Bought a brisket asked for a small one. Well I ended up with 19 pounds. Will it be ok to cut it in half and freeze half? Thanks

You can cut it into 3 pieces.

It would take a big party or a barbecue restaurant to cook and eat a whole one.

You might stroll down the isle where the local grocery store displays its brisket to get an idea of how to cut yours.

I do it with roasts all the time since I'm single. I would suggest vacuum sealing what you don't cook. It will last 10x longer in the freezer. Ain't nothing worse than putting something in the freezer and forgetting it's there.

I would suggest vacuum sealing what you don't cook.

This is great advice. I generally smoke a whole brisket. I then vacuum seal and freeze what we don't use right away. It's nice to pull out later when you don't have 12 hours to smoke it.

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If it's a full "packer" brisket...no. Now if you trim it out you could possibly cut each of the resulting pieces in half.

Briskets are really a bit complicated. There's actually three distinct types of meat ranging from lean to less lean in the "flat" and then the even fattier point. If you got to youtube and search for "trimming brisket" you'll see what I mean.

Trimming it will help a lot across the board, both cooking it and storing it.

We bought one about the same size a week ago. My wife cut it into 4 pieces, froze 3 and cooked the 4th.

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USAF 1981 - 2001

I also am single and live by my vacuum sealer and chest freezer. I just roasted a portion of pork loin that I cut up, vacuum sealed and froze in January. It was as good a fresh with absolutely no freezer burn. I do the same with all meats when I can catch them on sale.

Won't last in the freezer more than two days. Pack with dry ice and overnight to me and I'll be happy to help with your problem.

What part of the steer IS the brisket? I've seen these on those cook-offs on TV but never knew what part of the animal it is.

The brisket comes from the chest of the cow.

mmmmmmm burnt ends

The competition BBQ guys believe the left brisket is better than the right brisket. If you look at a pile of briskets you'll notice they are mirror images of each other.

Other brisket trivia....corned beef is a brisket. If you smoke a corned beef you get pastrami.

19 pounds is a small one-you got what you asked for, I think.

It would be exceedingly rare for me to want to trim a brisket, let alone cut it up. The grain of the brisket runs in three different directions and unless you study up on it a bit you’ll turn two of those sections into tough roasts. One of those sections has a fat cap that the others don’t, and that cap is very important to proper cooking.

But if you need to, try to cut it lengthwise-ish so that you retain some of the cap for both pieces.

Absolutely no problem freezing brisket. I've got a 12-pounder in my freezer right now just waiting for me to start up the smoker. If it's a whole brisket then you can cut it into two or three parts - the basic two parts being the "round" and the "flat", so keep than in mind when selecting where to make your cut(s).

And No, there is no such thing as "too much brisket"!

I would just section the three muscle groups into smaller roast.
Freeze one and brine the third for jerky.

That reminds me..........

I made Beef Jerky out of a five pound London Broil last night
for the wife and I.
Did her "Regular" no heat and mine with some heat and cracked pepper
and a third "Spicy" for the kids.

Filled five 16 oz. Planters peanut jars to the brim.
Sorry no pictures, got side tracked.