There is no way around it, a full packer brisket has a LOT of fat.

Most backyard barbecue guys and competition teams throw their brisket trimmings into the trash and write it off as a waste.

That’s a shame so I am going to show you how to take what everyone calls a waste and turn it into Liquid Gold.

Here is what is going on….

When I trim a brisket I save all of the trimmings and cut them 1 inch cubes or just give them a solid rough chop.  The trimmings get put into a 2 gallon Ziploc freezer bag and are stored in the freezer.

After two or three briskets I will have about 6-8 pounds of fat and trimmings stored up.

At this point I break out my meat grinder and grind the fat and trimmings through a medium die.

Add the ground trimmings to a large stock pot and gently heat as the fat starts to melt.

As the fat melts all of the little bits of meat will float to the surface and form a raft.  Skim off the meat bits with a strainer (they make great doggie treats!) until nothing but clear melted fat is left behind.

This process is amazingly quick and easy.  I can render down five pounds of brisket trimmings in about 30 minutes.

I let the rendered fat cool for 15-20 minutes and then pour it through a fine mesh strainer into a 2 quart Pyrex container.

What you now have is a big vat of beef tallow.

You can either put it to use right away or store it in the refrigerator (it freezes for months).

So…what can you do with beef tallow?

One classic use of beef tallow is to employ it in a confit cooking process.  Here is how it works.

I seasoned a three pound brisket flat and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight along with the beef tallow.

The brisket was placed in a Dutch oven along with some aromatics (one medium sliced onion, one head of garlic and three stalks of celery).

I melted the tallow in the microwave and then poured the tallow into the Dutch oven to completely immerse the brisket

I stuck a lid on this guy and placed it into a 275F oven for 3 hours until the brisket reached an internal temperature of 205F.  I took the brisket out of the tallow and let it cool for a while before slicing it up.

Of course this didn’t taste like a traditional low and slow smoked brisket.

It did taste like a serious piece of beef that had been slow roasted immersed in beef tallow with aromatics.  This ain’t our Momma’s pot roast!

We tore this guy up pretty fast but I did mange to save a few slices to use in a brisket slider 🙂

So that is one reason to not throw away your brisket fat 🙂

I’ll share more ways to put this stuff to use later!