How To Buy Brisket
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I LOVE beef brisket. It might honestly be one of my favorite cuts of beef to eat and definitely the most rewarding to smoke. The process of smoking a full brisket is long, but believe me when I say it is completely worth it. Since it is such a time-intensive smoke, I want to you be completely prepared and confident before you even turn on that grill.
We sell a large amount of briskets at my Meat Market, so when someone walks in and wants to buy a brisket to smoke, we have a large inventory on hand for them to choose from. The customers always walk away with a smile on their face and are eager to throw the brisket on the smoker!!
Believe me, it took me a few tries to get a proper brisket trimmed and seasoned, then all my smoking techniques down. This can definitely be unforgiving for the novice, but with some great tips and ideas, you too can have great success smoking your first brisket!
Many years ago, this cut was not very popular and was often cut for beef stew or used for ground beef. It got popular when folks discovered that smoking the brisket at a low temperature for a long period of time breaks down the connective tissue, and makes it tender and delicious.
Once the brisket cooks to an internal temperature of 155-160 degrees, I like to wrap the brisket in butcher paper (similar to the Texas Crutch) and put it back on the smoker until I hit a brisket internal temp of 203 degrees. You can also wrap it in foil.
At this point, I remove it from the smoker and let it rest for about an hour (even if you lose patience at 15 minutes). Resting is an important part of the process for cooking perfectly tender brisket. It allows all the natural juices to slow down and get redistributed into the meat. It will also bring it down to a good temperature for slicing.
Smoked brisket is the holy grail of barbecued meats. When cooked right, it should taste tender, juicy and smoky enough to tingle the senses. Enjoyed by itself, slathered with barbecue sauce or served inside a sandwich, brisket is one of the most sought-after smoked meats in the country. Every aspiring pitmaster wants to master this cut of beef, but it can be an intimidating one to work with.
The last brisket I bought came from local butcher Chad Lebo of Cure in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. It was a grade 8 Wagyu brisket that weighed nearly 14 pounds, and it was beautiful. Lebo sources the best local meats from Nebraska and Iowa, including Imperial Wagyu Beef. Here are some of his tips on choosing the best beef brisket.
Not only does Wagyu have remarkable marling, but its fat has a lower melting point. Lebo suggests adjusting the finishing temperature down by 5-10 degrees. Overcooking any brisket, even Wagyu, will result in dry, stringy beef.
Wagyu brisket is making its way through the brisket world. However, it is usually only found in gourmet or specialty butcher shops. In addition to this, Wagyu beef is graded higher than Prime because of its superb marbling.
One of the labels that you'll find when you are shopping for the perfect brisket is Prime and Choice. These are two labels that indicate quality and they can only be used by processors when the beef carcass they are using has been graded by certified United States Department of Agriculture inspectors. While it is common to say that Prime is a better grade than Choice, this doesn't always mean that you'll get a better brisket when you select Prime over Choice.
On paper, Prime is a better grade than Choice. We say 'on paper,' because there are lots of variables that go into a brisket grade. The first thing to keep in mind is that the USDA grade you see is determined by an inspector looking at one specific cut, not the entire carcass of the animal.
When a carcass is graded, the inspector looks at the cut made between the 12th and 13th ribs where the ribeye steaks come from. The inspector is specifically looking at the marbling of fat through the muscle at this point. Often, grain-fed beef boosts fat in the rib area and increases the grading (and thus the value of the carcass). However, it is possible to have a Choice brisket that has more intense marbling than a Prime grade brisket.
This is why other labels you'll see also matter. You can have a low-quality dairy cow that has much higher marbling at the ribs than an Angus steer, but the beef itself won't have as good flavor. Paying attention to other labels like grass-fed beef, organic or free-range, and labeling that indicates the specific breed of cow from which the cut was taken is equally or more important than selecting your brisket based just on the USDA label.
According to the USDA, Choice grade briskets are moderately marbled cuts that are high-quality but feature less fatty marbling than Prime. These cuts are superior in quality to USDA Select beef brisket. Unlike many cuts, you aren't looking for lean meat when buying brisket.
Prime brisket is the highest grade and is given only to young cows that have exceptional marbling. Prime is the grade that is sold to restaurants and hotels, though you occasionally will find it in your local grocery store. Prime grade beef tends to cost more than other grades.
It isn't uncommon to find Prime brisket for sale at a lower per-pound cost than Choice. So, if Prime is better, why is it cheaper There are a few reasons for the price difference, starting with the store you are buying your meat at. Often, big-box locations like Costco can offer high-quality cuts of meat at lower per-pound pricing than local grocery stores because they are buying in larger quantities.
Another reason for a difference in the per-pound pricing is the amount of labor that goes into the processing of the cut. It is common to find Choice briskets that are separated into the flat and the point, typically with the excess fat already trimmed. There is no way to get around the cost of processing. The longer someone has to be paid to trim and cut, the more expensive the cut of meat will be. On the other hand, a whole packer brisket, even one that is designated Prime, might be a cheaper per-pound product compared to a trimmed and separated Choice brisket.
Consumers tend to purchase the size of meat they need rather than the best per-pound deal, particularly when it comes to a massive undertaking like brisket. A whole packer brisket can weigh as much as 16 pounds, and not everyone has that kind of space on their smoker or in their oven. However, a trimmed Choice brisket point is typically around six pounds. That makes it much easier to handle, sized appropriately for most smokers, and less intimidating of a cut of beef to cook.
All things being equal, a Prime brisket is better than a Choice brisket. What we want to point out more than anything else is that there are a few tricks you can use to ensure that the brisket you buy is high-quality, regardless of what the label says. In order to make the best choice, you'll use your senses of touch and sight to make an educated decision.
Prime cuts are supposed to have more marbling than Choice cuts, so that is the first thing you should look for. When looking at a brisket, you'll notice the heavy cording of muscle that shows the grain. You'll also see plenty of fat content. If the brisket you are looking at is mostly red, it has very little marbling and won't turn out very good. A proper brisket has plenty of connective tissue and fat content that renders down when you cook the meat which is what gives you the best flavor.
Next, you'll want to handle the brisket as much as possible. Prime grade brisket is quality meat and will have a tender feel without hard spots. If you can fold and bend the cut, you'll feel the difference between the highest grade beef and cuts with less marbling. USDA Prime brisket should feel tender, bend easily, and have a relatively thick flat and point. Thinner briskets are more likely to be tougher, and even when cooked correctly, may result in tougher brisket.
A prime grade brisket might be a better deal, however, since they tend to be sold as a whole packer brisket. Since you aren't paying for the labor to trim and separate the two cuts, you might get a cheaper brisket while also getting higher quality grades.
No matter what grade of brisket you start with, your cooking method will have a lot to do with the finished product. We've had good results from the lowest grade brisket and terrible results from the highest grade brisket. Abundant marbling isn't going to fix mistakes in the cooking process.
The real secret to cooking excellent brisket is being patient. It takes a long time to cook brisket low and slow, and that is the only way to get the tough connective tissue and marbled fat to break down while creating the tender, juicy, fall-apart goodness you are seeking from your brisket. A whole brisket will take approximately one hour per pound of beef, so you need to consider that the cooking process might take as long as 16 or 18 hours using dry heat cooking in a smoker.
The differences between Choice vs Prime brisket are often not as great as the differences when buying prime rib simply due to the differences in the cut. Prime cut beef typically has more intense marbling, but doesn't always have more flavor. Angus beef is the preferred choice for getting the best flavor, while Wagyu beef from Japan typically leads the list of Best Marbling cuts. Prime beef brisket is usually sold as a whole brisket, while Choice and Select cuts are most often trimmed and separated into smaller pieces that result in a more affordable cut.
The main thing to remember when making brisket is to use your senses and don't rely on labels as the only source of information. Touching the beef and looking at the way the marbling is on the particular brisket you are buying tells you more about how good your brisket will cook than a label from USDA.
The brisket does an enormous amount of work holding the animal upright, and develops an enormous amount of connective tissue as a result. That connective tissue has to be dealt with, or the cooked meat will be ridiculously tough. 59ce067264
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