Beef Brisket Size


 
M

Mike_V

TVWBB Member
Yesterday I was at Sam's Club, and for the first time noticed they had Beef Brisket. I check every time I'm there and have never seen it. So, naturally I scooped up 2 as I plan to smoke them this Saturday (never done beef before, just pork butt, ribs and turkey). Anyway, the largest brisket they had was 8.8lbs, and they ranged from there all the way down to 5 lbs or so. They have a full fat cap from what I can tell. I grabbed an 8.8 lb and a 5.9 lb brisket.

I was reading through the recipes on this site earlier and noticed almost all the brisket smoking guides state that the brisket would normally be 10-12 lbs after trimming the fat, but mine will likely be only 8 and 5 lbs after trimming the fat, at best. Is this OK? Did I get the wrong kind of Brisket or anything? I'd like to do a full low-and-slow method, and I'm thinking the smaller briskets may actually be good for that, but are there any good-to-knows or gotchas I should look out for with smaller briskets? Thanks so much in advance!
 
Hi Mike, my very first question would be was it a brisket flat or a full packer brisket, Sams Club usually sells both. NORMALLY on your size description i would say it was just a flat but ironically enough I was at Sams in Sioux City today and each and every one of their full packer briskets were under 10 pounds. This was at 10 am and when I asked if they had anymore the guy said yes but they are not allowed to bring out anymore until these sell but the cases in back were about the same size.

I ended up getting a 9.9 pound full packer and before today I didnt think packers could be under 10 pounds.
 
Hi Fred,

Glad you asked, I did notice that they had both flats and full packed, and I made sure to get full packed. Some of their flats were really small! The biggest flat was only around 5.9 lbs and they went down to 4.5 or so!
 
Most flats, at least ones over 5-6 lbs, have a little of the point on them, which may be why you think they're packers. The 8.8 lb'er may be a packer, but the 5.9 has got to be just a flat. No problem either way. I actually try to buy 2 flats as close to the same size and shape as possible and smoke them stacked on top of each other, fat side down on botton one and fat side up on top one. Flip the stack half way through the cook.
 
I just double checked - I was wrong about the size of the smaller one, it's 6.9 lbs (8.8 lbs for the bigger one). They're both full packers though, neither is a flat! I'm guessing I should cook them separately but just as a normal full packer, on separate racks?
 
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