Left Hand Brisket

[thirdeye]

I know this subject comes up from time to time, and now I've got a friendly bar bet with one of the regulars at my favorite watering hole. So I wanted to run this by any Brisketeers for some input.

If you have not heard this bedtime story, here it is....It is generally accepted that steers lay on their left side more than on their right side. This means that they use their right leg to push up with more often than their left leg, which means that the right brisket gets more of a workout than the left brisket, and should be tougher.

In the earliest postings I recall about selecting a left hand brisket the rule was "On a left hand brisket, with the fat side down, the point will curve toward the right". This has been repeated very often. My question has always been "Do you hold the point close to your body or 180°, away from your body?"

My buddy e-mailed me this picture of a right side of beef.



Here is one of my photo's of a brisket with an arrow following the point. If I am looking at this correctly, this one appears to be a right brisket. What-do-you-think??

[Q_Egg]

.... I heard a similar discourse recently and find your post insteresting. Hopefully some of our expert butcher-Brethren will have very definite guidance on this. Even if the difference is subtle, I still want to know which brisket I am looking at when I buy it.

[jgh1204]

I always thought a left handed brisket was like a left handed monkey wrench.

[bbqjoe]

That's an awfully interesting theory. Iv'r never heard of it, but it might be true.
I've often thought of jacking with the meat suppliers and telling them I only wanted left side ribs.

[Wine & Swine]

We had this conversation with Paul Kirk yesterday. He said he believed it in theory as animals lay on the opposite side of their hearts, but he had never sought out left handed briskets.

[JimT]

We need more information here, and only a butcher will help. When you cut the brisket out of the carcass, is the fat cap on the "outside" or the "inside"?

I'm sooooo confused!

[bbqjoe]

Originally Posted by JimT

We need more information here, and only a butcher will help. When you cut the brisket out of the carcass, is the fat cap on the "outside" or the "inside"?

I'm sooooo confused!

Judging by the photo I'd say it's on the outside

[tjus77]

I was a butcher's apprentice in HS and early college and that theory was going around then.... when brisket was .29/lb. My boss thought it was a bunch of crap. I cooked many a brisket in HS working for a BBQ rest. and cut all most as many, don't ever remembering one brisket pointing one way or the other being more tender.

Considering the only true method to test the theory would be to take the brisket off of a number of cattle and see which side is more tender on the lot of them. I think truely it would be a waste of time. But like the man said, this is like politics........

[bbqjoe]

I just got off the phone with my local butcher friend.
He says he has never heard of this theory, but it probably has little merit, and also the way we cook and slice briskets he doubts if any difference could be detected.

[thirdeye]

Here is the first post back in 2001 on Ray Basso's forum about lefties.

Posted by "Shingleman" on The BBQ Forum, July 18, 2001:

A few years back at the Texas State Finals, lovingly known as the "Meridian", several of us early birds would arrive on Thursday to get in line for the first-come, first-serve pick of the best cook sites. Thursday night was devoted to serious drinking, hoping to pry secret tips out of other cooks.
One of the better cooks there was ole Connie Baker of team "Lil' Pit of Heaven". He was throwing back quite a few of those Mexican beers with a chunk of lime stuck in the neck of the bottle. Connie had so many of them limeade beers that he was starting to smile with a pucker. As a matter of fact, some of the strangers started to scook away and look at him kind of funny. This was when I figured that ole Connie was ripe for the prying of secrets.
One of us asked him how come his brisket was so tender and always placed in the top three. I thought to myself, boy oh boy, if loose lips sink ships, then Ole Connie is going down tonight. All got quiet as he stuffed another lime in a long neck and said that he only cooks left-handed briskets.
He explained that most, but not all, steers rest on their left side, which means when they get up they have to push harder with their right legs.
At this point about half of the bunch murmured something to the effect of "bull hockey" and went back to their 4 or 5 different conversations.
A few of us noticed that ole Connie wasn't smirking. Hmm, was he onto something? Two or three of us moved closer and I told him, "You can't stop there. What does pushing up with their right legs have to do with the left brisket?"
Ole Connie stuffed another lime and told us that when they push up with the right legs it flexes the right brisket muscle more so than the left. Therefore, the right-handed brisket will be tougher and less marbled than the left, not always, but usually. Most everyone had written Connie off as a bull sheeter and was not paying much attention to me and Connie. I had to know more and asked him, "How the heck do you tell a left-handed brisket from the right?"
As expected he stuffed another lime and I mixed another Makers. He then told me that with the fat side down, on a left-handed brisket, the point will curve to the right.
Saturday awards time rolled around and Connie took 1st brisket and Grand Champ over 180+ of the best cooks in Texas. His next stop was gonna be the American Royal.
I think that I came in 19th with my right-handed brisket. I just could not get this left-handed brisket thing off my mind. When we got home Sunday afternoon I stopped to look at the cows. Four were laying down and three were on their left side.
Welp, I have been raising a few head of cattle for 24 years and this got me to thinking about what ole Connie had spilled out to us that night. I phoned the kin folk in LaGrange, Texas and told them the story and asked if they would check out their herd. Yep, you guessed it--only 3 out of 37 consistently rested on their right side.
Dangnation, Connie has got it going big time. I went to 5 different grocery stores and flexed briskets to see which sides were more limber and which ones were more marbled.
I have found that there are exceptions to every rule. There are some right-handed briskets that are more limber and marbled than the lefties, but for the most part I find that the majority of the best pick comes from the left-handed pile of briskets.
Another exception to the rule is that you can find a Prime Grade quality brisket that is marked Select and a Select grade marked Choice.
My rule of thumb is flexibility and marbling. Evenness on the flat end is a plus. I'm going to inspect the lefties before I move on to the right-handed ones.
Welp, there it is folks. Take it or leave it. As Jack used to say in the 1950's Dragnet TV detective show, "Only the facts, mame".
- Shingleman

[ThomEmery]

I have always gone with the briskets from a Democratic Cow
The Republican ones are tougher

[jgh1204]

Those Democratic briskets have little substance and cost too much!

[BBQchef33]

we have our OWN page outside on the website about that story..

doa searc for "handed brisket" and a few threads show up.. one of them is a "left handed ribs' thread.

i think the picture is a righ handed becase that looks like the trimmed inside. The fatcap should be on the outside i think.

But then again, I may be tawkin out of my arse and not know it.

[MilitantSquatter]

If the whole pushing off one leg theory makes any difference, it is extremely minimal ... This would give little credit to the massive amount of work being done equally by both sides to support the animal while it walked or stood still...

This could be likened to a US mail carrier in a metropilitan area whose only form of exercise is the massive amount of walking and stepping done all day whose both legs bare an equal burden and then saying that whenever he gets out of a chair at home he only pushes off one leg... That one leg cannot be dramatically stronger from that one event that makes up a tiny % of the overall work throughout an entire day.

[BBQchef33]

IMO,

since the article is pretty old, alot of peope been thinking WAYYYY to much.. cook any brisket properly, its gonna be tender.

The whole concept says the left side is the weaker, so its more tender.

So from now on, i am going to buy the right side briskets from weak cows. Its probably more tender than the left side of a strong cow... make sense.

awww hell.. i want center cut hot dogs too. :)