By Alice K. Thompson for Food Network Kitchen

Alice is a contributing writer and editor at Food Network.

A good beef brisket is a one-of-a-kind meal. Whether it’s for a Jewish holiday celebration, a special taco night or for legendary sandwiches piled high with juicy meat, brisket is bound to be memorable. But just as important as long, slow cooking is one final step that shouldn’t be overlooked: Proper slicing. Cutting your brisket correctly is easy to master and is key to the tender, melt-in-your mouth results every cook dreams of. Here’s your guide to perfect slicing.

How to Trim a Brisket

Trimming brisket before cooking is easy and will give you improved results. Your butcher may have already done most of the work for you, but if not it should take just a few minutes to clean the brisket up. Here’s how.

Step 1: Trim the fat cap. While the white veins of fat running through the interior of the meat, known as marbling, are key to tender brisket, excess fat on the surface, known as the fat cap, should be trimmed. Start with the meat cold so the thick fat is denser and easier to work with. Angle your knife horizontally and begin gently sawing the fat from the surface of the meat, removing it in strips.

Step 2: Leave a thin layer. A visible layer of fat helps keep the brisket moist during cooking, but excess can make the finished dish unpleasantly fatty. For smoking or oven-roasting, you may want to leave anywhere between 1/4 to 1/3 of an inch of fat unless your recipe directs otherwise, while for braising you’ll want less than a 1/4 inch.

Step 3: Remove any silver skin. Connective tissue known as silver skin can toughen during cooking, so if your butcher hasn’t already removed it you’ll want to do so. Look for any thin white or bluish membrane on the surface of the meat. Slide the tip of your knife just under the membrane and grasp the end of it with your fingertips (if it’s slippery, cover your fingertips with a paper towel to help you get a better hold on it). Begin gently sawing across the surface of the meat to remove the silver skin in strips.

How to Cut a Brisket

The most important step in slicing cooked brisket is to cut thinly across the grain. Meat is made up of long muscle fibers, and the grain of the meat is how these fibers align. For tender brisket you’ll need to slice across the fibers; if you slice with the grain you’ll have stringy, chewy meat. Here’s your step-by-step for excellent slices.

Step 1: Rest the meat. Cooling the meat slightly and letting it redistribute its juices is important. The longer you rest it (including overnight in the fridge in its braising liquid if possible) the easier it will be to get even slices, but at least 20 minutes is good.

Step 2: Find the grain. Look for the meat’s muscle fibers, then turn the meat 90 degrees to slice across them. A whole brisket is actually made up of two separate muscles, the thinner flat cut and the thicker point cut, and these have fibers that run in two different directions. If you have a whole brisket (10 to 16 pounds) it’s best to separate the meat into two parts first; cut it at the juncture where it becomes noticeably thicker.

Step 3: Slice thinly. Choose a sharp slicing knife and first trim away any unwanted fat. Then hold the knife at a slight angle and use a gentle sawing motion, slicing the meat across the grain. Aim for slices between 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch thick.

Step 4: Reheat if necessary. If you’ve rested the meat several hours or overnight, reheat it gently, preferably in its braising liquid. You can do this on the stovetop or in a 275-degree-F oven. Once it’s hot, you’re ready to serve!

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