Select Grade Brisket Dry?

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Hi Stogie,
So the CAB meats...will they also have the grade listed on the package? Or when you get a CAB brisket, do you have any idea if it is Select, Choice, or Prime? Or does the package only say "CAB". Seems like that wouldn't really be fair to not know what grade of CAB you are buying.
Pot luck then...lol.
 
My wife and I stop in to "Bubba's" restaurant every time we are in Cody WY for BBQ lunch. They serve pulled pork, brisket, and spare ribs. Their meat is very good and the sides are good, plus they are consistant. Any body going to Yellowstone should eat there. Its right on the route out of town close to Walmart and the prices are low. $5.50 for brisket with two sides for lunch.

And now the good part. Today I ate the brisket and it was fantastic. Good taste and very moist. And fall apart tender. The manager came around so I asked him what grade of beef it was. He said it was USDA inspected and he didn't know beef was graded. I said it must be of a better grade because it is so moist. He said the moisture was in the cooking and told me how he cooks it.

He sears it in 240 degree hickory smoke for one hour, then double raps it in foil and does it at 180 degrees overnight for 12 more hours. I asked him if he did the point and flat together or separated them. This question confused him so he took me back to the walk in cooler and showed me a packaged brisket. It was a USDA choice flat. No Point!!
Now putting 2 and 2 together I don't figure he has a third shift, so he probably smokes the brisket for an hour then finishes it in an electric or gas oven. This answers the question of why his wood pile don't go down as fast as I think it should. He has to get his hickory from Texas and until today I figured the shipping had to kill him.

It doesn't matter to me how he does it he is building a h*ll of a business. I have already had to skip him at noon because the line to get in was too long. Went in today at 1:30 and the parking lot was full. I would rate his food a 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 only because there must be some better somewhere.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by WyoJim:
[qb]This is a good thread. Deteriorated a little at the end, but then most of them do.[/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Looks like this thread kind of picked up and caught fire again! /infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Here's a link to the USDA website on the subject of inspection and grading:

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/oa/pubs/ingrade.htm

Tons of other good meat and food topics at this site.

Regards,
Chris
 
Thanks for posting that link Chris! I was just about to do that as well.

Here is a link to the CAB site.
CAB info

For the record...I have tried some CAB ground beef and was not overly impressed with it, especially the cost, about double the regular stuff. I will have to compare the steaks in my next run.

Also, I have had a Texas rancher tell me, all you are paying for is a fancy black coat of fur! Again, very subjective and only one man's opinion.
 
WyoJim,
The method you describe is virtually identical to that touted by Walter Jetton (caterer to LBJ). He would build an open pit by wiring together sheetmetal and place a grate on top. He would then burn in a bed of oak coals. He "seared" his brisket long enough to darken and smoke and then transferred it to a coal heated dutch oven till tender. Produced a very tender brisket and rave reviews from anyone who attended one of LBJ's BBQs. I presume he used points also.

Edit: I mean flat -- not point.

Many years ago a BBQ joint I used to frequent, Randy Sims in College Station, Texas used to cook a similar brisket as you describe. It was a very popular place!

I think foil wrapping a direct seared point in a WSM ought to pretty much duplicate the old Jetton method.
 
fjt, once it is wrapped in foil why not just finish it in the oven? Seems like at that point the heat source won't matter, and electricity is cheaper than charcoal. I'm not being critical, just wondering.
 
Well I did a brisket with similar method to the restaurant method I posted about above. I say similar because I ran into some minor snags. The brisket was not graded so I figure it was not even a select grade. I separated the point from the flat and there was NO fat between them.

A chimney and a half of Kingsford ran the dome temperature of the WSM up to 270 in about half an hour with NO water in the pan and all of the vents wide open. I put 4 lumps of hickory in and then put the point on the bottom rack and the flat on the top one. I laid some trimmed fat on top of the flat. About an hour later the dome was back to 270 so I closed the bottom vents to 1/2.

The temperature climbed up to about 290 and slowly retreated to 260 within an hour so I took them off, double rapped them in foil and put them in a gas fired oven in our kitchen. I had my polder through a potato on the grate in the gas oven. I had been fooling around with it for some time and finally got its temp to run from 283 to 298, so in they went.

10 hours later I took them out. Internal temperature of both of them was 298. This to me was a surprise because I would not have thought the meat could get up to the oven temp. With great difficulty I sliced them. They were fall apart tender. The flat was really, really moist compared to my previous attempts. I use a variation of Danny Gauldens all purpose rub and the taste was superb.

The family said it was as good or better than the brisket I keep bring home from restaurants, so this will have to be my method until I can find a better piece of meat.
Next time I have to try to get the kitchen oven to function at a lower temp (around 180) or take the meats temperature at about 8 hours.
 
Might be easier to just wrap and put back in the smoker. I know in warm weather, our house can get pretty hot from running the kitchen oven for several hours, even with the AC running.

I seem to recall reading posts somewhere from someone who uses a similar method.

They smoke the briskets the same as usual, either marinated/dry rub or both. Fat side up for about 4-6 hours at 225-250, then they wrap them with foil and put back in the smoker for another 4-6 hours. I think they also add some liquid (broth etc), but not sure.

They said the results were spectacular, but they were afraid to post about it because they might get ridiculed for using foil.

If cooking at home or in a restaurant...just do what ever gives you the final product people like best.
 
For comprtition we cook them in the WSM, but around the house or for catering jobs, we smoke them the first 4-5 hours, then put them in a half pan (we only cook flats)add salt, pepper, slice a BIG onion, add a little water, cover with foil and put back in the smoker or the oven and finish cooking. Folks around here just love it. Will be doing about 5 briskets this coming weekend for a an annual festival we do every year.
 
Yes, Rocky I did mean flat not point.

I should point out that the Randy Sims restaurant that used the above described foil wrap cook had to slice pretty thick even for sandwiches just to keep the brisket together. Also, I dont remember much of a smokering or a nice bark. Very good taste though and as I said very popular. Back then a lot of people used to refer to the brisket as kind of "steamed". I guess it was - sort of.

Across the highway was Arnolds BBQ. An old red shack of a place with a wood fired brick pit and a few card tables and picnic tables. This was my favorite Q joint. Tender, but not fall apart, brisket with a deep smoke ring and obvious bark. They served on butcher paper with Old Hickory knives a la Luling City Meat Market or Kreuz Market. The sauce was thin in the Sonny Bryan style. Great stuff. Customers ordered by the pound including sides. Onions pickles and jalapenos and sliced white bread were free. Sandwiches were made by you at your table if you wanted one. Until the Texas liquor Conrol Board changed things Arnold had two Coke machines. One held beer long necks. I don't remember if Arnold had chicken or ribs I just always ordered brisket. Both places are long gone but not forgotten.
 
Was the brisket moist & juicy? I have had tender brisket before that was still kind of dry though.

I love the kind of places you are talking about. Eastern North Carolina & the Piedmont areas have excellent little BBQ joints like that (but not for brisket lol).

Greenville, Goldsboro, Wilson, Lexington, Shelby, Asheboro, Fayetteville, Ayden, Rocky Mount, High Point, Burlington, Chapel Hill, Greensboro, Tarboro, Wilkesboro, are like being in BBQ heaven!! (Plus hundreds of other towns). On every corner there is either a church or a BBQ joint (or both...lol).
 
Rocky, they were both moist. Sims was very moist.

I tried Central Texan BBQ in Castroville, CA this weekend. Just as you describe it was tender but not juicy. It was nice and shiney when sliced from the fat cap the knife went through but the brisket kind of soaked it up pretty fast once on the plate. Had a deep smoke ring and thick bark with a pretty smokey taste. Nothing foil wrapped here. They were held in an inside lower temp brick pit and served from there. Ribs were held in plastic wrap though. Maybe some of the California Q'ers can coment more on Central Texan vs Armadillo Willies??? I might want to give Willies a shot next time I'm in CA.
 
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