Hi There
I am finally going to try doing a Brisket. Ordered one and they messed up, so as compensation they have now delivered a 7,4 kilo brisket. This is waaay too much for me. Would it be possible to cut the Brisket in half. Not seperating the point and the flat, but simply cut in half. I know both halfs wil not be the same due to the muscle structure, but could it work?
The point cooks faster than the flat, (but can take a longer than necessary cook with all the marbling), so If you want to cut it, I would not cut the point in half. BTW - I cooked a 14 - 15 lb, (pre trim), brisket for 10 people and there were no leftovers.
1} smoke the whole thing and package/freeze what I didn't plan on eating right away
2} separate the point from flat and smoke one or the other
3} separate the point from flat and cut each piece in half to smoke 1/2 point and 1/2 flat
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​​​​​Howany people are you feeding? By the time you trim it out and it cooks down, it might not be THAT much extra
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I often get briskets that are way too much meat for us. Also get and smoke several for guests and usually have some left over. My suggestion...
Smoke the whole brisket. When rested, and with the "flat side" to the right and "point side" to the left...cut where the flat and point meet, somewhere in the middle. Cutting against the grain, cut the flat in half. Slice half and tightly wrap the other half to refrigerate or freeze. Important to keep that half in one piece. For the point section, rotate 90 deg and cut the point down the middle. Wrap half tightly to refrigerate or freeze. For the other half, cut in 3/4" slices and serve.
With the wrapped halves, when you are ready to eat, they heat up nicely and still maintain the juices. If you were to slice these and keep, they would not be as juicy.
And if you are like me, you'll end up eating the wrapped pieces very soon after!
I guess this would depend what you are cooking it on, but if it’s just barely too big to fit on the cooker after trimming, I have used a rib rack flipped upside down to drape the brisket over to buy some space until it shrinks up during cooking. Just about anything would work to elevate the middle of the brisket, including bricks wrapped in foil.
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