Met a pitmaster in Lockhart who changed how I trim brisket

I was down at Smitty's Market in Lockhart last spring watching this older guy prep a load of briskets. He told me to stop being so precious about fat cap thickness and just feel for the soft spots with my hand. Has anyone else run into a pitmaster who gave them advice that flew in the face of everything they read online?

2 comments

2 Comments

william_carter26d ago

Man, I feel like all those YouTube videos are making me overthink everything... I once spent 45 minutes on a single brisket trim trying to get it picture perfect, and then my smoker ran out of fuel halfway through the cook. That pitmaster's advice about feeling for soft spots hits different, especially coming from someone who's probably trimmed a thousand briskets with nothing but a knife and a gut feeling. The whole "each brisket has its own personality" thing is so true, and here I am trying to treat them all like they're the same slab of meat from the same cow. I'm starting to think the best trim job is the one where you don't stress yourself into a bad mood before the smoke even starts.

fisher.adam26d ago

The thing nobody talks about is how much the meat itself varies from pack to pack. I've trimmed briskets where the fat cap felt like rubber and others where it was almost creamy. That pitmaster in Lockhart probably learned by making mistakes on a hundred different cows, not from some YouTube video filmed in a climate controlled kitchen. Maybe it's just me but I swear the grade of the brisket matters more than any trimming technique. A Prime grade from one ranch can behave totally different than a Choice from another. So his advice about feeling for soft spots makes sense because each brisket has its own personality.