When we’re doing a smoked brisket for a holiday such as Christmas, we’ll spring for Snake River Farm’s Wagyu grade beef brisket. (Our experience at local butcher shops is that prime grade is sold at a significantly higher premium when compared to Sam’s or Costco.) You can get them at your local butcher as well. You can easily get prime brisket at Sam’s Club or Costco.

One of those muscles is the flat or lean part of any brisket, and the other side is the point, which is where you get the beef for your chopped beef brisket sandwiches (because it is so tender and full of flavor due to the high degree of marbling). The reason we do not choose Select or Choice is because of the lesser degree of marbling running throughout the 2 muscles that make up a packer brisket. Fat flavors the beef as it melts and offers more forgiveness for beginners experimenting with smoking at these higher temperatures. Our favorites are Prime and Wagyu due to the extra marbling and we prefer these higher grades when cooking a brisket at 250°.Ī great way to ensure good results every time is to pay the extra money for a Prime or Wagyu brisket which contains finer and more richly distributed ribbons of fat. All grades can be cooked at 250° but the higher grades tend to be more forgiving at high temperatures. You have options of Choice, Select, Prime, and Wagyu when it comes to your full brisket. You know how your parents always told you that getting the best grades in grade school would give you the best chance of getting into a great college and getting an awesome job? Well, grades can matter equally as much when it comes to setting yourself up for success in smoking your brisket.

Flat cap brisket