This Brisket Cooking Tip Will Take Your July 4th BBQ To A Whole Other Level

If you've splurged on a beautiful brisket for your Independence Day fiesta, you may have concerns about how to deliver a gorgeous meal for your friends and family. You know that attempting to grill brisket instead of using a smoker might be a major mistake, and you've researched the best smoker temperature for brisket. You might be sick of seeing the word "brisket" at this point, but one debate doesn't have a clear answer — should you cook this expensive cut fat side up or fat side down? There are convincing cases to be made in either direction, but we say ... do both.

This unconventional take (starting with the brisket fat side down and flipping it) was championed by expert Robbie Shoults of Marshall Mercantile, High Horse 1898, and Bear Creek Smokehouse, who spoke to our sister site Tasting Table. Shoults acknowledges that starting fat side down is the right move — "Smoking a brisket fat-side down is really about managing heat more than building flavor. That fat cap acts like a shield, helping protect the meat from direct heat so the bark develops steady instead of getting scorched early," he says. 

Shoults then proposes that you flip the brisket over late in the cooking process to secure the benefits of fat side-up cooking. "Flipping after several hours can help even out the cook if one side is taking more heat," he notes. Basically, if you time things right, you can achieve that vaunted bark on both sides of the brisket by finishing it fat side up on blistering hot heat.

On a Reddit thread dedicated to smoking brisket, dozens of comments argued over what side of the brisket ought to face up or down, with numerous commentators staking their claim in either camp. Some Redditors took a more nuanced view and suggested that the debate doesn't have one correct answer, meaning that the best solution actually depends on the type of smoker you're using and other intricacies of your technique and cooking environment. 

Honestly, we think the wide array of opinions on this topic justifies our take that a mixed approach is the answer. When you start brisket with the fat side down, you benefit from the fat insulating the meat and allowing the Maillard reaction to do its beautiful work on the lean side. Given how long it takes to smoke brisket (hint: a long time), there's plenty of time to cook fat side down and get that desired bark while still reserving an opportunity to flip the beast over and even up the texture on the other side.

One small note: those in favor of smoking brisket fat side up will sometimes claim that doing so braises the meat, allowing the topmost fat cap to render its juices down into the muscle fibers. This isn't actually true, since fat can't really baste the meat due to moisture in the cut repelling the oily fat. You might be tempted to change up your process based on that hoary cooking myth, but don't be fooled. There are certain benefits to keeping the meat fat side up for part of the cook (the latter part, as we see it), but extra moisture isn't one of them.

Static Media owns and operates Foodie and Tasting Table.