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How to Separate Brisket Point and Flat

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By Dylan Clay
November 27, 2024

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

packer brisket meat side

2. Remove a Majority of the Deckle Fat

Take your 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.

removing the deckle fat from the brisket

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

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

follow the fat seam that separates the brisket muscles

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

cutting more into the fat seam

With your non-knife hand, you can take the flat and use it as leverage and 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:

pull the brisket flat with your non-knife hand to create leverage

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.

follow the fat seam until the muscles are separated

Here’s these two muscles entirely separated:

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

brisket point and flat separated from one another

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