Going “against the grain” (or across it) usually implies hardship. It suggests that you’ve made a move for a reason that compels you put forth some extra effort. When it comes to meat, cutting across the grain is highly encouraged. There's no hardship. You just need to know what you’re doing.
Usually, we cut a piece of meat against the grain after it’s finished cooking and resting, just before serving. (Watch how it’s done here!) It’s a bit different when we’re working with our sriracha-brisket sandwiches though. We don’t want to cook the brisket whole (since we want as much surface area exposed to our delicious braising solution). That means we’re going to slice the brisket, across the grain, before we start to cook it. If we were smoking this thing, we’d slice it after. Don’t worry, you don’t need to go buy a smoker.
Whether or not you work out (get swole, manage gains, pump iron, etc.), we’re pretty sure you don’t have a muscle as big as a first cut brisket. And that's what a first cut brisket is, a single muscle (one of the two that make up a whole brisket). It’s actually the biggest single muscle in the cow, and since it’s so big, it has incredibly long muscle fibers. If you were to cook it whole, you’d get super long strands when you shredded it. Like six or eight inches long, which is definitely too big for a modest Martin’s potato bun to handle.
Figuring out how the grain runs on a piece of raw meat is actually pretty easy. You just need to know what to look for. Visually, you should be able to see lines running in one direction, all the way across the brisket. Those are the muscle fibers. If it’s a bit hard to tell just by looking, grab each end of the brisket and pull in opposite directions. You should be able to see the fibers separate or stretch away from each other. The fibers usually run length-wise on a brisket, so that’s good to keep in mind.
Once you’ve identified which way the grain runs, it’s time to make your cuts. We are literally going across, so we want to cut at a perpendicular angle. It doesn’t have to be exactly 90 degrees. We want our slabs to be about 2” thick, so the fibers are easier to shred once they’ve cooked.
And like we said, this against the grain technique isn’t just for brisket. We don’t discriminate. Once you’ve learned in the brisket, use it on every meat, from perfectly grilled pork chops to an insane porterhouse. Well, maybe not a porterhouse. Those things are expensive. A sirloin will do just fine.
