Burnt Ends a Kansas City Tradition

As I await this mildest of Midwest winters to pass into spring I will revisit one of my favorite Kansas City specialties, burnt ends. I rarely go out to visit the many great BBQ Institutions in the Kansas City area, preferring to stay home and enjoy leisure time, smells, and tranquility of smoking/bbq'g at home. When I do go out, I always make burnt ends a priority because the time required to prepare them at home limits me to a couple of burnt end cooks per year.

I will walk you all through my interpretation of burnt ends. I will start with a 14.5 lb packer brisket. This is a whole brisket that comes untrimmed. After trimming it of the hard fat I am left with a brisket that will stand up well to up to 20 hours in the smoker. I will be seasoning it with Head Country (award winning commercially available dry rub), cracked black pepper and a light dusting of Turbinado Sugar. The sugar helps create the bark on the exterior of the meat and bark is essential to good burnt ends.

The brisket is rubbed and ready for the smoker. This brisket was allowed to sit out for approximately 60 minutes to bring the temperature up a bit after exiting a 38 degree refrigerator.

The smoker will be fueled with lump charcoal and hickory splits and we will cook at 225 degrees.

With this being a 20+ hour labor of love the brisket will spend 8 hours on the horizontal smoker then move to an upright smoker for the 12 hours overnight. The upright smoker requires far less attention and as much as I want burnt ends I don't have an allnighter in me to continue feeding logs to the horizontal smoker. After 20 hours the brisket comes off the smoker with a nice crusty bark and the juices sealed up inside.

The next step is to separate the brisket. There are 2 portions to this brisket, the flat which is where your sliced brisket comes from and the point which is where the chopped brisket or burnt ends are often taken from.

This is the flat. We won't be using it now because this is a mission for burnt ends. Separating the two has let some juices flow.

This is the point. This is where our burnt ends will come from.

I will make a series of cuts to cube it up and get them ready to go back on the smoker. Once cubed they will be given a light dusting of Head Country and panned up to go back on the smoker.

Once returned to the smoker I will leave them dry for the next 60 to 90 minutes at 225 degrees. At this point I will add a homemade bbq sauce that I make thinner than I would if I wasn't going to let it cook. I will then finish the burnt ends off by allowing the sauce to reach the thickness and consistency we prefer.

Thin sauce added:

Sauce cooked to thickness and consistency desired:

There you have it, my take on the holy grail of Kansas City BBQ. These tender morsels of goodness melt in your mouth and are loaded with smooth hickory flavor.
In keeping with the Kansas City tradition you pick up a piece of white bread and use it like a catchers mitt to scoop up several pieces and you are stunned by the tenderness and flavor. Hope you enjoyed!