They both are. Malcom does both backyard and competition videos, and there is more than one 'right way' when cooking barbecue.
The way I was taught, which was long before the internet, was to smoke a whole brisket until the flat was tender, then separate the point. The flat goes into a hot box to rest but the whole point is returned to the pit for a couple of hours, then cut into pieces which are re-seasoned and if sauce is used, a pan of saucy burnt ends goes back on the pit so the sauce can cook down and get sticky. If sauce is not used when finishing, it's served at the table. In Kansas City and the Hill Country in Texas, burnt ends started off as being cutting table scraps, but later because they were so popular, the point was used. This is what traditional burnt ends look like.
These have been sauced and cooked down
The cubes came about mostly from competition barbecue because uniformity is a big deal in the appearance part of judging. In the last 10 or 15 years some restaurants have switched to using cubes too, I'm guessing due to the barbecue shows and internet cooks making cubes. Here is a practice turn-in box from last year, you can imagine it would look pretty sloppy if I threw in some traditional burnt ends.
The way I was taught, which was long before the internet, was to smoke a whole brisket until the flat was tender, then separate the point. The flat goes into a hot box to rest but the whole point is returned to the pit for a couple of hours, then cut into pieces which are re-seasoned and if sauce is used, a pan of saucy burnt ends goes back on the pit so the sauce can cook down and get sticky. If sauce is not used when finishing, it's served at the table. In Kansas City and the Hill Country in Texas, burnt ends started off as being cutting table scraps, but later because they were so popular, the point was used. This is what traditional burnt ends look like.
These have been sauced and cooked down
The cubes came about mostly from competition barbecue because uniformity is a big deal in the appearance part of judging. In the last 10 or 15 years some restaurants have switched to using cubes too, I'm guessing due to the barbecue shows and internet cooks making cubes. Here is a practice turn-in box from last year, you can imagine it would look pretty sloppy if I threw in some traditional burnt ends.
