I ordered Akaushi brisket from Heartbrand beef in Texas. This is beef derived from a breed of cattle imported to Texas from Japan in the early 70s. Its even more expensive than “standard” Wagyu. The two briskets arrived quite a bit smaller than advertised. The first brisket was approximately 12 1/2 pounds. I cooked it low and slow with Cookshack Brisket Rub. In fact I cooked it at much lower temperatures than I normally would. Bottom line: Akaushi beef cooks very fast! It took about 12 hours only because I slowed down the cook. The results were excellent. It seemed to be a bit moister and it was exceptionally tender. I can’t say it was life changing but everyone really enjoyed it.
Using the experience from the first time I cooked the second Akaushi brisket for New Year's Eve. This brisket was 11 pounds (untrimmed). I changed up the rub, this time I used Black’s BBQ Rub. Its a typical Texas style salt and pepper rub with a touch of cayenne. Strong concentrated stuff so I went very light with it. I cooked at 225 for most of the time and then bumped it to 240 near the end. In total it took 10 hours to cook. The brisket was outstanding. Very moist and lots of flavor...but again I can’t say it was significantly better than a choice grade brisket. Better maybe but not $11 a pound better. Leftovers tonite!
Here is what I didn’t like about these briskets - the flat portion tapered off quite a bit. I try to find briskets with uniform thickness. I find that when the flat is thicker I have a more consistent cooking brisket with better results. When you are ordering by mail order its a crap shoot what will arrive. Another thing that disappointed me was the overall size of the point. Relative to a standard choice brisket, the point on these two Akaushi briskets was small.
To sum up - my experiment with cooking Akaushi brisket was a success but not overwhelmingly so that I would ever bother to cook them again. It simply wasn’t worth the expense but I’m glad I tried it.
In between the two months cooking these two high grade briskets I also cooked a 9 1/2 pound choice flat cut that I picked up at Costco. It was a beautiful cut - it was uniform in thickness with virtually no tapering at the end. I like to experiment and I had never injected a brisket. I used Butcher’s BBQ Brisket Injection, following the directions. I injected it in a grid pattern. Using a hot and fast method I cooked the brisket in the FEC100 at 325 degrees. It took about 5 hours.
Pros: Tenderness and moistness was off the charts. It fit the cliche perfectly - it cut like butter. It was the moistest brisket I ever cooked.
Cons: The flavor. The meat had an odd taste - beefy but not really in a pleasant way. Kind of artificial tasting, it sort of reminded me of pot roast? Hard to pinpoint exactly. I can’t say that anyone that ate it really loved it, everyone pointing out the strangeness of the taste. If this is a flavor profile that wins competitions I wouldn’t last as a bbq judge very long.
If I were to try injecting again I would go with a simpler homemade recipe.