Select Grade Brisket Dry?

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The only access I have for Brisket is Walmart select grade. I have found that being the bottom grade they are not consistant at all except for the flat finishing up dry.That I can count on.

Used to be the flat finished tender but dry and the point a little rubbery at 190 degrees internal.
Then from a post of Stogie's I began separating the flat from the point before the cook. Now I take the point up to 200 degrees and it is better than the flat which is still the same and as good as ever but dry.
I did one a couple of days ago and foiled it at 170 degrees, removed at 190, still dry.

I am going to inject the next one, but with what? They taste good and I don't want to over power or disguise the taste. I only want them more moist. Olive oil, beef stock, what? Help
 
Jim
Bacon grease would work and pig fat taste good on (or in)everything. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif
There is a DrPepper marinade out there that has work for some and they swear by it in Texas.
Jim
 
Hi WyoJim!

I will pass on a little thing I do with my brisket and then also post the Dr. Pepper marinade.

I will cook my briskets at 225? and then after they reach around 180, I will foil. The trick is to add a 1/4 cup of beef broth PRIOR to wrapping......place the brisket on the foil, then add the broth and wrap tightly. I will then place in my ice chest to finish resting.

As for the Dr. Pepper marinade the recipe is below. It would make an excellent injection....the only thing I fear is the sweetness level. I personally do not care for my beef to be real sweet...just a personal opinion!

Dr. Pepper Marinade for Brisket

1 cup Dr. Pepper(NOT diet)
1/4 cup Soy sauce, dark
1/4 cup Lime juice
1 1/2 cup(s) Oil
1 teaspoon Hot sauce

PREPARATION:
Mix all and marinade beef overnight.

While we are at it...here is another brisket marinade I have seen. You may need to adapt for injecting.

Texas Beef Marinade

1 cup Cider vinegar
1 large Orange(s)
2 medium Lemon(s)
3, 2 inch Lemon peel
1 1/2 tablespoon(s) Brown sugar, dark
1 tablespoon Lemon pepper
1 tablespoon Black pepper
1 teaspoon Tabasco
1 teaspoon Garlic powder

PREPARATION:
Juice the orange and lemons.
Simmer on low heat until sugar dissolves.
DO NOT boil.
Marinate overnight.
 
Hi Stogie,
If you freeze the brisket after you have let the beef broth soak in, does the broth stay in the meat when it thaws back out? Or does the meat become dry again and all the broth run back out?
Just curious, since I vacuum-seal and freeze alot of smoked meat. I too encountered the problem of the dry flats in "select" grade briskets. One major problem that seems to be with these select grade briskets, is that the flat end is always way too thin and tapers down to about 1/2" at the end. I have yet to find a select brisket that has a nice, thick, uniform flat. In almost every picture you see of sliced brisket, the flat looks close to 2" thick and pretty much the same thickness from one end to the other.
 
When your are picking out a brisket to cook, look for a uniform fat cap, and that the brisket flat is even across the point 1 1/2" to 2" thick.
A choice brisket will have more fat in the flat than a select piece, that said if you are cooking a select brisket marinades, injections, cooking a butt over the flat, placing thick slices of bacon,
foiling with broth added and cooking at a lower pit temp will help maintain moisture levels. Pick one or more of the methods to use and see if you
get better results.
Jim
 
See if Walmart will order a different grade for you. Sounds like a good reason not to buy select, you get what you pay for most of the time. We won't use select, because they are not as good as choice or prime, usually tougher than the others also.
One thing you could try, is instead of foiling it, put it in a half pan add liquid and cover with foil. Bu tI think you can only do so much with an inferior piece of meat.
 
WyoJim, my brisket was also coming out drier than I liked. I have tried foiling, marinades and some other techniques and I have come to conclude that the meat is the biggest factor. Jim M.s advice about looking for a piece thats fairly uniform across the flat end is good, I look for as much fat marbled in the flat as I can find as well. From what I have read, briskets 40 years ago were 50% fat and I think they must of come out a lot like pork butt when slow cooked. I think we need fatter cows! /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

For whats it worth, most of the small commercial BBQ joints here in my area have the same problem. They are always tender but usually dry. I would like to try some of the competition brisket represented here by Stogie, Jim Minion, and others to see how far off the mark mine is.

ps I have always heard the left hand brisket is the most tender, since cows lay on their right side and push up with their right side muscles. /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Doug Wilbur:
[qb]

ps I have always heard the left hand brisket is the most tender, since cows lay on their right side and push up with their right side muscles. /infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif [/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>That's a new one on me! I'll pay more attention to cows laying down from now on! For the record, how can you tell which side of the cow your brisket came from???

Kelly
 
Thanks, Chris.... fascinating story! I can't wait to go look at a herd of cows!

Kelly
 
Thanks guys for the helpful insight on select briskets. This is a good thread. Deteriorated a little at the end, but then most of them do.

I will try Stogie and Jim Minion's recommendations, but I fear Raine and Doug are right about an inferior cut of meat. In thinking about it, select is not a cut of meat that has to qualify to get in. Select is meat that is not good enough to be called any thing else. So it could have a spread of quality from almost choice to hardly fit for a dog. I have found since separating the flat from the point that some have a nice layer of fat between the two pieces and some have no fat at all. There is usually a gob or two of fat that I can trim and lay on top of these bare spots. The outside then is nice and moist but the inside is dry.

A local butcher shop wants $2.49 a pound for brisket and a local IGA will get me 90 pounds with 12 pieces for $2.49 a pound. I was so shocked by the quotes that I didn't ask the grade, but I may try one from the butcher just to find out the difference. But first I have three more selects in the freezer to work out.
 
WyoJim......

Actually "select" is not the lowest grade of beef. There are 5 more below that grade level........Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner.
 
My brother -in law used to be a butcher and he told us that select is usually old cows, diary cows etc that have lived past their usefulness. So if you have an old cow/steer it might make sense that it might be tougher and dryer, etc.
 
Stogey....I didn't know that....what grade would the cut be if there is no USDA sticker on it? I just figured if it wasn't labeled it had to be select and that might be some of my problem.

Raine....I haven't seen any choice or better meat in any Walmart I have been in. Surely they are not finding enough old cows to butcher to keep Walmart in meat. Even worse than that I couldn't find any chioce cuts in Albertsons the other day.

I don't understand this. I will drive 70 miles to Cody today for groceries and I will see thousands of Black Angus on the way. But there won't be any in the stores. I can buy a Black Angus local, have it fattened the way I want and the end cost will only be around $2.00 per pound, but it will only have two briskets. Don't seem cost effective.
 
I have only seen Choice grade brisket in our Wal-Mart one time. And that was because they accidently got it instead of Select. I have asked the meat dept. manager if they would order Choice grade and he said no. Those Choice briskets were extremely small...7-8 lbs each. The flats were only about 1/2" thick. Wish I could find some nice 12-14 lb choice or CAB/Prime grade briskets.

One meat market manager I talked to said that CAB still has the Select>Choice>Prime categories. I'm not sure if that is true or not.

I remember reading on this website several months ago that Chris said he smoked a CAB and a Choice brisket together...and he could not tell any difference at all with the CAB. I guess CAB is supposed to be alot better (supposedly). Maybe it was a "Select" CAB...heh heh.
 
Walmart and SAM's all come form the same place so they should be able to order them for you. And maybe they would if you order a case. SAM's only sells the Choice, which is all the more reason to shop at SAM's.
 
WyoJim....

The GRADING program is voluntary, so if you see a cut of meat with no USDA stamp, it simply means this meat was not voluntarily submitted for grading. It could be any of the grades, but the marketer cannot promote what grade it is.

I have been buying my whole packer trim briskets from Wally World and they have all been choice. Matter of fact, the last batch I paid only $.99/lb.!

Rocky......

The meat manager is correct. CAB is only a "certification" program(more like a marketing program) that assures quality, not necessarily higher grades of beef. They still fall under the same grading system as any aother beef.

The way I understand it, no matter where or who you buy CAB from.....the quality will all be the same. In other words, if you like the CAB from your local butcher in NC, you should get the same taste and tenderness from a CAB sold to you in WY.

This is the first foray into nationalizing our beef products at a RETAIL level. The pork industry has been doing it for years and is very successful at it. Everyone seems to know the Armour, Swift, and other brands.......they are available nationwide.

There is nothing comparable in the beef industry. Again, this is on the RETAIL level. You cannot find a "Big Beef Farm, Inc." T-bone steak all across the country.

I sure hope this makes sense.
 
I just came back from grocery shopping at Walmart. They had 3 briskets for $.76 per pound. They were not USDA graded, but were USA inspected. Probably imported. I asked a meat man what grade they were and he said select. I said BULL. He went to ask his boss, came back and said they didn't know. I didn't buy any of them.

I went to Albertson's and found one stamped USDA select. I was tempted, but have 3 in the freezer so I didn't buy it either. $1.49 per pound.

Stogie...You are just like a crash course from an encyclopedia. According to your explanation of the USDA grade being voluntary, the two different meat guys in Albertsons lied to me. And I believe you. They both said anything in Albertson's that wasn't marked at all was select and that all they handled was select and choice.

Further adventures on my education will continue on the next post.
 
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