Briskets too big!

[Chris Allingham]

Yesterday I went to both Costco and Smart & Final looking for USDA Choice briskets of reasonable size and couldn't fine anything less than 20 pounds, some as big as 25 pounds.

Where did all the smaller cows go?

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

“Long time grazing” with apologies to folk singers everywhere!

 

[LMichaels]

"Grazing in the grass is a gas..............can you dig it"
Sorry to my corner now. The cricket eaters must hate me

 

[ChuckO]

Yesterday I went to both Costco and Smart & Final looking for USDA Choice briskets of reasonable size and couldn't fine anything less than 20 pounds, some as big as 25 pounds. Where did all the smaller cows go?

Just curious Chris, which do you prefer; the Flat or the Point?

 

[JKalchik]

The Costco I was in yesterday in the Twin Cities metro area had 15-20 lbs. briskets at $4.29/lb.

 

[timothy]

Last time I was in Sam's, all they had was biggens.

 

[Chris Allingham]

Just curious Chris, which do you prefer; the Flat or the Point?

Both are hard to beat when properly smoked by someone who knows what they're doing. But my vote goes to the point!

 

[LMichaels]

Both are hard to beat when properly smoked by someone who knows what they're doing. But my vote goes to the point!

Me too!

 

[BLever]

Both are hard to beat when properly smoked by someone who knows what they're doing. But my vote goes to the point!

Nothing quite like a nice plate of burnt ends.

 

[timothy]

Wonder if it's got anything to do with March 17th?

 

[JKalchik]

Both are hard to beat when properly smoked by someone who knows what they're doing. But my vote goes to the point!

Our preferences here run to the flat, but, IMO, that's a harder target to get right. Having said, I won't turn down a plate with point cuts at all.

 

[LMichaels]

For some reason our local little shop here in Cherry Valley gets requests to their cutter to sell flats only. He raises the price because he's processing it, and then since he's already trimming it up, he takes the points and puts them in the "specials" case. I've got one in the freezer right now I also have a package of thick beautiful plate ribs in the freezer as well.

 

[JKalchik]

He raises the price because he's processing it,

Costco's pricing for packers runs around $4/lb. Flats & points are generally up around $9/lb, just for the added work, as well as the demand. You can't use us as the statistical sample, we are the weirdos in that regard, and would completely skew the results. In all honesty, every time I've said that I want to just smoke a flat, or just smoke a point, I've ended up buying the packer and breaking it down myself.

 

[LMichaels]

They don't crank the price on what's in the "special" bin. IIRC when I buy a nice all trimmed up point it's about $5.50 or $6 lb. Not as cheap as getting a whole packer but, a lot less work for me, easier to handle, so I pick them up pretty regularly.

 

[Chris Allingham]

I picked up two nice USDA Prime brisket points at H-E-B in Plano TX when I was recently down there. You never see points in supermarkets here in CA, at least I haven't. But those are for another day, I'm on the hunt for a smaller whole packer for an in-the-oven project.

 

[Mark Foreman]

Yesterday I went to both Costco and Smart & Final looking for USDA Choice briskets of reasonable size and couldn't fine anything less than 20 pounds, some as big as 25 pounds.

Where did all the smaller cows go?

Perhaps we could split one.