Kansas City Style Burnt Ends by Meat Church
There is a lot of cloudy history on original BBQ recipes because the cooking style is so old, appeared in so many places at once and pioneered by so many traditionally overlooked people. Culinary historians can probably spend half their lives tracking down archaic recipe records and word of mouth stories contesting original cooking techniques. But when it comes to burnt ends, the history is pretty clear, as Matt Pittman of Meat Church can attest here:
“Brisket burnt ends are the holy grail of BBQ in my opinion. Arthur Bryant’s in Kansas City originated this amazing BBQ treat and we are happy to show you our take on it.”
Ingredients for Cooking Kansas City Style Burnt Ends
- 1 full packer brisket at least choice grade or higher
- Meat Church Holy Cow BBQ Rub (sub Holy Gospel)
- Meat Mitch WHOMP BBQ Sauce
- ½ disposable aluminum steam pan
- Instant Read Thermometer
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Primary preparation
Prepare your smoker at a temperature of 275°. You should probably use a heavier smoking wood for this cook such as oak, hickory, mesquite or pecan.
Butchering the Brisket
Trim the excess fat and silver skin from the brisket. Also, remove any “hard” pieces of fat as they will not render off during the cooking process. Trim the fat off the bottom of the brisket leaving only ¼ in (6 mm) fat. Here’s Matt’s step-by-step video on how to correctly trim a brisket.
A brisket is comprised of two muscles; the point (the fat end) and the flat (the lean end). In order to be able to cook brisket burnt ends you need to butcher the brisket a bit more than you would for a traditional packer. Therefore, after your traditional brisket butchering, you need to start to separate the flat from the point. In short, you want to remove the fat layer between the point and the flat. Using a sharp boning knife expose the point meat so it can absorb smoke. You don’t have to completely separate the muscles.
After you season the meat with a good amount of either Holy Cow by itself or mixed 2:1 with Meat Church Holy Cow rub, you can set it aside for at least 30 minutes to an hour to allow it to condition it. If you have extra time, use all of it for the seasoning session while keeping the meat in the refrigerator. Matt says sometimes he let’s the seasoning session go all night.
Smoke the brisket meat side up and then check on it every 30 minutes. Even at these low temperatures, the meat can begin to dry out and ruin the texture that’s so important for Kansas City Style burnt ends. Matt uses apple cider vinegar through a food-grade spray bottle if he notices it getting dry.
Brisket needs to reach an internal temperature of 175°F, so after a few hours, check this in several spots of the meat with an instant-read thermometer. Once up to temp, wrap the brisket in non-waxed butcher paper or aluminum foil, and keep cooking.
For smoking instructions and finishing the cook, jump over to the Meat Church site to get the details!
