I live in salem,Ma. All the supermarkets are selling brisket for $4 bucks a lb.or in that price range.Anybody know where I can get good price. Bjs wholesale in my area dont even have brisket.i love brisket but dont wanna go broke learnig it in my smokette.Help! Ray

Yes, $4 a pound is expensive for brisket. Damned expensive.

You might try a cheap roast if they are availble and cheap, something like a chuck roast or bottom round. teh bigger the better.

If you are interested in just learning your Smokette, try Pork Butt. I much prefer it to brisket. The only reason I do brisket is that my wife loves it. Personally I think it is more trouble than it is worth. Pork Buttt is better.

One thing to do is keep an eye on sales, buy your smoking meat when it is on sale and freeze it. If you have a Costco in the area, they usually have brisket at reasonable prices. Buy two and freeze one.

As an aside, get ready for higher beef prices. The price of corn is high, largely due to the demand for corn to make ethanol for fuel. Steers essentially turn corn into beef, so if corn goes up, so does the price of beef. Same for eggs and hens, and chicken and chickens, except that chickens are much more efficient in turning corn into meat.

Forget the brisket, do pork butt. - Duffey

The Flats here in South dakota are about 3-5 bucks a pound, the whole briskets are still only like 1.69 pound,,,,,I have no idea why.

kinda like ,why are baby backs 4 bucks a pound and spares are at 1.38 right now here.

The good thing is,,,whole briskets and spares are not hard to take.

You have a couple of Sams Clubs within 50 miles, and should have a few Walmart Super Centers. Don't know what stores in different areas of the country might carry, but I have had my best luck there.

I just bought a case of whole briskets from Sams at $1.52 a pound.

I've had pretty good luck with the quality of Sams/Walmart meat.

Our superwally here has wonderful meat at great prices, and if you see it cheaper somewhere else, they will match the price so you don't hafta shop at more than 1 place. I know alot of meat is injected, but heck, isn't that just brining, and weren't you gonna inject it or marinate it anyway?

Our Costco...great pork by the way...sells meat in the butchers pack (there's a trade name for it that I can't remember) but it's a lot cheaper. It's the way the meat comes to the store and they open it up, trim the fat and repackage at a significant markup. I like to get it packed that way, do my own trimming and washing, etc. and save a lot. I can get most everything from whole beef loins (filet mignons), sirloin roasts, tri-tips (California, remember) etc. etc. I don't think that only this Costco does that. Certainly most others that have their own butchers do it, too...and all 4 stores near to me do it. Just a thought.

I went to my same town meat market for brisket last week and it was $1.69 a pound trimmed out by the butcher. I bought four at about 14-15 # each. I never asked for the price until I saw it at the checkout counter.

Oh, I did mention to Mike (the butcher) that I was going to do some smoking over the weekend and would like to bring him some samples of what I was doing...he really liked that.

I buy mine at Super Wal-Mart when they go on sale. I still have a half-dozen in the freezer that I bought for $0.69 per pound. Go often (or have your wife go) and look for the reduced meats--they're usually marked.

You can get pork butts, picnics, and ribs this way too. I still have a few racks of $0.99 per pound loin backs in the freezer too.

Just bought two whole briskets at a super Wally in upper MI for $1.68/lb. It's about the only place here that has briskets in the winter time and they seemed to have plenty of them. Ribs too.

Wallmart in my area dont sell meat.But Ill try costco.I think ill end up with the same deal as bjs wholesale.i smoke butt , spares also babybacks but Im dying too smoke my favorite BRISKET but not at a high price. Thanks for your replies. Ray

I picked one up a few weeks ago at Roxie's in Quincy,MA for $2.29/lb

Ray, I work in Westford MA., I take 93 N to 495 S. I hit 495 around 1PM. I could pick one up at Roxie's and meet you up north if that's any help.

Also, make sure you're buying full packer briskets, not trimmed flats. The higher cost is to pay for the trimming.

Check out brisket 101 for photos.

Just bought a full packer today at the Super Wally world. It was 1.69 per pound. It will be my first brisket in my Amerique.

I live in Franklin TN and went to a butcher's shop last night to pick up a full paker but at $3.94/lb I said no. Went to Sam's and all they had were flat's. I'm going to try Wally World today but $48 for a 12lb brisket is to rich for my blood as well.
Smokin'n Harry