Is Brisket Beef Or Pork?

Recipes for food can adapt and change over time, expanding from their original meaning. On the flip side, it's also important to preserve the original history and rendition of a recipe. If you ask someone whether brisket is beef or pork, they'll give you one of two answers: that brisket refers to a certain cut of meat — or that brisket is strictly a beef dish from Jewish culture. Neither answer is necessarily wrong. Let's start with the history.

Brisket is a staple in Jewish cuisine, and the kind we're discussing originated with the Ashkenazi communities of Central and Eastern Europe. It's still an important part of the holidays, and in America, it represents a connection to an immigrant culture that first brought this food to Texas. A traditional Jewish brisket is cooked on low heat for many hours and must always be made of beef because certain cuts of beef can be kosher while pork is not kosher. Jewish law prohibits pork as a part of the diet. For labeling purposes, it's important that anyone who calls their dish a plain brisket is making theirs with beef; otherwise, it may lead to a lot of confusion.

As we stated before, the Ashkenazi community brought beef brisket to Texas. Once it hit the South as a part of barbecue culture, knowing what exactly a brisket contained got a little muddy for some folks. Beef was often more expensive than pork for working-class Southerners who needed to put food on the table. Thus, it would make perfect sense for people to start making their own versions of brisket using the more familiar pork to save money.

Now, according to butchery, brisket is a quality cut of cow supporting the lower chest above the leg. It's the part of the body that supports a lot of the cow's weight, making it a tougher piece of meat. Pigs have a similar four-legged shape but different anatomy and fat distribution than cows. There is no brisket cut on a pig, but some butchers have started using pork brisket to refer to a portion of the pectoral muscle. The pork there is fattier, which some people might prefer to beef when preparing brisket.

Another beef brisket imitation has come up in vegan circles, with people opting out of meat consumption altogether by making their brisket with seitan. People are free to make brisket however they please, but if a recipe contains pork, it should explicitly state that to be considerate of people who can't eat pork. Barbecue can be for anyone, as it's a style of cooking unrestricted to a single type of meat.