Highschool graduation coming up (for the kids, not me!) I've been tapped to do a brisket. I finally found a whole, packer cut, brisket for sale at Albertson's. Here in my town. Not somewhere else.

That's a huge hunk of beef.

Go for it? Is that what I do? Looks the size of a suitcase. Are you sure about this?

i2BBQ,

How much does it weigh?

Donna

There was a 13 pounder in there the other day. Point plus the flat, you know. I haven't purchased yet. Maybe another steer will die before I go to market.

Howdy,i2.

Albertson's around here usually has CAB,so you may have a choice or better.

The thought that a 10 lb. will be off a younger steer might be true,but you know those Angus are going to be a lot smaller than your Herefords at similar ages.

You have the room on your pit,so if the packer has the characteristics you are looking for I'd have no problem going for the 13 lb. or so.

Hope this helps a little.

Don't worry about size. You can freeze leftovers and reheat later. Wrap in saran wrap, then in aluminum foil and put in freezer. Just thaw and pop in oven, plastic wrap helps keep the moisture in.
Use a packer trim brisket for smoking. Leave the fat cap on to cook. You will have a 50% shrink between cooking and what you trim off after it is done.
Stay away from select grade meat, brisket is tough to begin with, do not multiply the problem by buying poor quality too. Certified Angus is definitely the way to go. You get what you pay for.

Brisket, what a cut, huh?

When I was 18 years old, as a sawman at a packing plant, I used to buzz the brisket bone out of brisket using a jarvis saw, then saw off the rib plate using a wells saw.

A brisket gets trimmed from the time it hits the belt at a packing plant, to the time it ends up in the consumer's hands. The guys at the grocery store take a whack at it to get it down to desirable dimensions, both in weight and size. Trust me, the average consumer in most states dosen't smoke a brisket, they corn it. They want a much more trimmed product.

In Texas, I've found it easy to find giant briskets, and for less than a $1.00 a lb. What a coup! The trimming of a smoked brisket gets done when the person eating it cuts away the fat, as it should be.

I believe it is the cut of beef that lends itself to BBQ cooking like no other. Although it is not my native BBQ (we cook pork where I'm from), it is one that I've latched on to with quite a vengance.

It is sad, though, that there are people in large metropolitan areas that can't go to their grocer/butcher and get an untrimmed brisket (packer's cut).

What I would recommend you do is ask to talk to the meat manager of a store you like to shop at. Tell them what you want, and how many you're willing to buy. They may find it profitable to order the meat and sell you a couple from a box, and then put out the rest. If they recognize you as a loyal customer, they will go far in trying to satisfy you.

I had a store in my local area that would put my meat off on its own in the cooler and hold it for me if I was doing a big cook. I didn't have that much room in my home fridge, so they would put it in their stand up. They would go the extra mile for me because of the business I represented to them.

If there's something you want from your butcher, get with the meat manager and ask! You'll be surprised at what they will do for you.

Mark

Thanks, friends. Helpful stuff. Mark, that's quite a dissertation. For over a year I've been griping in this Forum about not being able to find a packer's cut brisket. At Publix, the butchers just look glaze-eyed. "Packer's what?" One of them said I didn't really want that "big ol thang."
Smokin Okie actually made a survey of Forum members and charted the distribution of whole vs trimmed (flats) briskets across the USA! (You can find his results somewhere in the archives.)
I finally found an outlet for untrimmed,whole brisket, right near by, so I'm preparing myself for the next level of BBQ.

12BBQ,

Hey, just saw you are form North Florida. Where are you, Gainesville? Jax? Lake City?

Ocala native here.

Yeah, you'll much more easily find large pork shoulders and butts at the grocery than you will brisket in Florida. Winn Dixie could get them for me, they would just keep a packing house cyrovacced one on the side for me, if I asked.

Wanna try something tougher than brisket? Try getting a fresh ham. You can get them in Miami and Orlando, because Puerto Ricans and Cubans bake them and make an excellent dish called pernil. It's tough to find them anywhere else, though (pernil is slow cooked fresh ham with latin spices, sometimes taking 18 hours in the oven. Highly basted, fork tender and very tasty).

Glad you found a place to get what you wanted! You'll have lots of fun with brisket, it's just a great cut of beef.

Mark

just to clarify (like butter), when I mentioned trying something tougher, I was talking about finding it, not toughness of meat! I'm sure you all knew that, but who's the goose? Yup, me!

Anyway, good luck with da beef..

Mark

quote:

Where are you, Gainesville?

Yep, Gainesville, Home of the Gators!

I am told there is a "super" Wal Mart in Ocala where packer cut briskets are sold. We are deprived of super Wal Marts here. But, I found the right thing at Albertsons. But, I thought Albertsons was a pharmacy. Aspirins, not briskets!

So, now I have it,(7 lb brisket, USDA Select) and I will cook it tomorrow, coached by Andi of Alaska. One cool hunk of woman, they say.

Okay I2....you go with the Alaska Brisket method, Andi has probably found the way to smoke a brisket --- use a CS. Oh, wait, you don't have one....

by the way. Next time, look through the briskets and try to find a "choice" instead of a "select". You don't HAVE to but if you have a choice, choose a choice.

Smokin'

Wha??????? It finally sunk in! I2BBQ DOESN'T have a CS? Get outta here! No way! How is that possible? Ya cheapskate! When ya gonna get one? You could always BE LIKE ME and win one! Oh...forgot, you can't even cook a Brisket without an Alaskan's advice! Hahahahaha! So here it is:

1) Use Wild Grapevine! It is positively delicious with red meat! (Texans are born with a hickory spoon in their mouths.)

2) Don't look at it for 12 hours or the Wicked Witch of the West will curse your Brisket.

3) Do The Finger Test. Use the middle finger of the hand you don't use in the outhouse and press on the meat. If your finger falls thru the meat, it's done. (Texans use either hand for either thing.)

3) Serve with Teriyaki Sauce. (This is a sure-fire way to get rid of any lurking Texans.)

Howdy,i2.

Since all these Albertson's around here carry a whole line of CAB,why not ask the meat manager if they could order a minimum amount of CAB packers and the price.

I know they carry CAB flats,I think they were $2.99/lb.

I know you are in the the heart of Winn-Dixie country and my W-D meat manager here can order a few choice packers and he'll put them out a couple at a time for $2.99/lb.

I'd still rather sort through the cooler at Wallyworld and try to luck up on a couple choices for $1.19.

Okay, folks, many thanks for the input. Smokin, I appreciate your suggestion about choosing. In this case, however, there were 2 briskets to choose from. This one or that one. Both Select. So, I did what a man's got to do. I chose.

But, Tom, I'll keep on sleuthing. There's a Winn Dixie on the other side of town.

And there's Sam's Club, but they are like security at the Miami airport. Whew.

Andi, thanks for the coaching...I think. (What's that finger thing?)

Apparently Sam & Wally get their beef from different cows. Sam here only offers flats at something like $2.99, along with other cryovac and regular pack beef of various sorts. Wally, on the other hand, has packer briskets for around $1, but for other beef, only carries Thomas Wilson solution added stuff. So, you might want to call Sam before making a trip. Sometimes you can wangle a free card for your school or church or whatever good cause you might get involved with, too.