With the clocks going forward and the weather beginning to get warmer in the UK, we turn our sights to hosting parties and barbeques. It’s never too early to start planning what to serve. When it comes to choosing a meat cut for the centrepiece of your events this summer, there’s so much variety it can be hard to choose. In this post we delve into brisket, analysing the cut and its qualities once it has been cooked.

Beef brisket is a cut of meat taken from the lower chest of the cow between the two shoulders. It is one of the nine primal cuts and as a result, it is a large meat cut made up of the point and flat. The former is fattier while the latter is leaner and contains more muscle tissue. As a whole, brisket is a tough beef cut that requires cooking for long periods of time to become tender and flavour.

Brisket can be an intimidating cut for regular home cooks who aren’t experienced with open fire cooking. This is because brisket has gained a reputation over the years as a meat cut that is exclusively for the BBQ. However, there are many reasons why brisket can be considered a great cut for a range of occasions.

• Flavour – when cooked to perfection, brisket has a rich beefy flavour that is multi-layered. It pairs well with vinegary side dishes that can cut through the richness.
• Texture – although brisket is a cut that contains a large amount of collagen, this breaks down during the long cooking process. The result is meat that falls apart on the fork and melts in the mouth.
• Cost – brisket is an affordable cut of meat, especially when compared to other beef cuts of roughly equal size.
• Labour – as mentioned before, beef brisket is ideal for low and slow cooking. This means you can start the meat early and get on with other tasks you have throughout the day. There’s no need to unwrap the butcher’s paper it’s being cooked in, the only thing you might want to do is check the internal temperature of the brisket with a meat thermometer.

Looking for tips on how to cook brisket? Head over to our BBQ Brisket recipe.

Shop for beef brisket UK

You can buy brisket online from The Village Butchers, meaning there’s no need to worry about transporting this large cut of meat back to your home. Our briskets come pre-chilled and packaged, ready for simple storage in the freezer. Brisket is a meat cut that produces fantastic results when cooked with care. That being said, you can get an extra edge with the quality we guarantee in all our beef cuts. Get in touch if you have any questions.