Ever heard of a "commodity" brisket?


 
Robert-R

Robert-R

TVWBB Diamond Member
I was in the local Costco and all they had were trimmed brisket flats in cyrovac.
I have upon rare occasion seen full packers there so I asked one of the Costco dudes who was stocking meat if they had any full packers.
He had never heard of them so he got the meat department manager from out back.
He said they never have full packers, but they usually have "commodity" briskets in the back & you have to ask for them.
So I requested he show me one. He brought out three from the meat locker, weighed & labeled them.
Turns out they are untrimmed flats in cyrovac. Good price, too. I think they were less than $3.50 lb.
The label said something like: Brisket - Flat Untrimmed".
Hehe...
 
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being untrimmed do you think youre buying a lot of fat? or did they look like mostly meat? I know youre always going to get SOME fat when you buy the big hunks of meat , but I just wonder about the "untrimmed" designation.
 
They looked like a full packer. You could see where the point had been cut off.
I asked what did they do with the points & the guy had no idea - just said that they didn't have any of those.
 
The term "commodity beef" is used to describe the typical mass market beef we buy in supermarkets from suppliers like Tyson (IBP), Cargill, JBS and National. The alternative to commodity beef is all-natural beef like Niman Ranch or Creekstone Farms, which of course is more expensive.

Since Costco carries an all-natural beef product called Open Prairie Natural Angus (which is a Tyson product), I suspect that's why the meat manager used the term "commodity" to describe the brisket you were getting. It was his way of saying you were getting a "normal" brisket, not an all-natural variety.

A couple of nice articles about all-natural beef as it relates to barbecue:

Aaron Franklin Is the Crown Prince of Texas ‘Cue: About 1/3 into the article he discusses the provenance of the meat he uses and mentions Creekstone. He goes on to say, "We won’t serve commodity meat, though, from an ethical standpoint."

The Rise of All-Natural Beef: A nice article from last December by Daniel Vaughn about the trend of Texas barbecue restaurants toward all-natural beef.
 
Thanks, Chris! Now we know.

The more I think about it, I may have been in error on the price: seems like it was between $3.50 to $3.75 a pound.
 
That's awesome and a nice price as well. Isn't it depressing when you talk to someone from the meat department and they haven't heard of a pretty common cut of meat?
 
Jason Cee said:
That's awesome and a nice price as well. Isn't it depressing when you talk to someone from the meat department and they haven't heard of a pretty common cut of meat?
Click to expand...

I one time asked if they had any choice briskets at a supermarket and the guy looked at me like I was out of my mind. He had no idea of even the concept of USDA grading.
 
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