Being that last weekend was the first weekend I have had off work since Xmas I had my game plan all ready:
1. Leave work early Friday.
2. Prep and dry brine a 10 lb brisket.
3. Get PBC all set up with new coals, get 1 lb of hickory / pecan mis ready and pack mini chimney.
4. Cook brisket all day Saturday.
5. Enjoy late Saturday and Sunday during the ball games.
Step 1 - Check.
Step 2 - Stop.
Everything came to an immediate halt when I opened my the cryovac - it smelled pretty bad. Not like rotten meat - but just kinda skanky. Well, real skanky.
I purchased the choice brisket from Sam's for $3.69 / lb on Jan 2. The sell by date was Jan 7. After reading alot of anecdotal posts from here and other places around the web, the general rule of thumb is that a cryovaced brisket would be fine for a month after the sell by date -- in fact, many noted that you should wet age the brisket at least a week. I wet aged this one a week and two days after the sell by date in the fridge in the cryovaced packaging.
When I opened this beauty the smell filled the kitchen and then the foyer where my wife was. She immediately came in the kitchen and said, "I am not eating that!!" I told her to calm down - it was fine as I rinsed the brisket off. It was not green or any funny color. It was not slimy. I just smelled really rank.
The wife wasn't buying it. "Moreover", she told me, "don't even think of putting that rotten thing back in my fridge - it will make everything stink!". I protested. An argument ensued that ended up with me just chucking the whole smelly brisket in the outside trash can. I hated to do it, but I couldn't dry brine it properly, I didn't want to cook it Friday afternoon and even if I did put in a ton of work to cook it - no one else would probably eat it. Oh - and I had my azz on my shoulders by then.
So is a brisket supposed to smell like a mix of formaldehyde and body odor coming out of a cryovac? Previous briskets I had done just came from the standard butcher's wrap, so this was my first. I know cryovaced pork butts and ribs don't stink like that. I can handle a fail when I cook improperly, etc - but this brisket fail only made it out of the cryovac before crashing and burning.
Anyway, so after emotions cooled down and the wife admitted it wasn't rotten and I admitted it did smell really bad - we moved on. The wife and I decided to go back to Sam's and get a fresh brisket and continue with the cook plans for the weekend; unfortunately all they had was 2 horrible looking packers with extremely huge fat caps (like at least 2.5 lbs of pure fat) that were $3.69 / lb. They did have a couple of nice trimmed flats, but they were $6.79 / lb!! The cheapest was $60.
This is where the weekend cook plans changed....
Instead of buying an expensive, overpriced HOF, I spent my $60 on 3 gorgeous 1.5" thick ribeyes at $9.99 / lb ($48.00) and a pack of 8 huge skinless boneless chicken breasts at $1.88 / lb ($11.00). I dry brined the chicken and steaks and then cooked them on the Kettle w/ Vortex. I think I made the better choice - there is no way ANY brisket would be better than those reverse seared ribeyes w/ garlic ghee. The chicken was just a bonus - what was left went into some jam-up chicken salad:



Anyway, I just wanted to pick the amazing AR Pit Crew's collective brain to see if the skanky cryovaced brisket is something others have experienced and whether or not it is safe to eat. I chose better safe than sorry after smelling this one.
Actually, unless brisket prices come down in our area, not sure if I'll even pull the trigger to buy one when I can get sirloins cheaper, NY Strips for about the same price and ribeyes for $1.50-2.00 more / lb.
Thanks in advance!!
1. Leave work early Friday.
2. Prep and dry brine a 10 lb brisket.
3. Get PBC all set up with new coals, get 1 lb of hickory / pecan mis ready and pack mini chimney.
4. Cook brisket all day Saturday.
5. Enjoy late Saturday and Sunday during the ball games.
Step 1 - Check.
Step 2 - Stop.
Everything came to an immediate halt when I opened my the cryovac - it smelled pretty bad. Not like rotten meat - but just kinda skanky. Well, real skanky.
I purchased the choice brisket from Sam's for $3.69 / lb on Jan 2. The sell by date was Jan 7. After reading alot of anecdotal posts from here and other places around the web, the general rule of thumb is that a cryovaced brisket would be fine for a month after the sell by date -- in fact, many noted that you should wet age the brisket at least a week. I wet aged this one a week and two days after the sell by date in the fridge in the cryovaced packaging.
When I opened this beauty the smell filled the kitchen and then the foyer where my wife was. She immediately came in the kitchen and said, "I am not eating that!!" I told her to calm down - it was fine as I rinsed the brisket off. It was not green or any funny color. It was not slimy. I just smelled really rank.
The wife wasn't buying it. "Moreover", she told me, "don't even think of putting that rotten thing back in my fridge - it will make everything stink!". I protested. An argument ensued that ended up with me just chucking the whole smelly brisket in the outside trash can. I hated to do it, but I couldn't dry brine it properly, I didn't want to cook it Friday afternoon and even if I did put in a ton of work to cook it - no one else would probably eat it. Oh - and I had my azz on my shoulders by then.

So is a brisket supposed to smell like a mix of formaldehyde and body odor coming out of a cryovac? Previous briskets I had done just came from the standard butcher's wrap, so this was my first. I know cryovaced pork butts and ribs don't stink like that. I can handle a fail when I cook improperly, etc - but this brisket fail only made it out of the cryovac before crashing and burning.
Anyway, so after emotions cooled down and the wife admitted it wasn't rotten and I admitted it did smell really bad - we moved on. The wife and I decided to go back to Sam's and get a fresh brisket and continue with the cook plans for the weekend; unfortunately all they had was 2 horrible looking packers with extremely huge fat caps (like at least 2.5 lbs of pure fat) that were $3.69 / lb. They did have a couple of nice trimmed flats, but they were $6.79 / lb!! The cheapest was $60.
This is where the weekend cook plans changed....
Instead of buying an expensive, overpriced HOF, I spent my $60 on 3 gorgeous 1.5" thick ribeyes at $9.99 / lb ($48.00) and a pack of 8 huge skinless boneless chicken breasts at $1.88 / lb ($11.00). I dry brined the chicken and steaks and then cooked them on the Kettle w/ Vortex. I think I made the better choice - there is no way ANY brisket would be better than those reverse seared ribeyes w/ garlic ghee. The chicken was just a bonus - what was left went into some jam-up chicken salad:
Anyway, I just wanted to pick the amazing AR Pit Crew's collective brain to see if the skanky cryovaced brisket is something others have experienced and whether or not it is safe to eat. I chose better safe than sorry after smelling this one.
Actually, unless brisket prices come down in our area, not sure if I'll even pull the trigger to buy one when I can get sirloins cheaper, NY Strips for about the same price and ribeyes for $1.50-2.00 more / lb.
Thanks in advance!!
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