$3.88/pd brisket

Local store has them right now but after taking a little jaunty over to see what they looked like I’ll pass. I was hoping to find a 11-12 pounder like I always used to find fairly easy at this price but man these things looks bad. Fat heavy on both sides so minimal trimming had been down and they were huge….15-18 pounds. They looked as though a herd of bologna bulls had been run for slaughter. LOTS of slop in the bags too to help get the weight up.

Its getting harder and harder to find the fun meats anymore. I guess I’ll just bide my time and maybe catch a deal down the road. Really would like to do one for the 4th.

That’s a shame. Last time I looked at them they were decent but were $8.99lb. No way am I paying that for a choice brisket. I’m doing one on the 4th too but I bought a nice prime on online awhile back and it’s waiting it’s turn in the freezer right now.

Where are you buying meat online?

Costco prices for Brisket were insane when I looked at them the other day. $3/lb last year to $8/lb last week when I looked.

jbg1219 wrote:

Where are you buying meat online?

That one came from Double R Ranch which is a part of Snake River Farms. I’ve purchased from Snake River as well and those are American Wagyu which are amazing.

$2.99 down here at the Fareway stores, 15 to 17 pound average “Choice grades”. limit of 2.
Costco is supposed to have prime grades here, I don’t have their club card as I’v had the Sams card since it was built. Sams is just a couple of miles from me and Costco is probably 6 or so miles away. Both measured one way.

Is it really worth having both cards?? Really?

Meat, alcohol, veggies and dairy are not the only thing we go there for. We both buy fuel, misc kitchen stuff as well. Sometimes clothing, (aka Hawk gear), pot or a small shop or household tool.

Cub has BOGO on racks of ribs this week. 😊

I was at fresh thyme On Monday and they also had bogo babyback ribs

Tom, what do you look for when you are shopping for a good brisket? I want to get into smoking and brisket is one of my favorites.

Good brisket for me is better than the very best steak.

Tom Albrecht wrote:

Tom, what do you look for when you are shopping for a good brisket? I want to get into smoking and brisket is one of my favorites.

Brisket is my favorite smoking meat.

I look for briskets in the 12 to 14 pound range as they tend to be more tender in the end. I want a brisket that has a fat cap on the skin side of the cut and no fat on the rib side. If there’s fat on the rib side the brisket has not been trimmed well and that fat will add a lot to the weight and eventual cost.

Personally I do mine uncovered with fat cap up with the brisket laying on a double layer of heavy foil. I like to finish mine to an internal temp at the thickest portion of about 165 degrees. I can’t eat rare meat or any meat with visible blood running and the 165 degrees eliminates that issue but still allows for lots of moisture in the meat.

At 165 degrees I wrap the whole brisket entirely in a double layer of heavy foil and set it in a cooler until the meat is cold, then I refrigerate the animal overnight and hand slice the next morning. I sauce the meat on the sandwich, not in the smoker. Others do brisket their own way and rubs and smoking processes vary a lot so I’m sure others will pipe in here on it.

As Tim mentions, a well done brisket beats the lickins out of steak. Have fun with it and enjoy….good luck!

Tom Albrecht wrote:

Tom, what do you look for when you are shopping for a good brisket? I want to get into smoking and brisket is one of my favorites.

If you are just getting into smoking do not start with a brisket. Smoke some easier meets first so you can dial in time and temp on your smoker. Like some pork butts or something similar. Trimming a brisket is not that difficult but I understand what Tom is saying by there being a bunch of fat that you are ultimately paying for so the deal is not that good of a deal. I always buy my briskets from my local butcher shop as we are friends and he gives me a reasonable price. We are both pretty into smoking and discuss fat side up or down. No right answer. I like putting the cap towards the heat source so on my smoker that is cap down. I prefer my meat not get the hottest direct heat. It probably adds time to my smoke but just what I prefer. Some will say fat up to absorb some of the fat and juices into the meat. I have done it both ways just prefer on my smoker how it turns out with cap down.
And definitely no sauce on a brisket while smoking. I don’t think I could be honest friends with someone who sauces their brisket on the smoker.

Tom, I’m curious if you ever like to serve your brisket hot, and if that changes how you do the wrap and cooler. I hear many that do the wrap in the cooler and it seems like it means either serve it cold or reheat the next day. I’m not a big cold sandwich person so when I have tried brisket, I always struggle with getting the timing right for getting it finished at mealtime. Seems like I may have to rethink something.

Also, what temp do you like to run at for a brisket of that size?

Thank you!

If you want it hot wrap and eat in couple hours. Should still be plenty warm.
Maybe we should have and IDO smoking GTG. Would be fun to talk smoking and see everyone’s favorite recipes in person and go into a deep meat coma.

I do it as I outlined. After slicing I will put the meat in a crock pot with a can of beef broth and heat it on high. People can serve themselves and add whatever condiments they want.

I like to tinker with bbq sauces and will offer a sweet one made with cherry jelly, a traditional one like Sweet Baby Rays and then using the Sweet baby Rays as a base but with hot peppers added to make it sizzle. Raw onions on the side along with pickled red onions.

I like brisket in cold sandwiches with raw onion slices and some sauce, also cold. A cold beer rounds it out. Great on hot days usually associated with the 4th of July.

First of all I’m not going to debate Tom’s way as it is fantastic for his smokes!
My questions hopefully will be obvious with in the thread.

Tom Sawvell wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Tom Albrecht wrote:</div>

I look for briskets in the 12 to 14 Yep! pound range as they tend to be more tender in the end. I want a brisket that has a fat cap on the skin side of the cut and no fat on the rib side. If there’s fat on the rib side the brisket has not been trimmed well and that fat will add a lot to the weight and eventual cost. I use the trimmings to add to deer for burger and the like anyway.

Personally I do mine uncovered with fat cap up with the brisket laying on a double layer of heavy foil. I set lay mine with the heaviest fat cap towards the heat, whether it be left /right, up or down. I like to finish mine to an internal temp at the thickest portion of about 165 degrees. I can’t eat rare meat or any meat with visible blood running and the 165 degrees eliminates that issue but still allows for lots of moisture in the meat.

Just a question here Tom, @ 165 degrees obviously you believe that the elastic and collagenous fibers have broken down. Have you in the past ran the finish temps up to a higher level for a better breakdown? Relax, I’m just asking as that 165 is the very lowest I’ve heard of. I usually will do corned beef or mostly pastrami, so just asking.

At 165 degrees I wrap the whole brisket entirely in a double layer of heavy foil That is where I set it in the oven at the same temp I was cooking it at. Don’t need the smoker at that point as it is just a temperature that you are trying to hit that surrounds the product, the meat does not know the difference where the Btu’s come from. and set it in a cooler until the meat is cold, then I refrigerate the animal overnight and hand slice the next morning. I sauce the meat on the sandwich, not in the smoker.

Ok, thinking out loud here, Are you doing a roast beef that is sliced for sandwiches like a rare roast beef except medium well/well done??

I hope you can read my q’s within your text. I need to figure out an other way to do this, lol

This is my routine. Smoke brisket fat side up at 250 or so. I do spritz with a whiskey/beef broth mix a few times as it helps form a bark. Smoke until the internal temp reaches 165 or so. When at that temp I’ll put brisket in a foil pan with some dark beer in the bottom of the pan. Do not cover the pan with foil. At the 165 temp is when the fat and collagen really start to break down and I want to catch all those juices in the pan rather than lose them to the smoker.

Continue to smoke. I probe with the therm and am looking for a temp of 190 or so but don’t go by just that. I want that probe to slide in and out like I’m sticking it in soft butter. Like testing a cake in the oven with a tooth pick. Sometimes that happens at different temps all briskets are different but I don’t pull the brisket until I feel no resistance sliding the probe in regardless of temp reading.

Once I’m there I pull pull the brisket cover the pan with foil and put in the food keeper. The longer it stays in there the better but a couple hours minimum. The juice in the bottom of the pan that mingled with the beer makes a au jus that is off the hook.

Roast beef? I’ve done some large roasts on the grill yes and I do them until they are medium.

On the 165 degrees…. Since the brisket has a thick end and that’s where the temp is read, the thinner portion will be higher in temp as will be the outer areas of the thick end. Wrapping in the foil, shiny side in, traps the heat and reflects the higher temp on the outside inward where it will continue to rise on the inside for a short while before the thick end begins cooling. I’ve never bothered reading the temp inside after the meat gets sealed but the thin end and the outside layer of the thick end of the brisket will be roughly 185-190 degrees when the meat gets wrapped.

As mentioned I can’t eat rare or bloody meat. At a 165 reading in the thickest area there it still some free blood and quite pink. I wrap the foil, shiny side in, tight on the meat as soon as it comes off the heat. When its completely room temperature I put it in the fridge overnight. When I slice it the next morning it is free of any blood and pink but is still juicy. The key is to stop the actual cooking process while there is still some pink and allow the higher heat in the other portions of the meat to finish the cooking inside the foil.

Also, when I slice the meat, I figure out how much I need for the crock pot for the 4th and set it aside, then package the remaining sliced meat in 1 pound vacuum sealed bags and freeze. I thaw those still sealed and use this meat for my sandwiches. And I use only Campbell’s beef broth for the crock pot meat. I know the assumption can be made that beef broth is beef broth but I’ve tried some other brands and can tell you nada. If there is meat left over in the crock pot after everyone has their fill [not a very regular happening] I drain the broth off and bag in a zip lock for the fridge.

I should also note that I do not do a mess of rub stuff on my brisket. Rubs have a ton of refined salt in them and the salt will pull moisture out of the meat. I want the moisture in the meat. I have made rubs using brown sugar and some seasoning spices but as a rule I do not put anything on the brisket prior to the cooking process and I don’t baste it ever as I want the bark to develop continuously without having to re-dry after adding a baste. When the brisket rests wrapped in foil the tough bark will soften up nicely so it can be cut thru when slicing.

Tom Sawvell wrote:

As mentioned I can’t eat rare or bloody meat.

The juice you see in a packaged meat or a rare cooked steak is not blood, it’s Myoglobin, a protein that is in all muscle meat. My wife would not eat rare meat until I explained this to her. She can now eat and likes rare meat.

I inherited the issue from a tick bite. There’s a bacteria in the saliva of some ticks who’s byproduct or waste interacts with certain people to cause a reaction to hemoglobin or blood when ingested and not fully cooked. It affects the immune system. I am one of those lucky suckers. I love rare beef, but if I eat even a small amount of even medium cooked meat I’ll be sicker than sick in two hours. I’m talking puking for an hour on end.

Here’s an eye opener. Ma and I stopped at HYVee for a couple items and while there I stuck my nose in the meat section and looked at the briskets. There were three in the cooler. Not one of them weighed 11 pounds and not one of them was under $90.00. Not a mis-spelling. $10.99 per pound.

Tom Sawvell wrote:

I inherited the issue from a tick bite. There’s a bacteria in the saliva of some ticks who’s byproduct or waste interacts with certain people to cause a reaction to hemoglobin or blood when ingested and not fully cooked. It affects the immune system. I am one of those lucky suckers. I love rare beef, but if I eat even a small amount of even medium cooked meat I’ll be sicker than sick in two hours. I’m talking puking for an hour on end.

Wow! Sorry to hear that. Is that from any tick or is it related to deer ticks and limes disease?

Thanks for all the clarification everyone! My briskets always turn out OK at best. I love everything else that comes out of the smoker. Briskets always leave me saying “that was fine, but not as good as John’s”. Got some good ideas here. Thanks again.

$10.99/lb for brisket is ridiculous, prime rib is $9.99/lb.

Cooperman wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Tom Sawvell wrote:</div>
I inherited the issue from a tick bite. There’s a bacteria in the saliva of some ticks who’s byproduct or waste interacts with certain people to cause a reaction to hemoglobin or blood when ingested and not fully cooked. It affects the immune system. I am one of those lucky suckers. I love rare beef, but if I eat even a small amount of even medium cooked meat I’ll be sicker than sick in two hours. I’m talking puking for an hour on end.

Wow! Sorry to hear that. Is that from any tick or is it related to deer ticks and limes disease?

Specific to your question, any tick we see in Minnesota can be a carrier of Lyme’s and now there is some indications that Lyme’s can be passed on thru mosquito bites.

I’ve been treated for the “bullseye” stage of tick bites twice. More recently I had a tick on me but missed the “bullseye” which is usually between 12 and maybe 24 hours after the tick has attached. If you miss that window and find the tick a couple days later, as I did, then there is no way to determine whether you have Lyme’s until you exhibit symptoms or ask specifically for the test. With this last tick bite I was still does with Doxycycline for ten days as an insurance thing, but the previous episodes I had to do the 21 day stint with the medicine because the “bullseye” is one of the positives in early detection of Lyme’s.

My understanding is that once you have had Lyme’s subsequent standard blood tests throw positive results for Lyme’s. My son caught Lyme’s on a trip to Rainy Lake a few years ago, the doctor told him that any subsequent infections would be diagnosed by sypmtoms rather than blood test. Thankfully the doxycycline treatment is effective and inexpensive.

Lyme’s and this spin-off that I have gotten from the first tick episode casts some real issues further down the road. As Brad says, the initial exposure to Lyme’s make subsequent bite checks a positive test. Even if people get tested specifically for Lyme’s, the disease can mimic a dozen or so other diseases so closely that positive identification is usually gained thru a process of elimination of the other diseases.

This immune crap I have can be tested for but there are as many false positives as there are false negatives in the results that the only sure way to know is eat some rare cooked red meat. You’ll know in about two hours.

The last reaction I had had me hugging the throne for over two solid hours. I’d drink water between puking and retching bouts just to have something to puke up.

I’m a firm believer in “cook your your the way you like it”.
Having said that, if your looking for a tender, moist brisket from your smoker, not one you finish in a crock pot and braise, you need to take it somewhere around 200/- degrees (with most folks wrapping in foil, butcher paper or brown paper at about 160 degrees and continue to cook). the probe test mentioned above is the best way to tell when its ready. when its probe tender wrap it in 2 layers of foil (if you haven’t already) then wrap in a couple of old towels and put in a cooler and hold for at least a couple of hours. It will stay hot for a very long time and not overcook, and this makes it easier on the cook to have the meat ready at mealtime. Brisket needs to get to 200+/- to breakdown the collagen in the muscle, this is what makes your brisket tender and juicy. If its not hot enough its dry and tough, if its too hot its dry and falls apart. I agree with the statement above about not starting your smoking adventures with a brisket they are one of the most challenging things to cook properly. Again cook your food the way you like it, but sometime give this method a try, I think it will “up your game”.

I never have any issues with my briskets and they don’t see 200 degrees. I don’t use the crockpot to finish cooking the meat, only warm it so people have warm sandwiches. Myself, I prefer my brisket cold.

After trimming the fat cap, I smoke fat cap side down and cover the top with thin slices of the trimmed fat cap to make a fat sandwich with the brisket in the middle. I learned that with prime cut briskets that the temp doesn’t have to go as high as choice cut so I start testing for doneness about 185 with a toothpick.