How To Cut A Brisket | Oklahoma Joe's Smokers & BBQs

To split the brisket into the point and flat takes a sharp knife and a little practice.

Print How-Tos > How to separate a brisket point and flat

How to separate

First, identify where the point and flat are on the brisket. Place the whole brisket with the fattier side down on a table. The flat will be laying on top of the point and you will see a fat seam where the two come together.
That fat seam is called “the nose”, and that’s where you want to start separating the two. Start by cutting downwards into that fat seam as shown by the scored mark below.
Follow the fat seam as it curves back and under the flat.
Keep lifting the flat with your non-cutting hand and slicing through the fat seam until the point tapers out. At that point, you can slice through the thin point meat to fully separate the two.
Now trim off the exterior fat from the point and you will end up two cuts that look like this. The flat is on the left and the point is on the right.
You can save the flat to smoke later or smoke it at the same time as the point.