Slow Cooking Beef Fat Up or Down

Fat cap up or down when smoking brisket? It'southward an interesting question, and i that everyone who has always smoked beef brisket for the first time asks. Because every story, coin, and beef brisket has ii sides. With beefiness brisket, there's a fat side and a meat side.

Smoking brisket is an art, and with any art, at that place are variations in technique. Variations that are chosen through experience of different results, and experimentation in finding what's all-time.

In this article, nosotros explore the pros and cons of smoking brisket fatty side upward or downward.

You'll learn what different pitmasters accept to say about how they place their brisket in the smoker and why, and tin can learn from their vast experience.

So, should you lot smoke your brisket with the fat side upwardly or fat side down?

Earlier answering this question, nosotros need to…

Dissever Myth from Fact

"Brisket is one nasty cut of meat. It will fight yous ferociously as y'all try to tame information technology. One time yous practise, though, it lays down like a cuddly puppy and rewards you with a big, delicious hug." — Danny Meyer, restaurateur and Shake Shack Sheik

For some cooks and pitmasters, cooking with the fat side up is the fashion to go. They say that the melting fat bastes the meat, keeping the meat moist. Others say that the fatty volition "braise" the meat and work its way through it.

Let's dispel those myths.

Scientifically speaking, fat tin't penetrate the meat. When it melts and turns into a liquid, information technology volition run off the sides and drip into your pan or smoker taking with it whatsoever rub you added earlier. It will protect the meat from drying on the side it's on, up or downwards, but not the entire brisket.

One way to prove this hypothesis is to grill a steak to your liking, slap on a slab of butter and see how much gets captivated. Information technology just melts and runs off the side, right? I residuum my case.

Another myth is that the fat too breaks down the meat as it cooks, making information technology tender and juicy.

The fact is, it'due south the collagen that breaks down tenderizing the brisket. Collagen is the connective tissue that holds the muscle fibers together. It takes long ho-hum cooking to break down the collagen.

That'south why pitmasters melt a brisket at a relatively low 225F for many hours, instead of cooking information technology at higher temperatures in one-half or less the time. The long, deadening cooking gives the collagen plenty time to suspension downwards and for the brisket to become tender.

What near braising?

Braising is a cooking technique where y'all first sear the meat then slowly simmer it in a flavored liquid in a covered pot. When smoking, the brisket is commonly on a grill grate without a pan, then there is no braising taking place. Plus, you don't braise with fatty, you lot fry with information technology. So people saying it 'braises the meat' accept information technology totally wrong.

Cooking Fatty Side Up — Pros and Cons

If you lot determine to cook your brisket fat side up, you should know that the fat acts as a heat shield protecting the beefiness.

If your estrus source is more often than not from the top, such as with many horizontal first smokers, fat side up should be the manner to get.

The unprotected bottom tin can dry out out, and so you do need to check periodically to prevent it from getting too dry out. Usually, information technology volition form a squeamish barbecue bark. Nonetheless, if it starts to become dry, yous can wrap it in paper or foil to finish the cooking time.

One professional pit master, Malcom Reed from HowToBBQRight.com, cooks his briskets fatty side up all the style, as seen in this video, except he wraps his briskets in foil about 4 hours into the cook, eliminating the problem of drying.

Pros

• Shields the meat from oestrus from the meridian
• Develops a thicker bark on the unprotected bottom
• Renders out more fat

Cons

• Washes off rub every bit information technology melts
• Slicing through the fat can create greasy slices of meat as it flows down

Cooking Fat Side Down — Pros and Cons

During my research, I found more people prefer to smoke their brisket fat side down, and here'southward why.

Probably the biggest reason is to protect the meat from burning when the heat source is below as with UDS, vertical, bullet and Kamado style smokers. These types of smokers are the vast majority of smokers used by contest and dwelling house smokers akin.

Another reason to smoke brisket fat side down is that fat doesn't absorb smoke as well as meat.

Some pitmasters employ a spray bottle of water or juice to spritz the meat occasionally. They feel that it helps with wet, simply mostly to let the smoke attach and create a better bawl.

Therefore, the fat cap should be down to allow for easier spritzing of the meat side on pinnacle. Others feel that with or without spritzing, they go a better bark formation with the meat side upwards.

Finally, some other reason to melt fatty side down is the fat does non stick to the grate every bit the meat sometimes does. If the meat sticks, it tin ruin your presentation.

Pros

• Better bark germination
• Protects the meat from bottom oestrus
• Your meat (presentation) side won't get stuck to the grill grates

Cons

• Potential to dry the meat if there is top heat

Here's a video that explains the benefits of smoking fat side downwards.

Starting One Way, Then Turning Over — Pros and Cons

The compromise to the up or downwards statement is to do both.

Some cooks prefer starting with the fat side downwardly for the first half of the melt and so flip it for the remainder of the fourth dimension. They feel information technology creates a uniform bark and allows for the spices to become into the meat.

Flipping and rotating your brisket is sometimes a expert idea if you lot know that your smoker has hotspots, or an uneven temperature gradient either from top to bottom, or side to side.

If one part of your smoker is hotter than another, the meat there will cook quicker, dry faster, and be overcooked before the meat in the cooler portion is done.

This is quite common in some offset smokers where the side facing the firebox is often hotter.

Flipping and rotating during a long cook is an splendid fashion to even out the exposure to the higher estrus and promote a more than even cook.

Also, it allows one end of the meat to rest and reabsorb the moisture while it's away from the heat, particularly in a horizontal smoker.

Pros

• Creates a more than compatible bark
• Helps create even cooking in an uneven temperature gradient cooker
• Reduces the gamble of the meat side drying out.

Cons

• If y'all cook fat side upward get-go, the meat could stick to the grill grate
• Flipping the brisket can tear the fat and release excess moisture from the meat

Using a unlike take on the flip idea, 1 enterprising melt using a vertical smoker puts his brisket fatty side downwards on the lower rack above the water pan. Then he places the trimmings on the rack to a higher place it to let the fatty melt and drip over it as it cooks. This way, he has fat on both sides retaining more moisture.

Does Your Type of Smoker Matter? In our Opinion, Yes!

In our opinion, the answer to the fat side up or downward question lies with your cooker. Understanding how the heat transfers to your brisket will be the key to how y'all'll place your brisket in the smoker.

At that place are 2 kinds of heat that your smoker produces, radiant and convection. Think about standing on a desert highway in the centre of the summer. As y'all look down the route, the paradigm shimmers and moves like a reflection on a swimming. That is convection estrus from the road surface heating the air. In your smoker, it is convection rut that carries the fume gently effectually the brisket.

Dissimilar convection estrus, radiant rut travels in a directly line, from the sun to the route (and your forehead). In the smoker, it travels in a directly line from the coals to any is in front of information technology similar your brisket, the burn down box wall, or a pan of h2o.

Many pitmasters identify their briskets so that the fat and the indicate become prepare toward the rut source. This is precisely what nosotros at FoodFireFriends do, and is what we recommend.

For whatever vertical smoker where the heat comes from the bottom such a Kamado, Weber Smokey Mountain, ProQ or UDS, y'all'll put the brisket fat side down.

For commencement smokers, the heat and smoke get directed nether the meat with a baffle before allowing to rise and circulate on acme of the meat. About of the heat volition radiate from one side and down from above.

And then in the example of horizontal smokers such as offset wood burners, pellet smokers and so on, the fatty side upwards might be the best arroyo.

And, I say "might" because with smoking, naught is written in stone. Anybody has their way of cooking from experience. I've tried to find out how various pitmasters cook their briskets.

Proposition: If you lot are using a woods fired or pellet smoker, check out our guide to the 7 best woods for smoking brisket.

Professional Pitmasters Opinion on the Fatty Upwards or Downward Give-and-take

Based on comments in videos and websites, here are what famous Pitmasters have to say when it comes to smoking brisket fatty side up or down.

Aaron Franklin — Fat side up, "the indicate towards the burn down box in an showtime smoker." You can click here to see the Franklin BBQ brisket recipe.

Ryan Heger — Fat side up — Offset smoker

Myron Mixon — Fat side down. — Water smoker — "Protects that apartment considering the oestrus's coming from the bottom. You cook briskets with fat-cap up, and y'all retrieve that two inches of damn fat is going to run downwards through the middle of the meat and come support the other side? Not unless it's a magic brisket."

Chris Marks 9x Earth Champion BBQ Expert. — Fat side down — "Fat molecules tin't work their way back into the meat. Makes greasy slices and poor presentation."

Troy 'T-Roy Cooks" Smith — Fat cap downwards "… If the estrus is coming from the lesser such equally a pellet grill."

Chris Lilly — Fat side upwards

These pitmasters mostly back up the statement that the direction of the heat has the most to do whether you cook fat up or fatty down.

Our Two Big Advice Takeaways

After researching this topic on forums and posts spanning over 15 years, I've come up with two conclusions about smoking beef brisket.

Takeaway #ane — Cook with fat cap toward the rut source. If you have a small smoker or the temperature is inconsistent, plough the brisket every couple of hours to avoid hot spots drying the brisket.

Takeaway #ii — You lot should experiment with both techniques, preferably at the same time. The right answer to smoking brisket fat side up or down is whatever works best for you, the people you're cooking for, and your smoker.

Smoking brisket is something yous'll become meliorate over time.

What are Your Thoughts?

I hope yous found this article helpful.

Please, permit united states know which side of the money — or brisket fat cap — y'all fall on in the comments beneath. Or if you have whatever thoughts or reasoning not covered above as to why you should smoke a brisket fat cap upward or down, delight do share it with us!

Happy smoking!

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Source: https://www.foodfirefriends.com/brisket-fat-side-up-or-down/

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