Wagyu Chilean Beef Whole Point End Brisket | ±5kg

Chilean Wagyu Point End Brisket - Smoke or Braise

±5kg. Serves 12 to 15. A whole day's cooking. Start the night before.

1. Fresh or frozen
Check your pack. If it is chilled, keep it at 0-4°C in its unopened vacuum pack and cook by the date on the label. If it is frozen, thaw it in the fridge in its pack, allowing 46 to 48 hours. A piece this size needs two full days. Plan for it.

2. Trim, but not much
The point end is the fattier half of the brisket and that fat is what carries it through a long cook. Take the hard, waxy fat off the outside and leave a layer of around 1cm everywhere else. Remove nothing from the seam of fat running through the middle.

3. Season the night before
Coarse salt and cracked black pepper in equal parts, heavily, on every surface. Nothing else is needed. Leave it uncovered on a tray in the fridge overnight.

Method A - Smoked (10 to 14 hours)

4. Hold the barbecue at 110 to 120°C with indirect heat. Oak, beech or fruit wood all suit it. Set the brisket fat side up.

5. Smoke until the bark is deep and set, around 6 hours. The internal temperature will stall somewhere around 70°C and sit there for hours. This is normal and you cannot rush it.

6. Wrap it tightly in butcher paper or foil and return it until the centre reaches 95 to 96°C. A probe should slide in with no resistance at all. Temperature is a guide here, feel is the test.

7. Rest wrapped, in a cool oven or a cold box, for at least 2 hours. Do not skip this. A brisket carved straight off the heat loses everything it spent the day gaining.

Method B - Braised (6 to 7 hours, in the oven)

4. Brown the brisket hard on all sides in a large casserole, then lift it out and cook onions, carrots and garlic in the rendered fat.

5. Return the meat. Add stock, wine, or a dark beer to come halfway up. Bring it to a bare tremble, never a boil.

6. Cover and cook at 140°C for 6 to 7 hours, turning once. It is ready when a fork twists in the meat with no resistance.

7. Rest 30 minutes off the heat. Better still, cook it a day ahead and lift the set fat from the surface before reheating.

Carving. The grain in the point runs differently from the flat. Find it on each section and slice across it, about the thickness of a pencil. Slice only what you are serving, and leave the rest whole so it stays moist.

If fresh
Keep refrigerated at 0-4°C in its unopened vacuum pack and use by the date on the label. You can freeze it unopened at any point up to that date - at -18°C or below it will keep well for up to 12 months.

If frozen
Keep frozen at -18°C until needed. Use by the date on the pack.
Defrost in the fridge, in its packaging, allow 46-48 hours. Never defrost at room temperature or in a microwave.
Once opened or defrosted, keep refrigerated at 0-4°C and use within 24 hours. Do not refreeze once thawed.
A faint metallic smell on first opening the pack is normal for vacuum-packed beef and will disperse within a few minutes in open air.