Parts of a Brisket – Point, Flat, Fat Cap and Deckle

All 8 parts on the diagram

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The brisket 5

Flat The long lean muscle, the deep pectoral. Sold as the flat cut.
Point The thicker, fattier muscle on the outer side: the superficial pectoral.
Fat cap The layer of fat over the outer side of the brisket.
Fat layer Fat in the natural seam between the point and the flat.
Deckle Hard fat and rib muscle from the inner side, usually trimmed off.

On the steer 3

Brisket The breast, or lower chest, of the animal.
Breastbone (sternum) The bone along the chest floor. The brisket lies over it.
Ribs The brisket covers the lower ends of the front ribs.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two of these use it: (1) USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications, Fresh Beef, Series 100, https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/IMPS_100_Fresh_Beef%5B1%5D.pdf (item 118, beef brisket: the sternum bones, the deep pectoral and the superficial pectoral, a cross section of four rib bones, separated from the foreshank; item 120, deckle-off: the deckle is the hard fat and the intercostal muscle on the inside surface, removed at the natural seam; item 120A, flat cut: only the deep pectoral; item 120B, point cut: only the superficial pectoral); (2) Texas A&M University, Meat Science, 120 Beef Brisket, Deckle-Off, Boneless, https://meat.tamu.edu/120-beef-brisket-deckle-off-boneless/ (the deep pectoral on the interior surface, the superficial pectoral on the exterior with more fat; brisket flat and brisket point; the natural seam between the muscles; the rib and sternum bones removed with a layer of fat under them commonly called the deckle; the cut across ribs 2 to 5; packer trim); (3) Wikipedia, Brisket, text only, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisket (the breast or lower chest; superficial and deep pectorals; the cut overlies the sternum and ribs; the fat cap; flat cut or first cut, and point or second cut); (4) search-result passages of books on the Internet Archive, read as passages and not in full: Meathead, The Science of Great Barbecue and Grilling (2016), https://archive.org/details/meatheadscienceo0000gold (a drawing of a whole packer brisket labeled point muscle, fat layer, fat cap and flat muscle); The Mile End Cookbook (2012), https://archive.org/details/mileendcookbookr0000bern (the two muscles separated by a membrane of fat; the point called the deckle); Feeding the Fire (2015), https://archive.org/details/feedingfire0000carr (the flat or first cut and the point or second cut, also called the deckle). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-05 by script. The brisket in section is this site's own drawing; the order of its layers follows the sources the page names. The steer is the outline of this site's beef cuts drawing (proportions read off 'US Beef cuts.svg', Ysangkok after JoeSmack, 2006 and 2012, Wikimedia Commons, public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Beef_cuts.svg). Its head, the five ribs and the breastbone follow points read off plates 9 and 3 of W. Ellenberger, H. Baum and H. Dittrich, 'Handbuch der Anatomie der Tiere fuer Kuenstler', volume 2, 'Das Rind' (drawn by Hermann Dittrich, 1889 and later printings; Wikimedia Commons, public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cow_anatomy.jpg and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Das_Rind,_Tafel_3.jpg). Licence: own drawing; some outlines after public domain plates

How it works

The two parts of a brisket are the flat, a long lean muscle, and the point, a thicker, fattier muscle that lies on top of it at one end. A fat cap covers the outer side.

Read the full guide

The brisket, cut through

Numbers 1 and 2 are the flat and the point. Number 3, the fat cap, covers the outer side. Number 4 is the layer of fat in the seam between the two muscles. Number 5, the deckle, is hard fat and rib muscle from the inner side. It is drawn pulled away because a deckle-off brisket has it removed.

On the steer

Numbers 6 to 8 show the parts of a beef brisket in place. The brisket is the lower chest, and it lies over the breastbone and the lower ends of the front ribs.

The flat is also sold as the flat cut or first cut, the point as the point cut or second cut.
In the drawing the outer side is up. The flat is the inner muscle, next to the ribs.

Questions and answers

What are the 2 parts of a brisket?

The flat and the point. The flat is the deep pectoral muscle, long and lean. The point is the superficial pectoral muscle, thicker and fattier, on the outer side. The United States purchase specifications list them as items 120A and 120B.

Where is the brisket on a cow?

On the breast, or lower chest. It lies over the breastbone and the lower ends of the front ribs, next to the foreshank.

What is the deckle on a brisket?

In the United States purchase specifications the deckle is the hard fat and rib muscle on the inner surface, removed from a deckle-off brisket. Some cookbooks use the word for the point instead.

What is a packer brisket?

A whole brisket with both muscles. Texas A&M University describes a packer trim brisket as one still in the vacuum package it left the packer in, with little trimmed from the outer fat.