Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
> Last night I cooked three briskets. One was a choice grade from
> IBP
> and cost $1.99/lb. The other two were Excel select grade and I paid
> $1.18/lb. All three got the same rub, al three were in the cooker at
> the same
> time and rotated for position. Temperature was about 250 in the
> smoker and they hit about 200 when done.
> I cut and tasted all three and could not tell them apart.
> Anyone else have ideas on a grade being better than others for
> brisket? I'm inclined to stick with cheap, given the results.

Ed - I've always bought the cheap briskets. After all, the brisket is
the toughest muscle on the cow. I think that's just a ploy of the
meat cutters to get a higher price.

What concerns me as much as the price is the amount of fat cap on the
piece of meat. The more the fat, the juicer I've found the meat. Of
course, I cook offset with the fat cap up. The smoker temp looks good
but I seldom take my briskets past 190.

Funny you should pose this question now. This past weekend we were
down to Austin and stopped in at the Rudy's in Round Rock. I got to
talk with the manager about his BBQ operation and he said they buy the
cheap briskets also. So, take all this for what it's worth.
--
-frohe
Life is too short to be in a hurry