Selecting "Good Meat"

Sounds good to me. I am not very well educated in meat selection. Could use some help.

As a competitor this what I look for:
beef brisket: a choice grade with at least a 1/4" of fat cap and I use whole briskets, I want the deckle to help keep the flat moist.
The flat, I want the end of it to be even all the way across. I want some flex to the raw brisket.
Pork: I cook butts bone-in, about 5 to 7 pounds in weight, fat is not a problem with butts they just have plenty.
Ribs: I look for fat cap and no shinners.
With pork I stay away from solution added product, I find the end product to have a mushy texture compared to non-solution add pork.
Chicken: I find that the small to med size are more to my liking than the large Tyson
product. I stay away form Tyson chicken if possible.
I cook chicken in pieces, I find I have better control of the end product that way.
I deal with 3 wholesale meat suppliers, Costco, Sam's Club, Cash & Carry, and grocery
stores.
By building a relationship with wholesalers you can get better pricing and they will ask you to try new product for them, as they are all ways trying to build new markets. If a wholesaler or any of your suppliers start to pass off inferior product or play games with pricing then you move on to someone who wants your business. If you find a good outlet then help them out by sending other customers when ever you can.
If you can buy by the case you can also get better pricing, but the weights will be 50 to 75 pounds in most cases.
Hope this helps
Jim

I was so excited to finally locate a packer trimmed brisket and couldn't wait to load that 12 lb. behemoth in my smokette.

Alas a dismal failure. The meat was well cooked but the fat content made much of the meat unusable. I probalby got 2 lb of usable meat almost all from the flat. Did I do something wrong or did I just get a bad brisket?

NJ-Pony
On a whole brisket trim the fat cap to aprox 1/4" thick. Between the flat and the deckle there is a large piece of fat, a large amount of that fat can be removed, but don't cut the deckle from the flat. A brisket of that is size will take 14 to 18 hours at 225 to 250 degrees to cook correctly if your not using foil. You will end up with a finish product of around 5 to 7 pounds of meat.
Jim

nj, sorry to hear your behemoth didn't come out great. We used the little sister 11.74# a couple of weeks ago and it came out great. There was quite a bit of fat but after scrapping that off we had a good amount. Some of the pieces weren't just meat but that is flavor I would suppose. We did find that the smaller end was a bit drier then the fat end but still all very edible.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim Minion:
[qb]Chicken: I find that the small to med size are more to my liking than the large Tyson
product. I stay away form Tyson chicken if possible.[/qb]

Okay, Jim - you got me curious. Why is it that you avoid Tyson? Is it because of unclean packing houses, their fluid content, or something else?

I've been noticing that Foster Farms whole fryers seem to be getting pretty wet lately, too. Having pretty good luck with Butterball roaster, though.

Anyway, curious about your opinions here. Hard to go wrong following the advice of a competition cooker! )

-joe

Joe
I find their product to inferior in a few ways. They like to "pump them up", larger older chicken, and if your buying pieces the cutting job is very bad.
I'm up in Washington and maybe that's what they send us, but I find I prefer the local product better.
With Tyson buying IBP it's going to be interesting to see what that product will start looking like.
Jim

Jim,the Tyson plants in the Ky and Tenn. area send the same product all over the southeast and Fl.

I echo your fear about them now being IBP.

I figure we'll see briskets doin' the back stroke with all that fluid.

Not to argue with anybody, but I've had very good luck with Tyson "Minimally Processed" breasts. They're not too caked with schmaltz and reasonably tender even in larger sizes. And despite usually being frozen at the store, the package doesn't seem to contain that much water. I've also had good results from Perdue fryers and roasters.

This from a guy who was reluctant to use Tyson based on their role in the "fresh" poultry regulation flap. You may remember that some of the big Southern chicken producers won the right from the Clinton administration to use the term "fresh" for chicken that was "chilled" to no less than around 20F. Just don't drop one of them "chilled" chickens on your foot!!

Jim, do you look for lighter pink or darker red pork? Do you ever cook pork from behind the pig's waistline - fresh ham, loin cuts?

tjr
I try to cook the freshest product I can find as far as pork is concerned (poultry also), it will be lighter in color.
We do hams from time to time, loins much more often.
Jim

I was under the impression that some pork was lighter in color to begin with. Something to do with the amount of hemoglobin in the muscle or such, and lighter is supposedly more tender. Unfortunately, can't find a reference for this on the web.

Suppose you cook hams same as butt, allowing more time for bigger cut? How about loins - just cook whole bone-in?

Howdy,tjr.

If I'm hot smoking a fresh ham,I take it up to near 180� internal-or till I can get some movement in the bone.

On that whole pork loin,I like to cut mine into about 2 lb. pieces to get more smoke to the surfaces.

This "new" pork is so lean that I find it is helped by brining or at least injecting for flavor.

I like to get it out and foil it no later than 135� internal and the heat in the bone will bring it up another 10�-12�.

Smokin' and Stogie would prefer to grill them,and they have some good recipes and techniques posted.

Hope this helps some.