Separating Brisket Point and Flat: A How-to Guide, with Pictures!

1. Have the brisket oriented so that the meat side is facing up and the fat cap is facing down.

2. Remove a Majority of the Deckle Fat

Simply take your sharp knife and glide it under the deckle fat – ensure you’re cutting away from your other hand.

Depending on the packer brisket you bought, some will have less deckle fat than others.

This large chunk of fat covers the fat seam you’ll be following so it’s necessary to remove it.

3. With your sharp knife, start by drawing a line in the middle of the fat seam

You’re essentially outlining where you’ll be slicing the meat.

As you slice more and more into this fat seam, you’ll start to separate the muscles.

With your non-knife hand, you can take the flat and use it as leverage and physically pull it away from the point; The muscles will naturally want to tear away as you slowly slice into the seam.

The weight of the flat, combined with the leverage of your pulling motion will show you where to slice.

It’s essentially at this concavity:

You’re making slow and controlled slices – when doing so, you’ll audibly hear the fat seam tearing.

Continue following the fat seam until both muscles are entirely separated.

Here’s these two muscles entirely separated:

The flat muscle is to the left, and the point muscle is to the right.