round off that corner, but I’m saving some of this flat meat for burgers so I chopped a big chunk off here. Clean up the edges. Trim the fat cap down to a ¼ to a ½ an inch. Clean up any remaining edges. Lately I’ve been pounding it the point down to be more level with the flat. I’ll post the other 3 trim videos soon. The more comments and likes on this post the faster the next one will come out. #brisket #foodprep #catering #bbq #smokedmeat
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Here’s the 3rd and final brisket trim for this session. This was an odd shaped brisket with no mohawk, a very thin flat corner, and not much hump fat - so you’ll see me adjust my approach based on that. Every cow is different, so you have to be able to adjust your trim based on what you are given. I’m sharing this trim video because I think it may help you deal with odd ball briskets - which you are bound to get if you trim enough of them. Open the brisket by making a slit on the deckle fat. I will shave that fat off later, so I don’t mind if it gets nicked. I carefully remove it from the bag to keep all the juices contained. Then I wipe the brisket and cutting board with some paper towels. I start by trimming off the excess fat at the end of the little mohawk. And then round off the point. Here I’m deciding how to handle the thin flat corner. It’s going to look like I’m taking off a lot, but it is so thin that it won’t be usable as slices - better to save it for burgers or sausage. Before I trim the thin corner, I round off the thick corner to see what kind of angle I’m going to be working with. Then in one swooping cut I take out a lot of that thin corner. I inspect it some more and see that it is still too thin. I trim off that long side and take off more of that thin corner. It’s getting closer to an inch thick, but still too thin for slices. I move onto cleaning up the other long side. And clean up the browned meat from the underside of the point. I shave off the deckle to be level with the flat muscle. I don’t carve it out anymore because a bit of that deckle will render and help the flat stay moist. I scrape off the fat globs from the flat - so the rub penetrates directly into the meat. I round off the point a little more. And then do a completely unnecessary cut of good meat that should have stayed on. Back to the flat, I’m still concerned that it is too thin, so I made the decision to cut off some of the thicker meat so the flat slices are more balanced. I then clean up any sharp edges. And take off a little more fat at the end of the mohawk. I usually clean up the hard fat on the hump, but this brisket didn’t have much so I left it mostly alone. I trimmed the flat fat cap down to about a ½ inch so it would render down nicely. This was the last brisket of the session and I’m moving onto slathering and rubbing. In my next trim video I’m going to answer all of your brisket trim questions, so ask away below and I’ll do my best to answer them. #bbq #brisket #smokedbrisket #howto #briskettrim
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Here’s what I do with my brisket trimmings. I usually grind it up into burgers and make some tallow, but I also throw it in beef stew and some homemade sausage. First I separate the meat from fat. For burgers I weigh the meat and then weigh out some fat for a 75/25 mix. I put all that in the freezer for an hour so it’s easier to grind. Then I grind with the coarse plate. And then run it through one more time with the fine plate. And then a little ice to get the last bits. I form into rough balls and then in the fridge until I’m ready to cook it. For tallow, I roughly chop the fat and render it down in a pan while I’m smoking the brisket. You can grind the fat before rendering it, or you can chop it up halfway through the cook to get more out of it. You don’t want to leave it on the smoker too long as it can get over smoked. You can use that tallow as a general fat replacement and use it when you foil boat and wrap the briskets. I like to strain the fat through a paper towel into a glass jar. I’ve recently started pouring it into ice cube trays so I can easily throw a cube into a vac seal bag when I’m portioning out brisket. I found this trick somewhere online, but can’t remember where so props to whomever did it first. That’s just a couple of things you can do with the brisket trimmings - what about you? What do you like to do with your trimmings? #brisket #bbq #smokedmeat #bbqtips #foodprep
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Today I'm going to show you my favorite brisket trimming method - what I call the "Foolproof Brisket Trim". I like this method because it is methodical, easy to learn, and easy to remember. Most of the videos and blogs out there have you flip the brisket around many times, and you lose track of things quickly. With this method, we learn the brisket parts and then focus on trimming one side at a time, starting with the fat side and then flipping it over to focus on the meat side.

Once you learn this method, you'll never forget it and will get more efficient with it every time you trim a brisket. You'll likely be able to do a whole trim in 5 minutes and could probably even do it blindfolded.

Please remember to save all your trimmings. Render the fat down into tallow and use the meat in burgers, stir-frys, or anything else you can think of.

Finished Foolproof Brisket Trim Method

Here's a sneak-peek at what the finished trim looks like on each side:

Fat side before and after finished trim

Before

Fat side before trim

After

Fat side after trim

Meat side before and after finished trim

Before

Meat side before trim

After

Meat side after trim

Brisket Parts

First let's start by learning the brisket parts.

Fat Side DiagramMeat Side Diagram

Sides - fat side and meat side

A brisket has two sides. The fat side and the meat side. They are easy to find because the fat side is covered in fat and the meat side isn't.

Ends - the point and the flat

A brisket has two ends. The point and the flat. The point is thicker than the flat. The point is also known as "moist end" and the flat is also known as the "lean end". They are actually two muscles that overlap each other with a band of fat between them, called the deckle fat.

Slope

This is the part of the brisket on the fat that is between the point and the flat. We call it out because there's usually a large deposit of fat here that should be removed. We call it the slope because it is the part that slopes from the thick point to the thin flat.

Mohawk

This is the flap of meat and fat that is on the point end. It looks like a mohawk when you hold it up.

Hump

This is the fat hump on the point that is across from the mohawk. It is the thick fat on the point.

Deckle fat

This is the thick and very white fat between the point and the flat muscles. You will find deckle fat on both the fat and the meat sides.

Silver skin

We have some small sliver of fat and layers of silver skin on the meat side.

Trimming Method

Now let's dig into the trimming method.

I like to use a 6" curved semi-stiff boning knife from Victorinox.

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Fat side

We'll start with the fat side. I like to do the fat side first because the fat is easier to cut when it is cold.

Begin each step by flattening out the entire brisket so it is as long and wide as it can be on the board. That way you have an accurate picture of what to cut. If you don't flatten it out, then you'll need to make a lot more cuts.

Step 1: Mohawk

Slice the mohawk off and round off the point so it has a natural curve around towards the meat side. Some people don't slice off the entire mohawk, but I like to because it will overlap other parts of the brisket, rub will get in between and be soft, and bark won't develop there.

Before

Mohawk before trim

After

Mohawk after trim

Step 2: Mohawk long edge

Cut off the mohawk long edge to remove any browned meat and to expose the meat and fat along the flat.

Before

Mohawk long edge before

After

Mohawk long edge after

Step 3: Mohawk deckle

Slice the deckle fat under the mohawk at a 45-degree angle leaving 1/4" of fat at bottom. This might be hard to see from this angle, but focus on the left side of the brisket, under the mohawk and slice the deckle out at an angle, but don't remove too much of it.

Before

Mohawk deckle before

After

Mohawk deckle after

Step 4: Mohawk side flat corner

Cut a 45-degree angle of the left side of the flat so that the meat is at least 1" thick and round off the edges.

Before

Mohawk side flat corner before

After

Mohawk side flat corner after

Step 5: Hump long edge

Cut off the hump long edge to remove browned meat and you can see the fat to meat ratio.

Before

Hump long edge before

After

Hump long edge after

Step 6: Hump side flat corner

Round off the right-side flat corner.

Before

Hump side flat corner before

After

Hump side flat corner after

Step 7: Flat fat

Trim the fat above the flat so it is 1/4" all the way around. Be careful not to cut into the meat. But if you do, back the knife out, and move on. Don't labor on it and don't keep cutting through the meat. Keep in mind that even Aaron Franklin makes mistakes sometimes, so you likely will as well.

Before

Flat fat before

After

Flat fat after

Step 8: Hump fat

Trim the hump fat so it is 1/4" thick all the way around. Cut in a motion from the middle of the brisket towards the hump edge.

You'll want to feel for any sections that feel harder than the rest and slowly and carefully trim away at it taking out small layers at a time.

To know how firm the fat should feel, find a place where we have 1/4" fat and then trim until the entire fat layer feels the same way.

Before

Hump fat before

After

Hump fat after

Step 9: Slope fat

Trim the fat on the fat side that is between the point and the flat down to 1/4". It's the part where the point slopes down into the flat.

Most of the time you'll see a lot of fat build up there.

Before

Slope fat before

After

Slope fat after

Meat side

Now let's flip it over and trim the meat side.

Step 10: Deckle fat

Under the point there's a large chunk of deckle fat. You can either shave or scoop it out. To shave it cut it at a 45-degree angle. To scoop it out cut along the line where the fat and meat meet and scrape your knife along that natural line.

A lot of people just slide it off and a lot of people scoop it out. You should try both methods and see which one you like better.

Before

Meat deckle before

After (Scoop Method)

Meat deckle after

Step 11: Fat and silver skin

Carefully slice off any silver skin or fat you find on the meat side. Slice with the grain. You don't need to remove it all. Focus on the thicker parts first. Try to be as consistent as possible.

Before

Meat fat and silver skin before

After

Meat fat and silver skin after

Conclusion

I hope you find this foolproof brisket trim method helpful. Let me know in the comments how you trim a brisket and if this helped you.

Ready to cook your brisket?

Check out our comprehensive brisket smoking guide for step-by-step instructions.

Jonny

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