Brisket Prices

The BoardSMITH

The BoardSMITH

New member
While at the local grocery store last night for the weekly shopping expedition, I saw their beef brisket was priced at $3.49/lb. This is a weekly special and I have ne idea if that is a good price. Is it? The briskets were vacuum sealed from the processor and looked quite good. If this is a good price I will get two and freeze both for future use.

Your opinions are greatly appreciated.
 
It is about the right price for a brisket. I get mine from 2.99/lb to 3.75/lb and if cooked right they are excellent cuts. I get mine exclusively from Hill Farms here in Kentucky (local grower) as whole briskets.
 
Even WalMart carries briskets Chow. Kroger's and Miejer's are probably my second choice for buying whole briskets after Hill Farms which grow their own and butcher.
 
Isn't there a difference between those vacuum packed "St. Patricks Day" type briskets and a fresh brisket from the butcher?
 
High Cheese said:
Isn't there a difference between those vacuum packed "St. Patricks Day" type briskets and a fresh brisket from the butcher?
Click to expand...

yes, I believe you are referring to corned beef. It is "cured" with salt. You can make it into good brisket but you need to soak in cold water and replace the water several times to draw out the salt.

edit...actually after doing some research I'm not so sure about my response...I believe if do the water soak and then cook you will get more of a pastrami than brisket.
 
Last edited:
I believe the briskets carried by WalMart are "select" grade... I'd agree that $3.49/lb is about par for a trimmed brisket Dave.

I'm not sure what you mean by "St. Patricks Day" type briskets, but I'll guess that you're talking about corned beef which is very different.
 
Lots of corned beef here, too.
I never saw brisket at wally world, but I never specifically looked for it either. I'll check them out next trip, Joe. Thanks.
 
a brisket is a cut of meat.

preserving by soaking it in a salt solution, usually with sugar and spices, makes it a corned beef brisket. "corn", in this case, comes from an old british term for the corn kernel sized grains of salt used in the process.

smoking a "corned" or preserved beef brisket makes it a pastrami.

i just saw some really beautiful (un-preserved) briskets in costco the other day for about $3.50/lb.
 
High Cheese said:
Isn't there a difference between those vacuum packed "St. Patricks Day" type briskets and a fresh brisket from the butcher?
Click to expand...


Yes, corning spice. If you want the best, most natural flavour around March 17, buy a fresh brisket and corn it yourself. You'll be so happy you did.
When you buy it preseasoned, you have no choice but to prepare it one way. Buy a fresh, unprocessed brisket and your possisbilities are endless.
 
VeraBlue said:
When you buy it preseasoned, you have no choice but to prepare it one way. .
Click to expand...


untrue, vb.

i've roasted, grilled, and of course boiled pre-packaged corned beef briskets. all with varying and tasty results.

try grilling one next time. the last one i made was delicious.
 
End of the day, though, Bucky..it's still corned beef....no method of cooking, in my experiences, will alter that flavour overmuch.
 
well, i guess in a broad sense.

grilling and roasting concentrate the flavours, especially salt, where boiling makes it taste a lot more mild.

now, smoking it (pastrami) adds a whole different level of flavour.

when roasting, you can top it with everything from mustard to fruit glaze for different flavours.
 
I make pastrami by smoking a storebought corned beef POINT cut, not flat (point is much fattier, which is what I want in pastrami).

As mentioned, soaking it in water for a few hours, changing the water every half hour, cuts down on the saltiness. Then you have to season with corned beef spices.

Here's a picture of smoked corned beef point, along with and injected and smoked turkey breast.

smokedturkeyandpastramitc7.jpg


And my pastrami sliced on my deli slicer. I wish this photo was bigger - it was magnificent! LOL!

Lee


homemadepastrami.jpg
 
I love it all pastrami, corned beef or plain brisket. I've smoked it, cooked it in the oven, in a pressure cooker, on the grill etc. It is just my favorite cut of beef bar none.
 
very nice, lee. i just had lunch and i'm hungry again.

btw, did you mean "then you have to season with pastrami spices"?

i was amazed the last time i grilled a corned beef. the flavour was intense!
 
Alright, so the piece of meat in the vac seal pack that includes the little pouch of spices can be boiled for corned beef or smoked for pastrami....right? And I don't want to smoke/bbq one of those. For that I need to go to a butcher and get a fresh beef brisket?

What's the vac sealed piece of meat before I add the spice or smoke it? Has it been processed somehow already?
 
I'm with you on that HC and have tried the packaged ones before and would say they are OK but not great. I really prefer to do my own also with a good whole brisket. I have never lived any where I couldn't find it though at least in the US. Here in Kentucky the woman at Hill Farms had never ate a brisket in her life until I asked her why they didn't offer it. That is when she told me they ground it up for sausage which freaked me out. Now I get every one whole from her about 3 a year. She keeps the 4th one for herself once my wife told her how to cook it.
 
I tried to ask the butchers at 2 local supermarkets for different cuts like brisket, skirt or whole beef rib racks....they usually give me an attitude about it or say "Whatever is on the shelf." :twak: . Maybe I'll try the butcher by my work.
 
see post #11, 13, and 15 cheeks.

a brisket is just the name of the cut.

soaking it in a brine makes it a corned beef brisket. that's what comes in the vac-sealed package.

you may boil it (with or without the little packet of spices), roast it, grill it, or basically heat it in some way. it's still called a corned beef brisket because it's been "corned" or preserved in some kind of salt.

adding certain spices to a preserved (corned) brisket then smoking it makes it a pastrami.

you certainly can do any of these methods to a store corned beef brisket. of course, you can control the flavours to get your desired result better if you do it yourself.
 
Last edited:
High Cheese said:
I tried to ask the butchers at 2 local supermarkets for different cuts like brisket, skirt or whole beef rib racks....they usually give me an attitude about it or say "Whatever is on the shelf." :twak: . Maybe I'll try the butcher by my work.
Click to expand...

That's what I've alluded to before. The butchers around me aren't really true butchers anymore. At least they don't cut their own carcasses up anymore. They buy loins, shoulders... everything already broken down and they aren't getting in the stuff like skirts or briskets, let alone having them leftover anfter trimming a carcass.
I used to buy chicken backs (by the cases) from a "butcher" and then he just up and told me he wasn't going to get them in anymore. He said they took up too much room in the truck and he wasn't making enough money from them. And that's when he told me that no one around here butchers their own carcasses. Everything is ordered in now in pieces.
 
just to make this more fun: corned beef briskets, as heretofore mentioned, are associated with the irish and st. patrick's day because of the traditional irish dish of boiled ham and cabbage. when the irish came to america, they adopted the more readily available and probably cheaper jewish corned beef or pastrami to go along with the spuds and cabbage.

oddly enough, i found it nearly impossible to find boiled ham and cabbage in several cities the last time i was in ireland in 2003. most people knew about it, but it's really a traditional dish that no one makes anymore, lol.

that reminds me of the yogi berra-ism that a certain restaurant was always so busy, so hard to get a table that no one goes there anymore...

in ireland, there's an old tale about why the ham was boiled along with the spuds and veg.
according to the story, the meat was placed on the bottom of the pot, then covered with the other stuff so that if a landlord stopped in to see what his serfs were eating, he would only see the potatoes and cabbage.

what's probably more realistic was that the hams were so heavily salted that they needed to be boiled to remove some of the salt. not to be wasteful, the spuds and veg were boiled along with it for the salt and other flavours.
 
chowhound said:
I used to buy chicken backs (by the cases) from a "butcher" and then he just up and told me he wasn't going to get them in anymore.
Click to expand...

chow, what did you buy the backs for? i used to save mine for crabbing. raw chicken backs tied into a trap work much better for blue claws than leftover cooked parts.
 
I fed my dogs the backs (along with other stuff) when I fed them a raw diet. Chicken backs have just the right amount of bone to flesh.


BTW, shouldn't this thread be under beef?
lol, now that we're talking chicken ;^)
 
joec said:
Even WalMart carries briskets Chow. Kroger's and Miejer's are probably my second choice for buying whole briskets after Hill Farms which grow their own and butcher.
Click to expand...
lord when i read that the old pasta growing on trees commercial popped into my head only it was briskets hanging off the branches.
:yum:
 
buckytom said:
btw, did you mean "then you have to season with pastrami spices"?

i was amazed the last time i grilled a corned beef. the flavour was intense!
Click to expand...

BT, if the corned beef comes with a flavor packet, I just use that. But those little packets haven't been in the cryovac'd corned beefs that I've bought in the last couple of years.

After soaking and patting the corned beef dry, I apply a little slather of yellow mustard, and then sprinkle with this mixture, posted by an excellent barbecue champion, Steve Farrin, of the "I Smell Smoke" team.

If I don't have something like "freeze dried garlic", I just sub garlic powder, onion flakes, or something equivalent. Coriander seeds and peppercorns are key, though.

Lee

Pastrami rub (Steve Farrin’s)


A tablespoon each of:

- Coriander
- Freeze Dried Garlic
- White Peppercorns
- Paprika

2 Tablespoons of Black Peppercorns
1 teaspoon onion powder

COARSELY ground, individual, in a coffee grinder.
 
QSis said:
BT, if the corned beef comes with a flavor packet, I just use that. But those little packets haven't been in the cryovac'd corned beefs that I've bought in the last couple of years.

After soaking and patting the corned beef dry, I apply a little slather of yellow mustard, and then sprinkle with this mixture, posted by an excellent barbecue champion, Steve Farrin, of the "I Smell Smoke" team.

If I don't have something like "freeze dried garlic", I just sub garlic powder, onion flakes, or something equivalent. Coriander seeds and peppercorns are key, though.

Lee

Pastrami rub (Steve Farrin’s)


A tablespoon each of:

- Coriander
- Freeze Dried Garlic
- White Peppercorns
- Paprika

2 Tablespoons of Black Peppercorns
1 teaspoon onion powder

COARSELY ground, individual, in a coffee grinder.
Click to expand...
hey there sis!! when i buy a corned beef and the packet is missing i
put these spices in a tea ball (for easy removal) and add to the pot while simmering.

Whole Bay Leaves

Whole Allspice

Whole Black Pepper Corns (I use the 5 peppercorn blend)

Whole Corriander Seeds

Whole Mustard Seeds

i've never BBQed a corned beef.
 
Bucky, just a point of clarity, a "true" pastrami is made with the plate not a brisket. The plate is the roast version of short ribs. It's usually fattier than a brisket.

If you're looking for a "whole" brisket, you want to ask your butcher for a "packer cut" brisket. That's the whole thing cryovaced. That's what we get for BBQ competitions. The point (sometimes called the deckle) is much fattier throughout the meat and not nearly as dry as the flat It usually requires long cooking to render some of the fat out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top