Trying to get my Norwegian butcher to make me a brisket


 
U

Ulf Rasmussen

TVWBB Member
Hi guys! I live all the way over in Norway, and an annoying thing related to that is that the different cuts of meat here are sometimes different from the US cuts normally used for BBQ. After some discussion and google images searching, my butcher now knows what I want when I ask for a pork shoulder, so that's good.

Next challenge is to get him to do a brisket cut for me. Now, I've eaten brisket several times in Texas, but never saw a whole one in real life. One question there, does a brisket have any bone in it, or is it all meat and fat?

If there are other Norwegians or Scandinavians here, do you know what the cut is called in our countries? I've tried comparing the diagrams of cuts found on this site (great btw!) to some Norwegian ones and it looks like the brisket cut doesn't exist. Do UK guys have a cut like the US brisket one? What's it called there?
 
Alright, thanks Chad. I've done more research and it might be called oksebryst in Norwegian (cow chest). I'll print some charts and take them to the butcher, wish me luck, haha...
 
Hi ulf,

the brisket is below the fron ribs and just behind the front leg.

bring this chart with you, and brig a pictures of a whole brisket uncooked .... if he can't do it, find another butcher.... for the brisket pictures, go to google.ca, click "images" and search for whole beef brisket. good luck !

http://sugarcreekpiedmontese.com/beefchart51201.pdf
 
Thanks Louis! Not a lot of butchers to choose from in Oslo I'm afraid, but I trust this one will get it right if I have my documentation in order...
 
Hi Ulf. I did a google search on oskebryst and looked at a great deal of google images. Oskebryst looks similiar but definitely seems to be cut differently. Some pics looked almost like a brisket flat vs. a whole packer. It was cut in a more rectangular fashion than our flats though. Something else that I noted in images of cooked oskebryst most appear to be cooked to medium rare doneness which would be quite an undesireable thing for a tough brisket cut. In short, I think your getting close maybe, however it doesn't quite look "right". At least not the same as ours over here anyway.

Not sure if corned beef is something your butcher would be familiar with, but the point of brisket is often used for making corned beef. That must be where all the points cut off of our flats go because I sure can't find anyplace to buy just points for burnt ends.

Anyway, good luck in your search and please let us know what you discover. I'm quite interested in what you figure out. It's hard for me to imagine being somewhere without brisket.
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Good idea Chad. Had a look myself, and these are mostly Danish pages, it's obviously more of a thing in Denmark than Norway. This one seems to be doing it "brisket style" but I want a bigger chunk of meat than that. After done it also looks to be cut the "wrong way", if you see what I mean on the pictures? Isn't brisket cutting across the muscle fibers?
http://www.grillguru.dk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3415
 
Originally posted by Ulf Rasmussen:
Good idea Chad. Had a look myself, and these are mostly Danish pages, it's obviously more of a thing in Denmark than Norway. This one seems to be doing it "brisket style" but I want a bigger chunk of meat than that. After done it also looks to be cut the "wrong way", if you see what I mean on the pictures? Isn't brisket cutting across the muscle fibers?
http://www.grillguru.dk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3415
Click to expand...

That one does appear to at least be cooked to a similiar doneness like we would take brisket to here. I agree something is odd the way it's being cut as well. Flats are definitely sliced across the grain. Points can be cubed for burnt ends or shredded for BBQ beef sandwiches similiar to pulled pork IMO. I make burnt ends 99.9% of the time. That's my favorite.

It's hard to tell for certain, but the pics you linked to look very much like a small point or part of a point with a very little bit of flat left under it. The pic that shows the thin strip of fat between the two muscle groups really brings that out to me. Whatever it is, it is small and shaped different than what I'm used to seeing as a whole brisket.

When I translate the webpage with "Google Translate" it reads both "a small beef chest" and "brisket of beef" at times. Not sure what is lost and/or gained in translation though. I am unfortunately not nearly as proficient with your language as you are mine.
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Once you and your butcher understand what a "Full-Packer Brisket" is -

Some of our other Norweigan / Swedish members hunt or have friends who hunt Moose. I would bet that Moose Brisket would be good (perhaps they have more bones / less meat in that area).
 
Good idea Ron, I know some people who hunt moose. Problem with moose meat compared to beef is it's super-lean. No fat. So low & slow can be difficult with some cuts, they dry out real easy. I've done low & slow poaching in red wine with some of those cuts, and that works well, but that's a bit on the side of this whole Q thing isn't it.
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So, I talked to my butcher on the phone today. They have something called oksebryst, and they say the whole piece is about 22-25 pounds. They did ask me if I wanted bone-in or not though. This sound like brisket to you? Weight-wise it's about right I think?

Hopefully I'll get time to go and look at it and show them some brisket pictures later today.

The quest continues...
 
I have looked around like crasy as well. I have ordered a "bringa" the chest peice of an cow a few times. But the end product have always had a BIG fatty vein in it. You need to show em pics of what you want couse they will cut it up in a way that you wont se on this forum. The original "Oksebryst" here in Sweden is not anything near a Brisket. Good luck and report back mate!
 
Originally posted by Ulf Rasmussen:
So, I talked to my butcher on the phone today. They have something called oksebryst, and they say the whole piece is about 22-25 pounds. They did ask me if I wanted bone-in or not though. This sound like brisket to you? Weight-wise it's about right I think?

Hopefully I'll get time to go and look at it and show them some brisket pictures later today.

The quest continues...
Click to expand...

Doesn't really sound right to me Ulf. Definitely not a bone in or out item here like pork butts are. And that is quite heavy as well. Full packer briskets probably average 10-12 lbs. with a small one being 8+ lbs. and a BIG one being 16 lbs. or so. Like everything, I'm sure there has been a brisket smaller or larger than what I've outlined here, however they would be pretty rare. I can't really give you a number for the largest packer trim I've ever run across but I do know I've not seen one even 20 lbs., let alone the 22-25 lb. range your butcher is talking about.

I'm kind of at a loss....this really doesn't seem like it should be this difficult.
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Finally had time to see my butcher today, to pick up two pork butts I ordered yesterday (also a different cut than Norwegian cuts, so a lot of back and forth to get it right).

Anywho, at the moment I'm out of the house, and the "brisket" is in my trunk, I'll post a pic later today. But it's basically what was on the left-hand side of the pieces you see in the picture. This piece is the oksebryst, and I guess you can see on the right is where they took away the ribs (I presume?). So I selected the piece that is missing on the left, a rectangular, sort of flat piece, only about 2 inches thick at the most.

Doesn't seem right to me, but that is the bottom part of the cow's chest.
http://bbqviking.com/?attachment_id=349

Isn't that anatomically the right piece? Could this problem of mine also be related to the fact that this piece comes from a type of cow used for milk and beef, aka not a pure meat breed of cow... I would assume a Hereford would have thicker pieces of meat all over? They do have steaks from Hereford, Angus and the French Limousine, so once I get the anatomical part right, I could try and order up some cow chest from a real beefy cow...

Edit: home now, so here's the picture of the piece I selected, cut off from the left hand side of the above pic:
http://bbqviking.com/?attachment_id=350
 
You know, it may very well be. But it is also likely that it has already been cut up into pieces rather than what we know as a brisket (point/flat and/or full packer).

I came across some Danish recipes that call for a "1 kg piece of brisket meat" is why I say that.
 
yeah one of the guys at the butcher store is danish. bull chest (i guess it would be translated to brisket meat) is very popular there, they boil it for 4 hours he tells me. in norway too those parts can be called 'stew beef', used to make soups and stews. hm.. i would like to see the piece i bought today from a full fledged beef breed like hereford or limousin...
 
So, made my "Norwegian brisket" yesterday for some guests. It was real tasty. Just rubbed it the day before, covered it in plastic and kept it in the fridge overnight. Had it on my kettle with two pork butts for about 10-11 hours and let it rest for some time, then slices it thinly across the fibers. It was a tad try, but not bad for my first "brisket" try..

Here are some pictures that speak louder than words:
http://bbqviking.com/2012/06/1...y-ii-2/web_img_7199/
http://bbqviking.com/2012/06/1...y-ii-2/web_img_7203/
http://bbqviking.com/2012/06/1...y-ii-2/web_img_7216/
http://bbqviking.com/2012/06/1...y-ii-2/web_img_7235/
http://bbqviking.com/2012/06/1...y-ii-2/web_img_7247/
 
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