Any negative to cutting brisket in half for smaller smoke?

[Tallbald]

Only my beloved spouse and I will be eating on most of the things I smoke. I'm of course still very much a newbie at smoking meats as I've explained here. I do love my much modified (detailed in my sig line) OK Joe Highland offset smoker.
Mid last fall, under the guidance of my son who got me into smoking, I bought a nice 12 pound, choice beef brisket. At $2.89 a pound on a great sale at a restaurant food service store, I was pleased to get it, and it's been in our very full freezer for several months awaiting ...."The Day" I'm brave enough to try smoking it properly.
We really do not want to have on hand 9-10 (when done?) pounds of finished smoked brisket, and I wonder if I can cut the brisket in half lengthwise for a smaller smoke. Also, should I mess up, a half is less hurtful to lose than a whole.
If it's not unheard of to cut one, could folks here teach me the correct way please?
Thanks. Don

 

[bregent]

I would consider cooking the whole thing and then freezing the leftovers. If it's not already trimmed, then you'll have considerably less than 9-10 lbs after trimming and cooking. Leftover brisket makes a great quick meal. If I were to cut, I'd probably separate the point from the flat. I wouldn't cut directly in half. You'll end up with one piece that is all flat and ruin some of the best slices.

 

[Tallbald]

I'm glad that I asked. I had to guess about the weight loss to expect on a brisket. This cut does indeed need trimming too.
I believe then that my best bet is to keep it simple with a coarse salt/coarse pepper, garlic powder(?) rub, and careful low and slow attention. Exhaust all the way open and regulate temp with firebox vent, apple juice spritzs , water pans filled and my oak and hickory wood pile chunks flaming. I believe that I will smoke naked the whole cook time having watched a bazillion videos and read threads until my eyes crossed. I want a thick smoke ring and a goodly amount of bark.
I just hate that I only have one shot at this. Even at $2.89 a pound on sale, this was an expensive cut of beef for a man like me.
Understandably, I'm watching for sales on chuck roasts too.
Thanks for your time. Don.

 

[tropics]

Don this may help you
Richie
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/separating-a-brisket.94908/

 

[Tallbald]

Excellent! I will study the link this evening. Had a delivery of split oak and hickory firewood last evening that I'm working slowly but surely to cover with a tarp. Came in for coffee and to warm up. Rain's coming tomorrow.
Oh. I'm cutting some splits into 5 inch long chunks for my cooking. Hoping the short sections will give me more versatility in fire stoking than a 12 inch split. Working too to cut a medium duty "farm grade" tarp from Harbor Freight to fit my OK Joe Highland. A hole for the stack and bungee cords. A section of capped black plastic irrigation pipe will be dropped down over the stack. Maybe tacky looking but functional and with any luck, my smoker will need to be uncovered more often than not.
Thanks again. Don.

 

[SmokinAl]

I would smoke the whole brisket in one piece.
Brisket freezes & reheats really well, especially if you have a vacuum sealer.
We slice the whole brisket & put it in vac bags with some of the pan juice & put them in the freezer until the pan juice freezes, then vacuum them up. You can reheat them in the bags in hot water, or we just nuke them.
Al

 

[tbrtt1]

I'll offer an alternative view here. When I first started smoking my smoker would not fit a whole brisket so I had to trim some off. I would look for a brisket that looked nice regardless of size and then cut off a good chunk of the flat portion. The reasoning is that I wanted to cook the flat and the point together rather than separate the flat and point. I would accumulate a few good chunks of uncooked vacuum sealed flats in the freezer and use them for various things or just smoke them later.

Now that I have acquired multiple smoking devices I can accommodate a whole packer. I cook them whole and freeze the leftovers. There are many, many things to do with leftover brisket. Just search this forum.

 

[tallbm]

Hi there and welcome!

My vote is to cook the whole packer AFTER trimming.
I think you are spot on with letting it ride and not wrapping it.
I agree with bregent that your 12 pound packer will go down to 9 pounds or less after a good proper trim, which includes cutting off a portion of the flat to what's left of the flat is about uniform thickness.

I also agree with everyone posting that you can freeze the left overs and they heat up well. Hell my brisket tastes better the next day or 2 days after I cook it and it has sat in the fridge.

If possible put the brisket on a grate and put a pan under it. Ball up any GOOD meat that was trimmed off and put it in the pan under the brisket. Let the juices braise that trimmed meat and you will either end up with super tender brisket for chopped brisket or you will end up with burnt end consistency meat. Either way is a win :D

For seasoning I'm on board with your Salt, Pepper, and Garlic. I would recommend you also just add some Onion to it as well. I SPOG my brisket and the flavor is outstanding!!!

Take to an internal temperatire (IT) of 198F or so and then start poking it all over with a toothpick. If the toothpick slides in like butter all over (flat and point) then you know it is done. I find in my setup my briskets are tender and done about 203-206'ish most of the time.

Best of luck!

 

[paulsqrd]

Hey tallbm,
Don't know if you're still following this string from January but I love your idea of trimming off some of the flat and then braising in a foil pan below the main part of the brisket.

My question is, do you foil wrap the main brisket at the stall or just ride it out until done?

 

[tallbm]

Hey tallbm,
Don't know if you're still following this string from January but I love your idea of trimming off some of the flat and then braising in a foil pan below the main part of the brisket.

My question is, do you foil wrap the main brisket at the stall or just ride it out until done?

Hi there and welcome! Yep I'm still on it :)

To answer your question, I don't wrap the brisket at all with foil. I've prefer how an unwrapped brisket comes out, it just taste all around better to me. If there is a down side to unwrapped brisket it is that you might get a patch or two of extra crusty bark that doesn't want to easily cut through with a knife. I may try and work on that some but if I give my unwrapped briskets a grade out of 100 I would give them about a 95 at the moment so fixing that occurrence is not high on my list of things to do :)

Also it would be wise to throw in a good handful of trimmed off beef fat with the meat that you throw in the foil pan that is under the brisket. I have had a number of briskets produce less drippings then others so this trick will ensure you get some fat down with that meat to help try and keep it from drying/crusting up.
Worse case just pull that meat about 3-4 hours before the whole brisket finishes and you can basically avoid it being too crusty if you are lacking in drippings :)

I also roll 100% Mesquite pellet smoke pretty much the the entire time! I find I like a minimal of 8 hours or so of mesquite on my brisket so I just roll it the entire time and WOW, mesquite smoked beef is the best in my opinion!

Best of luck on your attempt :)

 

[paulsqrd]

Thanks tallbm for the response and all the advice!

 

[tallbm]

Thanks tallbm for the response and all the advice!

Glad to help :)