Was wandering through the supermarket near me and saw a brisket point for sale. This is rare by me, you can rarely find anything besides a flat. Naturally i bought it and am now considering what to do with this lovely, well marbled 2 1/2 lb point. Thinking either pastrami or burnt ends. Any one have suggestions?
If I go for burnt ends I'd surmise I'd smoke it whole first before cubing, saucing and smoking to finish. At what temp should I pull it before cubing? Go all the way to ~200 or something sooner?
I cooked a point this past weekend and served it sliced like a flat. It tasted great! Used salt and pepper with a little Montreal Steak rub for texture. Cooked at 225 for 7 hours (wrapped it in butcher paper when it hit stall at 160). Then turned up pellet smoker to 275 and put back on unwrapped to create a nice bark until it probed liked butter (about 2 more hours).
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For a fun-looking cook, read what Jerod Broussard did with the point from a packer. He made burnt ends by first cubing the point before pretreating and smoking.
Don't get me wrong - burnt ends are great - but even a nicely smoked point sliced is incredible as well. It holds the juicyness longer than just flat and the layer of jelly like fat makes it hard to resist.
Lately I have been trimming my full packers to be roughly 50/50 flat and point/flat. I take a pretty good chunk of flat off and when I have a few, make pastrami from them.
BTW, is it all point or does it have part of the flat? The only time I got a point from my butcher - it was the combo - point over flat. I was at first disappointed. But after a little trimming and low and slow smoking I was damn glad he left the flat attached!
I buy both flats and point/flats at my local HEB Grocery. They cut them out of a full prime packer and trim them up to where you don't need to do much of anything to them. Problem is price, they run about $5.99/lb. I agree with JGrana, just smoke it like the full piece and enjoy sliced. Can't argue against burnt ends though. Does that make me wisey-washy?
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