Packer Cut

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.

The difference between grades of meat is very important.

Many people have heard of "Prime Rib", well what does that mean? Well, "Prime" is a grade of beef with a very high fat content. The formula determines the ratio of lean to fat. High fat was desired in the day, because of its propensity towards tenderness. Highly marbled steaks win out in the tenderness department, it is just a fact....

"What", you say, "High fat content, that is bad, not good". "How can the most unhealthy meat get the highest rating?"

Well, it's an anachronism, folks. And its virtue remains unchanged. Beef with fat interlaced in its muscle results as more tender table fare. In the Fifties they used to produce steers and heifers called "fat stock". That is why Prime Rib is so fork tender, it's a roast that benefits from the self basting of the fat in the cut. There you go.

A quick review of the grades (as I remember them):

Prime: Nowadays, only 1% of beef is rated this way
Choice: less fatty than prime, but very good
Good: lean beef, lower fat content, more red meat
Standard: very lean, perhaps too lean. Stew meat
Utility: suitable for Civil War soldiers, if a soldier could chew it, it provides protein

Select: a grade somewhere between good and choice, targeting the mania for lean cuts, and pandering to certain marketing furvor by the USDA.

There were also some descriptions of beef that didn't fit into the grading scale, although they were graded as well, CC cutter (old cow meat),and Bullock (or bull meat) come to mind.

I think for the purposes of a slow cooked, smoked cut, choice would be optimum. Prime is just too fatty and too rare.

Choice is choice in the case of the Brisket, I would say.

Good luck! Mark

I2. If it was tough, it wasn't the "select" that caused this, it wasn't smoked long enough. I always recommend the choice because there tends to be more meat as well as a better grade. I do "select" if I can't find something else, it's typically has more waste than choice.


MarkA. Good info thanks. Choice briskets are usually out there, I just recommend that people look at the label. But some, like I2, that don't live in a Beef State, don't have access to anything except maybe "select" and "flats."

Here's a good site from the USDA, click on the meat grading link, then on "beef" for a PDF:

Meat Grading

Smokin'

Smokin',

Excellent link. Things have changed since I worked in the business almost 20 years ago, like the elimination of the "good" grade in favor of "select".

I remember working on "cutter" grade cattle (cow meat) and also bullock (hard to cut up, that's for sure). I also see that the "standard" and "utility" grades exist, but as subcategories under "commercial".

What I guess I never thought about was that sex and maturity of the carcass was a factor in final grade out for yield and quality.

Anyway, very interesting. I've updated my somewhat puny brain, and I'm ready for bar room beef grading trivia.

Thanks! Mark