Is this brisket really worth nearly $20/lb? I'm a backyard guy who likes to treat friends and family and usually buy either Costco or HEB prime briskets to smoke with fairly good consistency, certainly better than the base packers. Given some thought to trying WAGYU but is $200+ for a piece of meat really worth it? Love to hear comments.
(Editorial note: Spent $300 for some Copper River Alaskan King Salmon so go figure !!)
John "JR"
Minnesota/ United States of America
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I have never cooked one. To me it isn't worth it. i don't think it can be $150.00 better that the USDA Prime briskets I cook. Maybe I will feel differently after I finally cook one. I do know several people that have cooked them, and some say it's worth it some say it's not. That being said, it will be fun when I do choose to make one. If you're willing to buy Alaskan King salmon at a premium, then go for it. Consider it your Regal meat list. Wagyu has to be on that list and this brisket would get you that check mark!
I've cooked some Snake River Farms Wagyu briskets and think they are worth the money. I don't live in a part of the country where one can routinely just walk into their grocery store and find prime packers for less than $3/lb. In my area they are normally twice that.
Currently their Black grades 14-16 pounders are running about $10/lb and their Gold grade 14-16 pounders are about $14/lb.
Last Thanksgiving SRF had a BOGO free sale on their briskets. If they do that again this year take advantage of that and give them a try. You may find they are not worth it all the time but I certainly think they are worth at least an occasional splurge. For me the BOGO sale made it a no brainer as the cost per pound was close to what I would normally pay in my area. Even at their normal price tho I would still buy one or two per year. I might buy more if I was more of a brisket person but I'm more a pork/chicken type.
$14/lb is the base price but adding in shipping and then eventual fat cap and other trimmings you're pushing closer to $20/lb cooked. Regardless I may look for sales or just break down and splurge, its' on my Smokers Bucket List for sure !
During the BOGO sale shipping for my briskets $9.99. I'm guessing it might be more normally. And any brisket is going to cost more per pound after you trim off a few pounds of fat.
Somewhere around 1995 Beth and I went to a Scotch whisky tasting put on by Michael Jackson. (The MJ who wore two gloves and prefered the company of mature women.) The highlight of the event was a tasting of a $300 a bottle of Scotch. That's a lot to pay for booze now, and was much more then. And we were faced with a dilemma...
What if we just loved it so much we could never again tolerate a lesser whisky? We probably wouldn't be drinking much whisky then, huh?
What if we didn't care for it at all? What would that say about our taste?
At the end of the tasting, yes it was good. Very good. However, we'd had as good for considerably less. And we could continue enjoying whisky without spending our kid's inheritance.
Bottom line - if you can afford the salmon, you can afford to try the beef. And then you can decide if it was worth it.
Last edited by Mike76266; September 7, 2017, 06:12 PM.
I have the exact same thoughts about wine, is a bottle worth $100 or not? Typically I drink $20-25 offerings and find anything more a rare treat but not an everyday event. Good advice none the less.
OK while searching the old Interweb for other WAGYU deals I ran across this baby, it a true Japanese A-5 boneless ribeye roast for a mere $100/lb !!! Man that brisket is sounding mighty tempting at this point.....hmmmmm
I have cooked about 15 SRF black briskets. I have also cooked a couple golds. If you are going to pay the money for SRF, buy gold. The wagyu is really an angus/wagyu cross. The marbling and extra moisture/fat content is excellent and is easier to cook. You can get results about 80-90% as good by injecting a costco prime. So is 10x the money worth 10% better quality? probably not.
HOWEVER, I do recommend trying to find a quality prime brisket that is close to the angus wagyu cross. Don't get me wrong, I love costco prime brisket at $3-3.50/lb however it is commodity prime and the marbling is hardly there. I have competed and cooked Brandt Beef prime briskets and to me, that's where it's at. Higher quality than costco, close to SRF black if not on par, and about half the price (usually $75-80 each brisket before shipping).
No problem. Call Johnny up and ask him for one of his wagyu's with the thickest flat in the batch. Once you smoke one of his, you will find out why all of the rest of these guys are wrong. Carry on.
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Wrote a long response. Deleted it. Here's the "too long, didn't read" version ..... $15/lb to make something that is supposed to be $2.99/lb poor man's food is crazy. :-)
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I have cooked about 15 SRF black briskets. I have also cooked a couple golds. If you are going to pay the money for SRF, buy gold. The wagyu is really an angus/wagyu cross. The marbling and extra moisture/fat content is excellent and is easier to cook.
Huh. I think that the Black is close enough to the Gold that I order the Black. I've done 2 Gold and 3 Black, and all have been superb. One note, I ordered a couple of the 16-18, and the waste was greater than the 14-16, and they were oddly shaped: very long and thin. I'm going 14-16 from here on.
On the 2fer sale last Thanksgiving, it worked out to about $6.75/lb, IIRC. Brisket is $6.99/lb for trimmed flats here in NEPA. I may be mistaken, but you'll have that waste on any full packer you buy, won't you? Even Costco's briskets will need to be trimmed.
I buy a Costco Prime packer for $2.99/lb. I typically buy a 14-15 lb packer. My trim is usually about 4 lbs, resulting in a 10-11 lb brisket. So, doing the math, that takes my brisket to a trimmed cost of $4/lb.
Hi, my name is Darrell. I'm an OTR truck driver for over 25 years. During my off time I love doing backyard cooks. I have a 48" Lang Deluxe smoker, Rec-Tec pellet smoker,1 Weber Genesis 330, 1 Weber Performer (blue), 2 Weber kettles (1 black and 1 Copper), 1 26" Weber kettle, a WSM, 8 Maverick Redi Chek thermometers, a PartyQ, 2 SnS, Grill Grates, Cast Iron grates, 1 ThermoPop (orange) and 2 ThermoPens (pink and orange) and planning on adding more cooking accessories. Now I have an Anova sous vide, the Dragon blower and 2 Chef alarms from Thermoworks.
Wagyu has to be on that list and this brisket would get you that check mark!
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