I need to deliver about 8.5 pounds of cooked brisket to my daughter’s school in about a week and was looking at briskets at costco. They only have behemoth 20+ pound packers. I passed on them because I’m not confident that it will fit and am skittish about cook time. Have any of you done such a big brisket?
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Yes, and while they sell you a 20+ lb brisket, there's not 20+ lbs of meat after it's been trimmed. You take off most of the fat cap and square up the thin part of the flat and you're gonna lose 5-7 lbs easily. And as far as cook time goes, crank 'er up to 275 F + and you'll be fine. :-) B -
Yeah, pain in the butt to trim but nothing considerable as far as time. Many times the thickness is pretty normal, but the dang things are 2 feet long.Comment
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Thanks y’all! That is a lot of trim! We have to hit our church’s office near Midway tomorrow, so we are planning on checking out Costco Business Center nearby to see what they have. I think I would prefer 2 smaller briskets so we can save a bunch from home and get to keep a good bit of point.Comment
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The biggest I've cooked (before trimming) was 17lbs. I ran across a 26 pounder once but had three briskets in the freezer so I passed. I had two thoughts: where is the other one and how big was that Steer?Comment
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J-Melt I have found the larger the brisket the larger the waste. -
Jerod Broussard is spot on. have purchased a half-dozen or so over the years that were +20 lbs - not any more. more often than not you're trimming 3-4 inches back on the flat to get a thick-enough end. that and the "plausibly deniable" mass of nonsense usually found at the nose of the point nowadays. a 22# brisket goes on the cooker at 14#
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I've done a 20 pound brisket at least once on the Weber kettle using the SNS, but had to trim off a corner of the flat to get it to fit within the curvature of the kettle in the indirect zone. I remember the biggest issue I had was finding anywhere to put the grate probe until the meat shrunk a bit during cooking...
18 pounders I could do on a kettle or 22" kamado all day long, but I think I will avoid 22 pounders unless I'm using my offset.Comment
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Costco briskets around here are in the 20 lb range. 17 after trim.
Render that trim and get 2 pints of beautiful beef love!
*you could separate flat and point for spaceComment
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You might consider separating the point from the flat which will shorten cook time.Comment
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Found me two nice prime briskets at Costco Business Center for $4.39/pound! They are 16-17 pounds each, so much more reasonable.Attached FilesLast edited by J-Melt; June 4, 2024, 11:55 AM.Comment
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One idea is to go to a local butcher shop. If they do much brisket business, they should have a wide variety of sizes. Also, you can talk to the butcher and explain how you want it trimmed.
Places like Costco and large grocery chains typically want all pretty uniform sizes for packaging, storage, and shipping purposes. However, what is going on in the beef industry can play a part in the supply chain.
For example over the last 6+ months, the prices on slaughter-weight calves have come down. (Compared to the last 15 + years, the prices for "fats" have been good . . . but the prices skyrocketed during covid and the following period.)
Since prices were down, many ranchers and feedlot operators have been holding on to their calves and feeding them longer . . . which increases the average sizes being processed. Bigger calf means bigger brisket.
We've seen briskets that are 28+ pounds . . . which very few people are interested in. Those are usually from calves that weigh 1,800# . . . and may be 5+ months older that what would be considered "normal" age at slaughter.
Having larger/older calves does numerous good things for the quality of the beef . . . but one down side is that it produces briskets bigger than most people want.Comment
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