PSA: My uncle told me to always cut with the grain on a brisket and I finally tried it the other way

Honestly, my uncle Frank, who ran a shop in Omaha for thirty years, drilled it into my head to always slice brisket with the grain to keep it together. I did that for my first five years behind the block. Tbh, last month I was prepping a whole packer for a customer's party and decided to try slicing against the grain on the flat, just to see. Ngl, the difference was night and day. The slices were just as neat, but when you pulled a piece, it came apart so easily and was way more tender. I served it to the customer and they called me the next day saying it was the best brisket they'd ever had. I feel a bit silly for sticking to the old rule for so long without testing it myself. Has anyone else had a similar experience with a piece of advice that turned out to be backwards for them?

3 comments

3 Comments

samb423mo ago

Man, that's wild. I had the exact same thing with resting meat. My old boss swore you only needed 10 minutes, said any longer and it would go cold. For years I served good, but sometimes chewy, steaks. Then I tried resting a big ribeye for a full half hour like @sullivan.abby mentioned doing once. The juice stayed in, it was hot all the way through, and it cut like butter. Felt like I'd been cheated out of better dinners for a decade. Some rules you just gotta break to find out they were wrong.

jones.angela20d ago

Read something the other day from a food science blog that said resting meat is basically letting the fibers relax back down, which makes total sense after that first try. @sullivan.abby is spot on about the grain thing too, I started doing that with brisket after seeing a video where a pitmaster carved it like that and it fell apart on the cutting board. Half hour rest plus cutting against the grain turned tough cheap cuts into something you'd pay restaurant prices for. Makes me wonder what other cooking myths are out there just waiting to be busted, you know?

sullivan.abby3mo ago

Yeah, that grain thing is a total game changer. I always do the initial separation of the point and flat with the grain for clean cuts, but for serving, against the grain every time. Makes those slices just melt apart when you bite into them.