I've tried sending this question to Jeff without success so this seems like the next best place to try. In Jeff's recipe for dry aged brisket he doesn't cover what I think is a very important question. As anyone who dry ages meat will know, when you dry age, the meat becomes, you guessed it, dry on the outside. In fact, depending on how long you age it, the outside can look and feel like a piece of jerky. Now think about trying to dry brine and then rub your brisket before you smoke it. Doesn't seem to me that it will be able to absorb the salt/rub unless you trim it first. With a rib roast, you cut into steaks first then trim the outside tough jerky like exterior off before you cook it. Those trimmings by the way, when added to a chuck/brisket/short rib grind will make the best burger you have ever had, but I don't want to get side tracked. With a brisket, trimming the tough outer layer of dry meat off will not leave much meat because it is so thin. So is there anyone here who has dry aged a brisket for smoking? If so, how did you then go about dry brining and or rubbing to season before smoking? I'm thinking the way to do a brisket is to dry brine, then when the salt begins to pull the moisture to the surface, put on the rub and wrap it up for a day. Then put it into your dry age fridge. One of the reasons to dry age is to remove some of the moisture which will concentrate the flavors. The other reason is to begin to change the flavor profile when you get past 28 days. With a brisket I think ageing for 1-3 weeks would be enough to dry the moisture content without making the outside too dry. Also when smoking you can mop it to re hydrate the exterior. I'm looking for any input before I give it a try.