Re:Brisket, how many days in the bag?

Are you going to age a whole brisket (packer trim) with flat and deckle (point)? How are you planning to cook it afterwards?

I usually smoke my briskets, although I have braised them before in a crock pot. I’d think that you wouldn’t have to trim the fat cap before smoking because it’s going to largly drip off anyway. I would trim if I were going to braise it, just because there’s no place for the fat to go but in the pot, and it’s WAY too much fat if you don’t trim it.

I can’t often find whole packer trim briskets around here with a thick flat. Most of them taper off to a thin slab maybe an 3/4 inch thick. I’d be afraid that would just dry up completely during aging. I like the flat to be no less than two inches thick. But I can only find those in specialty grocery or meat stores, and generally at a very high price per pound. But if I were going to age one, that’s the route I’d go. Central Market has some very nice, two to three inch thick brisket flats.