My second brisket (and: best use for meat trimmings?)

[DaveD]

Hey folks, going to do my second-ever brisket this weekend. This will be my documentation thread but I also have a question about how best to use some trimmings-- read on.

My first brisket, which I did during my "staycation" series a while back, was wildly successful so I am going to repeat the same process. I'll use the Pit Boss vertical pellet smoker and do it overnight tomorrow night at 200F/93C after an initial hour on the "smoke" setting. [EDIT: forgot to include this:] Running with the 100% hickory pellets made by Cookin' Pellets. Following a Malcom Reed video, that temp guarantees that the cut can't overcook even if it's a warp speed brisket. My first time, it hit a plateau at about 155F/68C overnight and responded promptly when I increased the set point in the morning.

I'll put it in a foil boat at some stage mid-stall, more or less, and it should be ready to start resting in the early afternoon, when it'll go in the cambro until dinnertime.

This is a USDA Prime brisket from Wild Fork, weighing in at 15.75lb/7.1kg. As you can see below, I was pretty ruthless in trimming:




After:





I had to hack that point down a fair bit, and as a consequence I have a bit over a pound (540g) of point meat in three large hunks:



Question: what would be good ways to use those trimmings? I can think of things like a stew, or a chili... for now, I went ahead and vac-sealed it, so there's no time pressure. Happy to hear any suggestions.

This brisket will go in the smoker in about 23 hours... stay tuned!

[texastweeter]

For the meat, cowboy beans, for the fat, sausage.

[rickgregory]

Not sure why you removed the meat. But yeah, fat can get ground into sausage or, if you grind your own burger meat, you can add some there to get a fattier mix

[STEbbq]

My view is that is it purely for presentation as it looks better for pics/videos at the end.

[texastweeter]

Yes, cut off any thin spots on the flat, they will just flake off in the end if you don't. I also cut a strip off each side just to clean it up so I can see how deep the fat cap goes. If cooking on an offset pit, you DO want a more aerodynamic shape, any corners or stickeyouties will end up dry and flake off too. I shape mine much like yours, but with less of the fat cap removed.

[WayneT]

As a NASA sorcerer, I’m sure Dave’s motivation was magical. 😉

[Allon]

Brisket omelets? A good fridge cleaner too...

[WayneT]

Whatever you choose to do with it, I'll volunteer to help with eating it.

[bbqLuv]

I'm second in line

[STEbbq]

I agree on fat for sausage. I’d vote for chili for the point.

What is going to be your rub?

[Richard Chrz]

Hard to beat brisket point chili! Definitely gets my vote.

[fracmeister]

Chili with the meat or burgers. (Grind and ) render the fat ---maybe crock pot for ease and use that for searing steaks, I even have been known to get a hot layer of rendered brisket fat on my cast iron for hot thin crispy burgers and the taste is awesome... I pour a bit of that piping hot liquid (just a touch) over steaks just before serving. At a restaurant a while back the rendered warm liquid was served with bread as a dipping liquid which was ridiculously good.

But nah, I never trim that much meat if I can help it.

[ecowper]

I typically use my brisket trimmings in two different ways. For the mostly fat trimming, I turn it into tallow (or beef love as Meathead calls it). For the more meaty trim, I use it in chili. I use the tallow for cooking steaks and such.

[Rob whatever]

That’s what I do.

[theroc]

+1 on the rendering the fat for tallow. Awesome when roasting potatoes.

[DaveD]

I've roasted taters in tallow often, and it is indeed fab! Had no need for more tallow at the moment though, so the fat went into the trash this time.

[DaveD]

Thanks for the feedback folks! I was remiss on some details:

I removed the meat because it was really sticking out in an odd way from the point, it would have ended up way overcooked and dried out I'm sure. In the first pic above, you can see how the point is kind of protruding already, and by the time I trimmed away a bunch of fat, the bit I ended up removing was just hanging by a flap, it was never gonna survive. "Be merciless when you trim" is a credo I've seen many times, so I just went for it.

Mainly following the recommendation from a Chuds vid where he advocates smooth edges of a brisket and minimizing any shape irregularities for this reason, so that every slice is edible. And yes, does make for better looking presentation, but my motivation was all about edibility. I would not remove that much meat otherwise, for sure.

I did not save the fat that I trimmed because I already have way more tallow than I need on hand. So all I need is a good use for a pound of point meat, and chili is a leading contender. I do not have a meat grinder, so making burger is not an option (would have been my first choice if I had one).

ZeroBad asked about rub: I'll be adding only pepper. I hit it with kosher salt after I trimmed yesterday so it'll be well brined by tonight. That's how I did my first one - just salt and pepper - and it was fantastic.

The weather has behaved as predicted, with overnight rain last night (which is why I put this cook off until tonight). It should be all done by late afternoon, plenty of time before I put the brisket in about 9pm...

[IowaGirl]

If you have more tallow than you can realistically use and you know someone who makes soap, give the beef fat to the soap maker to render. Tallow is a valuable addition to soap but it's next to impossible to find on the market. Most soap makers render their own.

[Allon]

DaveD, That's my consensus. KISS

Keep It Simple Sally

Salt & pepper is practically unbeatable IF you're using fresh, quality ingredients.

How old are your peppercorns?
🤬
Is there more than one type of black pepper?
You bet.
🧐

[DaveD]

Allon I didn't grind the pepper fresh, I have a big jug of coarse ground. I'm sure it could be fresher. Sure didn't hurt the outcome none!

[Spinaker]

I render the fat down, strain it and store it in jars. It works awesome for cooking or braising. I always have a jar in my fridge.

[DaveD]

I was more asking about what to do with the meat hunks I trimmed off - got all the tallow I need already, so I just tossed the fat.

[Spinaker]

Oh, that I throw in my dutch oven to cook down in a braising session. Add onions, spices and really anything else you want. Great stuff!

[DaveD]

Hey! Conferred with my lovely bride and the beef barley soup is going to be the winner. Her recipe is a beef mushroom barley variant, and very often she's made it with the leftover prime rib of our Xmas dinner. She's got the game plan for using the trimmed meat in making her next one of those soups, and heck yeah, we'll do that for the January Soup Month thang.

Meanwhile, got my Pit Boss all prepped for the overnight smoke, and doused the brisket with pepper. Going to put the cut in on the "Smoke" setting for about 90 minutes, so it'll go in about 8:30pm local time and I'll bump the set point to 200 for the night at 10pm, our typical bedtime. I've added a Fireboard2 to my arsenal since I did this the first time, so I'll have very thorough data coverage overnight.

Excited to fire this puppy up!

[Sid P]

Lookin’ good, Dave! Was your first brisket also from Wild Fork?

[DaveD]

Sid P Sid, indeed it was. This one is a little heavier than my first one, but otherwise they're really similar.

[Allon]

Smoke away young man!

[DaveD]

OK, it's on, y'all. Our weather is in flux, with a front passing through in the next few hours. We've got the "warm air scrape" happening ahead of it, and temps hit just over 60F/16C late this afternoon. Now gusty winds are kicking up as the temps and dew points start to drop almost 30F between now and the morning, but the winds will die down by about midnight. Pretty ideal conditions for this time of year, all things considering.

Brisket is in, and the Pit Boss is holding at about 110F/43C, meat at fridge temps, so this should be some max smoke uptake. Will cruise this way until shortly before bedtime

[DaveD]

Geez, exaggerate much? Ten more, tops!

I use precisely the number of temp probes needed. No more, no less. Just like a wizard: he is never late. He arrives precisely when he means to. (No, I do NOT mean I'm a wizard!)

[Allon]

Follow the blue smoke road...

[gboss]

Gandalf the White becomes Gandalf the Thin Blue, that's what you're looking for.

[DaveD]

Gooooooooood morning Pitmaestros and -maestras! Overnight brisket nominal AF. It's a gorgeous, clear morning, and the Copperhead behaved very well overnight, as expected. The water pan was almost empty so I filled it back up and gave the brisket a spritz, and raised the set point from the overnight 200F/93C to 250F/120C. Here's how things look:

After ~90 minutes on the "Smoke" setting. Night-night brisket!



Wakey wakey!



Data:

Our beautiful almost-winter sunup:


I'll put it in the foil boat here in a while for the last hours. All systems go!

[FireMan]

What time are we eatin?

As far as the trimmings, I’m with texastweeter , I’m votin cowboy beans or Charro beans as they are known in some parts. Kent Rollins just YouTubed a purdy good lookin cook of such this past week.

[DaveD]

FM, thanks for this - I think we're going to go for beef mushroom barley soup for these particular trimmings, but we remain on a quest to perfect our charro recipe so I will check out that Kent Rollins vid!

[DaveD]

Anchors aweigh! Foil boat deployed. ITs now 180F/82C in the point and 170F/77C in the flat. It was already feeling rather jiggly when I manhandled it off the cooking grate. As usual, the disturbance in the Force from handling it during that process put a downward deflection on the temp trajectory, which will turn around shortly and resume its climb. Keeeeeeeeep going....

[RiverJeff]

What was your selection of pellets?

[DaveD]

Oooo, good catch Jeff, I'm running with pure hickory pellets from Cookin' Pellets. Love these, you can really taste the smoke, unlike most blended pellets... updating the OP with this info, thanks for the question.