Batman of BBQ requested I post a pictorial on burnt ends in this thread - How Do You Make Burnt Ends. (
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=13179.0)
I will repeat part of that thread here and add photos.
Like anything else to do with brisket and barbequing, there is more than one way to come out with a good product.
Burnt Ends is really a misnomer. They are not burnt. They have an intense flavorful bark. Burnt ends are smaller hunks of brisket that have more surface area that has developed a crusty bark. Originally, burnt ends came from the trimmings of briskets. As they became more popular, burnt ends started to be made out of the point or deckle. As more burnt ends were called for, the flat was even used. If you cut a bite sized piece that is mostly bark and a little meat off of the deckle of a barbequed brisket, you are basically eating a burnt end. This is my favorite bite of the brisket.
I smoke my packer cut briskets whole. If I want burnt ends, I separate the point from the flat after the whole brisket has finished its smoke but more often I use leftovers after a brisket has been mauled and picked over. Depending on the size of the deckle or leftovers, you can cut it in to chunks or leave it whole. Put this back into the smoker and slow cook the pieces until they are almost black and have developed a good bark all around. Some people finish with sauce and let it glaze the burnt ends toward the end of the smoke. The finished product should look like a burned out meteorite.
Some cut their barbequed deckle or leftovers into many smaller "couple of bite" sized pieces to get more surface area for bark. These smaller pieces are smoked until nearly dry. These are almost always sauced out of the smoker to moisten them up. I prefer to cut the deckle into three, four or five chunks (not slices). These larger pieces retain their moisture and are eaten plain. A lot of the fat will have melted out, leaving a nice meaty burnt end. A good mop or slather will help develop a nice bark and retain moisture. The larger chunks more closely duplicate my favorite bite.
These two methods work fine but produce different products. You might want to try both out of the same deckle or leftovers. You will end up with a variety of fine eats.
A leftover and mauled piece of brisket.
Cut into chunks.
Small trimmings are gathered, packed and placed on foil.
Some Glazed with Sauce and some Slathered with Beer Mustard.
In the Bradley under some pork. They started out above the pork but needed more heat to accelerate the Maillard reaction (for more on this see
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=12455.0)
After 5 hours they look like small meteorites.
This Beer Mustard slathered piece looks dried out but
inside is a moist, tender, marbled, morsel covered in a thick bark.
The foiled packed trimmings were also moist in the middle with a nice bark outside but some pieces provided a crisp variety. These burnt ends were smoked for about five additional hours at 220 degrees in the Bradley. They were mopped three times during the process after the slather and glaze were set. Some were sweet glazed during the last hour.
Good luck and slow smoking,
Pachanga
