If you feel like you need to trim something and you are comfortable wielding a knife,  then here are the things to do. 

• Cut off the deckle– Just cut enough to be level with the brisket. No need to gouge the knife into the brisket to leave a gaping hole between the flat and the point. 
• Remove Oxidized Edges– This will be the parts of the brisket that appear gray in color because they were exposed to some oxygen. Should be a very thin cut, just to remove that color and expose the true beefy flavors. 
• Clean Up Loose Ends– Little pieces of meat of fat hanging off the brisket will burn or dry out easily. Just simply get rid of anything not attached to the body of the cut. 
• Remove other hard fat– The deckle is a hard chunk of fat That separates the flat and the point muscles of the brisket. Once you understand how that feels, look for other clumps of that on the brisket. They won’t truly get rendered enough so just discard those. 

     Aerodynamic Briskets– This is one of the biggest fables out there. The brisket isn’t getting ready for its first SpaceX mission so it absolutely doesn’t need to be Aerodynamic. If you have those knife skills and interest in a pretty brisket then go ahead, but it is by no means a necessity. In fact, if you leave the brisket untrimmed and just throw it on the smoker with some rub, you will still get smoke on every inch of that piece of meat. UTTER RUBBISH.

      ¼” Fat Cap– Whether this is a guide, or a literal thing, please get it out of your head. The truth of the matter is you don’t know how deep the fat is, or how high the meat comes up underneath it. Safest way is to not trim at all, or as little as possible. One of the worst practices I see is when guys trim the brisket to thy kingdom come, only to pour beef tallow over it to rehydrate it, after they have dried it out. Save yourself the extra step. Long live the fat cap. 

Silver Skin- Now let’s be honest. Have you ever gone to your favorite BBQ joint that pumps out 50 briskets a day? Do you think they have employees in the back trimming silver skin off briskets? Do you ever taste a piece of silver skin on a brisket? Just imagine smoking a brisket for 12 hours or more, and all that fat is perfectly rendered but a piece of silver skin remain. WOW. 

It is cute to trim up a brisket real nice, but that’s all it is. If your judges in your backyard want ro bust your chops about your fatcap, then they probably don’t need to be there. If the brisket is properly seasoned, smoked and rested and your guests have a problem with all the work you put into this gift, then you need new friends. Just sayin. Use that fat cap as a shield between the meat and the heat source, like it was intended. That is your security blanket. At the end of the day, keep the cook simple and the rewards will be greater. Time to end this brisket trimming hype that has dominated the internet for far too long. 

LIVE AND LET FAT LIVE.