Can Someone Explain What A Deckle Of Beef Means?

Keeping track of all the best cuts of beef from chuck to shank isn't easy — and those aren't even obscure cuts. A beef deckle has a few different meanings, which can be confusing. The official definition of "deckle" refers to the outside frame of a paper-making machine mold. In the world of barbecuing, it's a different (but not completely different) story.

A deckle of beef often refers to the portion of meat surrounding the most important parts of the brisket, a cut that comes from the cow's chest. Some butchers call the deckle the point — a full brisket usually includes the fattier point and the leaner flat — while many other butchers differentiate between the flat, the point, and the surrounding deckle, which is often trimmed off the brisket. Other times, you'll see the word deckle come up with ribeye steaks, where a deckle is a muscle surrounding the ribeye (also called a "rib cap").

If that's hard to remember, keeping the original "frame" definition in mind can be helpful: The deckle is a meaty, fatty outer layer that connects other meat to the ribcage. The fancy word for this is "intercostal," which means in between or extending from the ribs.

That fancy terminology is all well and good, but how does deckle taste? Can you cook it? In briskets, the deckle is often considered a troublesome, harder fat that doesn't cook well, so it's often removed. Either take a knife, slice, and then slide it off, or use the knife to scoop off the deckle — both work fine. However, since deckle is fat and beef fat contains lots of flavor, some folks think it's worth the effort to keep some on the brisket when they fire up the grill. You should be careful not to waste your brisket by grilling it because those chest muscles are tough and need to be cooked slowly to loosen them up, so you're better off smoking a brisket.

If you're using the ribeye definition of deckle, which is the rib cap (its scientific name is the spinalis dorsi muscle), it's considered extremely juicy and tender. You can actually find ribeye cap steaks sold with just that muscle. If you have a marbled ribeye cap steak, you can grill it in a much shorter amount of time or take a ribeye and slice off the outer layer of the deckle yourself.