06/08/2026
Trimmed vs untrimmed brisket
Not a lab experiment. Me trying to see if cooking an untrimmed brisket would change my mind about trimming.
It didn't but it did open my mind a bit.
I set this one up the easiest way I could to answer that question. There were limitations, for sure. I cooked both hot and fast and hotter temps favor trimmed briskets.
I also only foil boated the trimmed one. Was planning to boat both, but by the time I would've wrapped the untrimmed brisket, the sections I was unhappy with were already overcooked and working it into a boat didn't seem like it would meaningfully change the outcome, so I skipped that step.
Here’s what I learned.
I still prefer a trimmed brisket. It cooks more evenly, slices cleaner, and my yield data suggests once tallow, burger, sausage, and cook yield are accounted for, I actually end up with more eatable meat (that data cut lives on Really Good).
That said, this cook got me more curious about diving in to the trimming sweet spot to see how much trimming actually matter. Where does the return on trimming start to drop off?
Give us a follow cause next time I'd love to compare an aggressive trim, a light trim, and no trim under identical conditions.
My hunch is the gap closes under a slower cook and that a light trim may end up being the sweet spot for people who aren't trying to make burger or sausage.
You should tho, sausage rocks.
Eat B.B.Q. Live Forever
