Cutting Against the Grain

Yeah, it matters how you slice your meat.

Going "against or across the grain" generally implies difficulty. It means that you've made a change for a cause that requires you to make an extra effort. When it comes to beef, cutting through the grain is greatly recommended. There's no problem here. You just need to understand what you're going to do.

Typically, after cooking and relaxing, we cut a slice of meat against the grain just before eating. It's a little special when we're working on our tabasco-bricket sandwiches, though. We don't want to cook the entire brisket (because we want as much surface area to be added to our tasty braising solution). Which suggests we're going to split the brisket across the grain before we start cooking it. If we want to use to smoke for this meat, we'd cut it off after that. Don't worry, you don't have to go to find a smoker.

Whether or not you work out  I am fairly confident you don't have a muscle that's as large as the first brisket cut. So that's what the first cut of the brisket is, a single muscle (one of the two that make up the entire brisket). It's probably the largest single muscle in the animal, and because it's so tall, it's got exceptionally long muscle fibers. If you had to roast the whole thing, you'd have very long threads before you shredded it. Around six to eight inches long, which is certainly too big to accommodate a small Martin's potato bun.

It's really fairly straightforward to figure out how the grain works on a slice of raw beef. You just need to know what you're searching for. Visually, you will be able to see lines going in one direction, all the way around the brisket. They are the fibers of the muscles. When it's a little hard to say just from looking, take each end of the brisket and pull it in the opposite directions. You're going to be able to see the fibers split or spread apart from each other. Typically, the fibers run long-wise on the brisket, so it's good to keep in mind.

When you learn the direction the grain runs, it's time to make the cuts. This is why we are basically moving across, and we want to run at a perpendicular point. It doesn't have to be 90 degrees precisely. I like our slabs to be around 2 "wide, because it's simpler to shred the fibers after they've cooked.

And like I mentioned, this is not just a brisket against the grain technique. Here we are not biased. After you've mastered the brisket, using it on any slice of beef, from perfectly grilled pork chops to an mad porter's house. Oh, maybe it's not a porterhouse. Such items are costly. A sirloin is just going to be amazing.