Whole brisket or butcher trimmed ?

[RHEINLEIN]

My first whole brisket coming soon.

Should I buy a whole packer or ask my local butcher to trim it up?

Advantages or disadvantages?

 

[C. Keeper]

My first whole brisket coming soon.

Should I buy a whole packer or ask my local butcher to trim it up?

Advantages or disadvantages?

Butcher does a better job, IMHO

 

[RHEINLEIN]

In other words worth the price?

 

[C. Keeper]

In other words worth the price?

I haven't had the best of luck picking a brisket. If you know your butcher, hopefully they would help you select the "perfect" packer and offer professional trimming.

I have trimmed my own packers. There was always room for improvement. Price at the butcher as compared to Costco will help in your final decision. Butcher $100 or Costco $50? If the grade is the same, go for Costco and watch some YouTube videos.

 

[Gonefishin]

Do you not think you can trim one? If it’s cheaper I do it myself. I suppose you save 20 or 30 min.

 

[RHEINLEIN]

Do you not think you can trim one? If it’s cheaper I do it myself. I suppose you save 20 or 30 min.

I can pull it off after all the trimming videos.

I’ll check Costco/Sam’s options.
Thanks!

 

[Jim6820]

If you do it yourself, you can also render down the trimmings for beef tallow. I actually prefer to do my own trimming as I can shape the brisket in the process. A properly shaped brisket will cook more evenly and will avoid badly overdone sections.

 

[Nerdygrrl]

If you have a good knife it's very easy to trim. Probably one of the easier cuts of meat to clean up as it is very forgiving. The main reason you are doing it is to remove the hard fat that won't render and even it out so it cooks more evenly. It doesn't have to look pretty and you can't really mess it up unless you go to crazy.

Even after trimming it will be a full packer unless you separate the point from the flat.

 

[RHEINLEIN]

If you do it yourself, you can also render down the trimmings for beef tallow. I actually prefer to do my own trimming as I can shape the brisket in the process. A properly shaped brisket will cook more evenly and will avoid badly overdone sections.

Great advice @Jim6820
Thank you sir !

I haven't had the best of luck picking a brisket. If you know your butcher, hopefully they would help you select the "perfect" packer and offer professional trimming.

I have trimmed my own packers. There was always room for improvement. Price at the butcher as compared to Costco will help in your final decision. Butcher $100 or Costco $50? If the grade is the same, go for Costco and watch some YouTube videos.

Thanks @C. Keeper , I’ll do some shopping around today.

 

[Motodad1776]

Good luck, a properly trimmed and cooked brisket is a wonderful thing.......I however am cheap and don't like all the prep work, so I opt for a good chuck roast these days.

 

[tpack]

The last brisket I smoked, I took the time to trim it way more than any brisket I've ever trimmed just for $hits and grins. It looked just like the competition briskets you see on YouTube. Rounded the corners of the flat and removed enough of the fat on the point that it was fairly flat and more aerodynamic. Wasn`t all that hard since I have trimmed 1000`s of briskets during my 26 year butchering career. It cooked more evenly than other briskets and there was no pooling at all on top of the brisket (fat side up). I have a grinder and can grind the trimmings when I make my other burger. If I didn`t have a grinder I wouldn`t trim it that good and be wasteful with the trimmings. I`ve smoked lots of briskets before that turned out great with just trimming the fat to 1/4 inch and removing most of the deckle fat. YouTube has people thinking you have to do a brisket trim like a competition brisket for it to turn out good. You just don`t. It might make it prettier for competitions and more evenly cooked in some places, but if you can smoke a descent brisket a bad trim job won`t make the difference. I even rendered and used the tallow from my last one and I don`t think it much but make it slightly greasy. It may have enhanced the chopped brisket I made a little, but I`m on the fence about doing it again.

 

[JTolbert]

Love all the info repliex, I especially get on board with Jim above, I trim my own, as I recently started grinding the fat and rendering for tallow. I take and slather a bit on during rest process(a trick from Goldies BBQ in texas). Also for me it's part of the fun of BBQ and smoking. I also save the beef pieces cut of i.e. the Mohawk trimmed and grind into burgers and stuff. I watched Aaron Franklin trimming video for basics

 

[kennethk]

Also for me it's part of the fun of BBQ and smoking. - 100% AGREE

 

[kennethk]

PS - Go Dawgs