Wagyu brisket for the Superbowl: results with photos


 
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Eric Simon

TVWBB Fan
Greetings! Thanks to a lot of advice and help from this forum, I successfully smoked a Wagyu beef brisket for the Superbowl. I was asked to post photos of the results, so here you go.

I mail ordered the Wagyu, and it arrived fresh (never frozen) in Cryovac, weighing in at 14.5 pounds:

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The meat was beautifully marbled:

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I have very little experience trimming meat, so I'm sure a few of you will be horrified by my hack job! Luckily, the meat was largely trimmed and didn't require much work on my part.

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I used a fairly basic rub (black pepper, kosher salt, smoked paprika, garlic powder, chili powder) and let it sit for several hours in the cold:

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I fired up the grill and midnight and let her rip!

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The meat went on just before 1AM. I used the Stoker to keep the temperature around 225F, which was quite a challenge since it was 5F and windy outside all night.

At 6AM, I sprayed with apple juice, flipped, and turned:

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By 2PM (13 hours in) the meat was 190F and fork tender, so I foiled it in a cooler for several hours to rest.

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I separated the point from the flat:

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I chopped the point. It had a wonderful soft texture:

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I sliced the flat using the guide cut that I made when trimming. The meat was tender but held together well for a thin slicing. And the smoke ring is pretty apparent!

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It came out awesome, I must say. Flavorful, with a good amount of smoke, and a great texture. The guests loved it. It's amazing how a good cut of meat and slow smoking can overcome the inexperience of the cook!

Thanks for all the advice that made this happen, and thanks for reading!
 
Nice looking cook, great smoke ring and the bark looks awesome. I'm hungry now and I just ate dinner.
 
That looks absolutely awesome Eric! I've been waiting for pics, so thanks. Bravo!!!
By the way, did you finally inject or not? What kind of rub?
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wow...that looks amazing. I've been wanting to do a brisket so bad. Getting my stoker tomorrow based on the Fedex tracking.

Question though...where is the guide cut you put in the brisket during trimming? I don't see it...never heard of that trick but it sounds ingenious!
 
Eric, I was very keen to see how this cook turned out. Looks great, the Wagyu beef is more costly but I take it you now feel it was well worth it.
 
Great looking brisket. Thanks for posting the pictures. I too was curious about this wagyu brisket. Glad to hear it went well for you.
 
Nice job. Beautiful piece of meat.

I was intrigued by the anatomical differences between your wagyu brisket and typical packers. Two key differences seem to be the thickness of the flat and the position of the point (the pic with the removed point appears as if it was more toward the side of flat).

I've been playing around with some locally produced angus briskets but I've yet to score a whole packer, but from what I've seen they seem similar to yours (minus the intense marbling) with thin flats.

I googled wagyu to see if they are similar to angus, this is from wikipedia:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content"> United States

In the United States, Japanese wagy? cattle were bred with Angus cattle to create a crossbred animal that would be more able to survive the U.S. climate and ranching methods. The meat of this crossbreed was more marketable to the American buyer. To the American buyer, the meat of the Wagy? cow was "too white."[citation needed] The meat of the crossbreed provided the balance of marbling and red meat desired by American buyers. This crossbreed has been named American Style Kobe Beef and was originally produced for export to Japan but is now available world-wide.

Designed to mimic the diet that Japanese cattle were receiving, wagy? cattle in the United States are fed a mixture of corn, alfalfa, barley, and wheat straw.

As of 2007 the U.S. cannot ship wagy? beef to Japan as Japan requires that beef imported from the U.S. be from cattle not older than 20 months (wagy? cattle are usually slaughtered at 30–35 months).[4] </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

so the wagyu are crossed with angus which might account for the similarities.

Interesting that Americans that chow down on crazy amounts of fat at mcdonalds, are scared of marbled beef.
 
Thanks for all the kind words! I couldn't have done it without the help posted on this board.

Gary: I did not inject. I went with a pretty basic rub (salt, pepper, garlic, smoked paprika, chili powder) of my own creation.

TedVu: You can see the guide cut in the photo of the raw meat with the rub. Notice the piece of meat cut off toward the lower right of the photo. I read about that trick in a few places: cut a slide off when the meat is raw and unrubbed so that you can clearly see the grain of the meat. That way, when the brisket is done and blackened, you can know how to cut across the grain by cutting parallel to the guide cut.

Don: Good eye! I am a biology professor and got that ruler at a meeting.

Chris/Jamie: I mail ordered the wagyu brisket from Paradise Locker Meats: http://www.paradisemeats.com/beef.html
I am happy with what they sent. While I was at it, I got some wagyu burger (which went into a bolognese sauce) and a big whole pork belly (which went into the freezer, awaiting a future occasion!).
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by j biesinger:
Nice job. Beautiful piece of meat.

I was intrigued by the anatomical differences between your wagyu brisket and typical packers. Two key differences seem to be the thickness of the flat and the position of the point (the pic with the removed point appears as if it was more toward the side of flat).

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

J.,
I noticed the same thing about the Wagyu that I purchased from Paradise as well. I'd believe it's more the style of the butcher than the difference in the meat. My impressions are that Paradise or their supplier really preps them for Competitions because of the large size of the flat compared to the point. On both of the Wagyu briskets I cooked the points ended up being just over 2 LBS when the cook ended, 13 LBS uncooked Brisket.

Here are two pictures of my finished brisket form the same source as Eric.

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From the other side, The length is about 13" and the width is at least 8"
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And sliced
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">My impressions are that Paradise or their supplier really preps them for Competitions because of the large size of the flat compared to the point. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

thanks for the info, good stuff.

I was more curious about the thickness of the flat. I've cooked one angus brisket from a local source that had some decent marbling, and was considering trying to compete with them. The only downside was that the flat was pretty thin (like eric's) which are easier to overcook and don't look as nice.
 
Even though the flat was pretty thin, the slices glisten with moisture and look liked they were cooked to the perfect doneness.... and the bark looks fantastic, just what you'd expect from a low and slow cook.

...so the $3.99 a pound queastion: Was the flavor worth the price to you? No...I know what that answer is. If you were me, the queastion would be: "Will your wife let you order another one anytime soon?"

Regards,
Dave
 
Jeff and Dave: I would definitely say that I noticed a difference with these wagyu briskets: they were moister and more flavorful due to the quality of the marbling of the meat. I also really liked the way that Paradise prepped the packers.

Was it worth it? Well, that depends. If I were cooking for someone I loved, then yes, this does create the best possible product. If I were cooking for a comp, probably not; until I get my method totally smoothed out, I imagine that the other variables involved in the process will dominate over the differences in the starting quality of the meat.
 
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