The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving and brisket fun facts. Because of this, as we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know.

We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know we will look at brisket fun facts.

Brisket Fun Facts: Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the nine beef prime cuts. The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectorals. As cattle do not have collar bones, these muscles support about 60% of the body weight of standing/moving cattle. This requires a significant amount of connective tissue, so the resulting meat must be cooked correctly to tenderize the connective tissue.

• May 28 is National Brisket Day.
• Brisket can be cooked many ways. Slow and moist cooking methods are the most common.
• Popular methods in the Southern United States include rubbing with a spice rub. Then cooking slowly over indirect heat from charcoal or wood.
• The fat cap often left attached to the brisket to help keep the meat from over-drying during the prolonged cooking necessary to break down the connective tissue in the meat. Water is necessary for the conversion of collagen to gelatin.
• A hardwood, such as oak, pecan, hickory, or mesquite, is sometimes added, alone or in combination with other hardwoods, to the main heat source. Sometimes, they make up all of the heat source, with chefs often prizing characteristics of certain woods. The smoke from these woods and from burnt dripping juices further enhances the flavor.
• Smoked brisket done this way is most popular in Texas barbecue.
• Once finished, pieces of brisket can be returned to the smoker to make burnt ends. Burnt ends are most popular in Kansas City-style barbecue, where they are traditionally served open-faced on white bread.
• In Mexican cuisine, brisket is known as suadero. It is commonly slowly cooked in a circular pan in taco stands all over the country.
• Cows are not native to America. Meat cows were brought over by the Spanish settlers.

Brisket Fun Facts We Missed

Please feel free to let us know if we may have missed some brisket fun facts. We always love to add to these lists. If we can verify that the facts is just that, a fact, we will give the reader credit in the article.

Reference: Wikipedia: Fun Facts about Brisket.

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