Brisket Test: Prime vs. Choice vs. Select | Mad Scientist BBQ


 

BenM

TVWBB Fan
This is a very interesting and insightful video. He is testing the effects of using different grades of beef, and what to expect based on the meat you choose to cook. In short, he cooks a Wagyu brisket ($180) on a cheap smoker and a USDA brisket ($35). I think the results will have you looking at Wagyu and USDA in a different light. Check it out. Here is the link -
 
I've watched both videos. I don't know if you can read that much into it. Its one test. We don't know how good that choice was. If it was an upper 2/3rds choice it could easily be pretty close to that Wagyu. The Wagyu didn't look like it was cut all that well and was a lot smaller. The difference in the cookers is pretty vast. I've cooked on an Old Country. They can give you a lot of bottom up cooking depending on how you run it. They require a lot more attention. Some of the best bbq joints in the country cook upper 2/3rds choice believe it or not. The difference between an upper 2/3rds choice and prime can be pretty small.

I'm not convinced the tallow does that much. I think it mainly helps with appearance. But that is a good point.
 
I agree with everything Dustin said. Having cooked on an old country Pecos and now a jambo backyard I think the choice was probably a ringer. I've scored some really nice pieces of meat labeled choice that put the prime sitting right next to it to shame. My jambo is not quite ten times what I paid for my Pecos(prices have changed these days) and I love it. The airflow and way it cooks is amazing, but I don't see it as a way to magically make a choice brisket score a 180. Sometimes you can do everything right and it comes out "meh", and sometimes you kill it. I think it's just the way she goes. Burn a clean fire, season the heck out of it, talk nice to it and hopefully it works out. And it it stinks, make some tacos!
 
I do comparison cooks, usually comparing smokers. But I do them entirely for Mrs Dollar and I. Its about what we like.

Taste is so very subjective, to do a comparison test and then use Mrs Dollar and my tastes as a barometer to put on YT and try to prove a point is worthless to anyone else.
 
I like Jeremy's approach to showing things as objectively as he can. No nonsense. Agree, taste is so subjective, but he tries and he did describe the difference to him, which is somewhat helpful.

I had an Old Country 36x20 offset for about a dozen years. It didn't come with any tuning plates, just one angled baffle welded in. A guy could use it the way it comes, but why? First thing I did was make a second layer baffle to tune it. My first design was just about perfect. It was a piece of stainless steel (1/2 the thermal conductivity as carbon steel) that had 1/2" holes spaced about every 3" and spanned almost 1/2 the width of the pit. It was a scrap of material that a friend's shop had leftover from running a job to manufacture big rig muffler heat shields.

Brisket isn't my favorite bbq to eat, but it's my favorite challenge to cook. I'll take tri-tip over brisket all day. Ribs and pulled pork are higher on my list for bbq I need in my freezer. But I try to keep some brisket, ribs, and pulled pork in freezer bags for that small meal when we need a bbq fix....or tacos. ;)

Some bbq and grillin ****...
 

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I hate to admit it but I lost interest once the life insurance ad started. I couldn't watch for more than a few minutes. YouTube not my thing I guess.

Some YT creators have monetized their channels to the Nth degree. And at the same time lost some credibility. I'm a capitalist. I don't have any problem with people making money. But I'm also a consumer whose looking out for the best deal for me.
 
I agree with you Lynn. What I will also say is that one of the very best aspects of tvwbb.com is that our community is made of regular people with regular jobs and regular homes with average budgets. I can't replicate Jeremy's experience nor can I relate to it.
I appreciate when we talk about household budgets because I can relate. Is meat expensive? Heck yeah. Does it pain me? Heck yeah again. And I love seeing plates of food in regular kitchens and homes. Thank you Chris A.
 
I agree with you Lynn. What I will also say is that one of the very best aspects of tvwbb.com is that our community is made of regular people with regular jobs and regular homes with average budgets. I can't replicate Jeremy's experience nor can I relate to it.
I appreciate when we talk about household budgets because I can relate. Is meat expensive? Heck yeah. Does it pain me? Heck yeah again. And I love seeing plates of food in regular kitchens and homes. Thank you Chris A.
yeah, the T-shirt should read, "TVWBB. ordinary ingredients. extraodinary results."
 
I agree with you Lynn. What I will also say is that one of the very best aspects of tvwbb.com is that our community is made of regular people with regular jobs and regular homes with average budgets. I can't replicate Jeremy's experience nor can I relate to it.
I appreciate when we talk about household budgets because I can relate. Is meat expensive? Heck yeah. Does it pain me? Heck yeah again. And I love seeing plates of food in regular kitchens and homes. Thank you Chris A.
I laugh when I hear how much these rigs cost - $4000, $5000, $6000, and more. The guy goes around dropping amounts for rigs like we do when we talk about leasing a car. I have no idea how much $$$ this guy makes a year, but I am sure it is a helluva lot more than we do. Besides, I am 100% sure he gets the majority of his stuff at a huge discount or for free because he is ALWAYS pitching something. The latest is his stupid insurance company. Gimme a break!
 
I totally agree with that comment. He's a bbq guy, now he is just schilling for anyone who will give him money.

Not just shilling for money, but getting paid by Google for views of the videos. Google has this complicated metric of how many views a video gets and how long people watch the video, when they cut them their share of the advertising money.

That's why a lot of these YouTubers are long winded. They talk and talk and talk to drag the length of the video out, in order to make more money.

And they have to constantly come up with some new idea for content. So ya get comparison cook after comparison cook after comparison cook and none of them really come to any conclusion or offer me anything I can use in my backyard.

Again, I got no problem with people making money. And I once enjoyed a lot of these YouTubers, but as they became for commercial, its lost its appeal. They've become a waste of time.

I really hate the " in video " ads these people run. I pay Google for YouTube premium to avoid ads. But yet the YouTubers throw in ad inside the video.
 
When he said cheap smoker, I thought OK Joe, Char griller or Char broil off set with thin gauge metal. Not a $1000 smoker!

Well, I had an Old Country Brazos which is what he called cheap at a $1,000. Bought it used for $600. It had been fired up three times and still had the marks from showroom stickers on it.

Even at that price for 1/4" steel, I battled with it for 3 years. I had to tinker with it and made some minor mods and should've made some major mods. The cook chamber door was sprung and it leaked badly. I probably ran a dozen or more biscuit tests trying to figure it out.

Then I antied up for a quality Franklin and don't worry bout the smoker any more. Sold the Brazos for $700.

And smokers aren't getting cheaper. I paid $3400 for my Franklin and am glad I bought when I did. Steel prices are not going down.

A good quality patio gravity feed will cost $2,500 to $3,000. The larger ones the comp guys cook with go up to $5,000.

I saw a Recteq ad the other day and they did not have a pellet pooper for under a $1,000, ones I saw were around $1,500. Cookshack and MAK pellet poopers can run up to $5,000.
 
Well, I had an Old Country Brazos which is what he called cheap at a $1,000. Bought it used for $600. It had been fired up three times and still had the marks from showroom stickers on it.

Even at that price for 1/4" steel, I battled with it for 3 years. I had to tinker with it and made some minor mods and should've made some major mods. The cook chamber door was sprung and it leaked badly. I probably ran a dozen or more biscuit tests trying to figure it out.

Then I antied up for a quality Franklin and don't worry bout the smoker any more. Sold the Brazos for $700.

And smokers aren't getting cheaper. I paid $3400 for my Franklin and am glad I bought when I did. Steel prices are not going down.

A good quality patio gravity feed will cost $2,500 to $3,000. The larger ones the comp guys cook with go up to $5,000.

I saw a Recteq ad the other day and they did not have a pellet pooper for under a $1,000, ones I saw were around $1,500. Cookshack and MAK pellet poopers can run up to $5,000.
i'm sorry. this just makes me laugh. it's a friggin bbq/smoker.

if you're cooking for your fam and some friends, these prices are ridiculous.

i'll just stick to my S6 and wonder why people spend this much money on a bbq. doesn't anyone work anymore, or do they have all this free time to sit in front of a bbq and watch the smoke stack rise?

i clearly just don't get it. mamma was right when she said i was a simple one. i'll just keep it at that.

$5k for a pellet pooper. you guys serious?
 
I would not call an S6 exactly cheap at the current price of $2,149 and I have stated many times would love to have one but not at that price. A 22 WSM is what 550 drop to the 18 for 420 kind of with you on the 5k for the pooper but everyone needs to spend their money where they want to. I don't do brisket plenty of BBQ joints around me which do it well for not much money that will break the bank when I go out to eat. I am definitely not cheap but there is no way there would ever be a $180 Wagyu brisket on my smoker.
 

 

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