Competition brisket

Pick the brisket on four criteria: size, symmetry, striation and marbling. This one is about 18 pounds. Buy the highest grade available, prime over choice.

Remove all the silver skin and fascia from the flat side, bowing the brisket over one hand to raise a hump that is easier to slice, taking it down to the protein so the rub touches meat and the bark can set.

Gently shave off all the oxidation.

Remove all the fat from the point muscle, down to the meat.

Flip it over and slowly remove the fat layer between the point and the flat, cutting into the middle of the fat without nicking the meat, then clean both sides so bark forms on both sides of the burnt ends.

Shave the point down from the less marbled side to leave a flat tabletop with the top and bottom roughly parallel, so the cooked point cuts into seven even cubes.

Trim off the piece that would sit on top of another piece in the pit, since that would cost bark.

Trim the narrow triangle and the thin edge away at about a 30 degree angle for airflow.

Round off every sharp edge with a sharp knife so nothing dries out and the smoke ring stays even.

Leave the fat cap on; it is trimmed for the box later to about an eighth of an inch of fat on the edge of each slice of the flat.

Mix the three brisket injections in a shaker with about 10 to 12 ounces of water and shake until every granule is dissolved, or it will clog the injector.

Put a little vaseline on the injector plunger and fill the injector with the cold injection.

Push the needle in at about a 30 degree angle with the grain and inject slowly while the meat swells; when it oozes, inch the needle out half an inch and inject again, then move over half an inch and repeat on a one inch grid. It cannot be over injected, since the excess oozes out.

Taste the injection for salt: about 6 percent, roughly twice as salty as ocean water, is right for a competition brisket.

Shake the rub on from eight to ten inches above the meat, one layer until the surface is opaque, gently pat it down, repeat over the same spot and pat again. Never rub a rub: pat it like a baby's bottom so the marinade is not squeezed out. Work evenly over the whole brisket, then turn it over and do the other side.

For competition, the injection goes on eight hours and the rub four hours before cooking.

Prop the low spots up with a block of wood so no liquid puddles and the crust forms everywhere, then set the brisket in the pit point toward the fire and drape it so it cannot pool.

After about seven hours a crust has formed and it is ready to wrap.

Lay out two layers of foil, lift the brisket over leaving the wood chunks behind, and form a boat in the foil.

Gently drizzle 10 ounces of room temperature beef broth over the brisket, letting each pour soak in, including the point, to rehydrate it. A bark that has set will not fall off.

Fold the foil over, roll the three edges and finish with the seam higher so it cannot leak, making an airtight papoose.

Hold it at 275 to continue cooking.

Place the knife at the fat layer and separate the point from the flat, going down at about a 30 degree angle.

Cut strips from the point and then cut them into even one inch cubes for the burnt ends, without tearing the edges; square them with scissors for clean edges.

Normally rest it five hours; place the cubes in the jus to rest.

Cut one slice from the left and one from the right of the money muscle and taste both, because the brisket does not taste the same throughout.

Do the accordion pull test on each slice for tenderness.

Bias the choice toward taste, which is weighted higher than tenderness and appearance, and start slicing the judging box from the better tasting side.

Cut pencil thick slices, seven of them, six for the judges and one for the table captain, trimming the fat layer back to about an eighth of an inch and dipping each slice in the jus to keep it warm.

Lay six slices in the box with the burnt end cubes at the end.

Optionally dust ground rub on the back side of the slices only, never the front, so the flavour pops when the judge bites into it.