Well approximately 72 days ago I began the journey of aging and cooking a Grass Fed, Grass Finished Brisket I sourced at my local grocer...
The Disclaimer
First before I report on the results, I want all to know that this is what I call culinary experimentation. It's not meant to be a suggestion that anyone necessarily do this. I share it because I think sometimes we need get outside of our cozy cooking bubble and explore new ways of preparing and thus improving how we cook meats. If you take something away from this, great. If it's just out of curiosity that you read this then that's fine too.
What I'm trying to say is for all the naysayers, boo birds, doubters and haters, if this isn't your thing then move on to the next post. I'm sure there are tons of normal brisket cooks coming your way.
The Brisket
The brisket itself, as you can see, is a new product line offered at our local HEB grocers. They have teamed with local Texas ranchers and are offering true grass fed, grass finished beef. Although I'm not that familiar with the product, some of the steaks I've had didn't have the same flavor profile I'm used to in grain finished but thought this unique enough to give it a try.
One thing I did notice was the trimming was very good, it had a consistent thickness and the meat itself had a dark, almost mahogany color. I could have smoked it as normal and been done with it one way or the other. Insead I decided it was time to use some alternative techniques to get it as tender as possible.
The Dry Age
A few months back I also did some experimenting with dry aging a prime brisket. I was doubtful that the results would be anything near what they were in similar attempts by some YouTubers. Much to my surprise it turned out pretty spectacular. So given that, I figured this brisket would be a prime candidate for aging. I've never cooked a grass fed brisket and figured it could use some help it breaking down the protein fibers prior to cooking. So I Umai bagged it and put it in my frig for 60 days.
So day 60 came and I pulled it and weighed it. I also cut off the hard pellicle crust that forms during the dry age process.
Note that I lost 30% of its volume in weight due to the dry aging process. Meat that was around $5.50/lb now became worth $8/lb. One of the down sides to dry aging, you lose a lot of product to moisture evaporation. What you gain is concentrated depth of flavor and the beginnings of protein breakdown due to the natural enzymes found within the meat itself.
The Cook
Now that I've got it aged, it's time to cook it. Thinking outside the box once again, I decided this was a perfect candidate for QVQ cooking. My wife really prefers rare beef and I find that when I make well done smoked brisket, regardless of how good it is, she's just not a big fan. Plus I wanted to take the tenderness as far as I could.
So after a good trim and seasoning, I smoked it at 275* with some oak chunks until the internal temperature reached somewhere in the 120* range, or rare. I bagged it and put it into a sous vide bath at 130* for the next 72 hours.
The Results
Well it was a very interesting outcome, in some ways I achieved what I set out to achieve but in terms of the product itself it was a bloody disaster. After the 72 hour bath, I ice bathed it and stuck it in my refrigerator for the weekend final smoke and finale. The weekend came and I planned to cook it for a big meal on Sunday.
All seemed well, I pulled it when it got up to about 125* in the thinnest part, let it rest for about 20 minutes then carved. Much to my dismay, and what I could not see from the exterior, the entire brisket was simply fat, maybe 60% fat. The normal fat that renders did so, but most of what was left was the inedible, off putting deckle fat type.
Here are the pictures, I just went ahead and carved it all. It sort of had the appearance of pork belly bacon more than that of brisket. The medium rare finish was spot on. When the fat was cut away, the actual meat itself was very beefy (as expected from dry aging) as well as very tender. What little we salvaged was really very good. The amount we threw away dang near made me sick.
I roughly figured my overall yield was about 3# of meat, or about a 75% lose to processing, cooking and inedible portion. So at the end of the day I ended up with a $21.80/lb brisket meal.
The takeaway on the positive side was this process. Although some would consider ridiculously long, the combination of aging and QVQ really does work. I'm thinking about trying this with some chuck or other cuts that would benefit from this type of aging/cooking.
The obvious negative is having been stuck with a poor piece of meat. Since I'm not a big grass finished beef fan anyway, I'm probably not going to buy this product ever again. Their wagyu and prime briskets are way better and in the case of prime, actually much cheaper. If any of my Texas brothers have cooked one of these, I'd like to hear your take on it.
Sometimes you bite the bear....sometimes the bear bites you !!!
Troutman, poster of things good AND bad, is out !!!
The Disclaimer
First before I report on the results, I want all to know that this is what I call culinary experimentation. It's not meant to be a suggestion that anyone necessarily do this. I share it because I think sometimes we need get outside of our cozy cooking bubble and explore new ways of preparing and thus improving how we cook meats. If you take something away from this, great. If it's just out of curiosity that you read this then that's fine too.
What I'm trying to say is for all the naysayers, boo birds, doubters and haters, if this isn't your thing then move on to the next post. I'm sure there are tons of normal brisket cooks coming your way.
The Brisket
The brisket itself, as you can see, is a new product line offered at our local HEB grocers. They have teamed with local Texas ranchers and are offering true grass fed, grass finished beef. Although I'm not that familiar with the product, some of the steaks I've had didn't have the same flavor profile I'm used to in grain finished but thought this unique enough to give it a try.
One thing I did notice was the trimming was very good, it had a consistent thickness and the meat itself had a dark, almost mahogany color. I could have smoked it as normal and been done with it one way or the other. Insead I decided it was time to use some alternative techniques to get it as tender as possible.
The Dry Age
A few months back I also did some experimenting with dry aging a prime brisket. I was doubtful that the results would be anything near what they were in similar attempts by some YouTubers. Much to my surprise it turned out pretty spectacular. So given that, I figured this brisket would be a prime candidate for aging. I've never cooked a grass fed brisket and figured it could use some help it breaking down the protein fibers prior to cooking. So I Umai bagged it and put it in my frig for 60 days.
So day 60 came and I pulled it and weighed it. I also cut off the hard pellicle crust that forms during the dry age process.
Note that I lost 30% of its volume in weight due to the dry aging process. Meat that was around $5.50/lb now became worth $8/lb. One of the down sides to dry aging, you lose a lot of product to moisture evaporation. What you gain is concentrated depth of flavor and the beginnings of protein breakdown due to the natural enzymes found within the meat itself.
The Cook
Now that I've got it aged, it's time to cook it. Thinking outside the box once again, I decided this was a perfect candidate for QVQ cooking. My wife really prefers rare beef and I find that when I make well done smoked brisket, regardless of how good it is, she's just not a big fan. Plus I wanted to take the tenderness as far as I could.
So after a good trim and seasoning, I smoked it at 275* with some oak chunks until the internal temperature reached somewhere in the 120* range, or rare. I bagged it and put it into a sous vide bath at 130* for the next 72 hours.
The Results
Well it was a very interesting outcome, in some ways I achieved what I set out to achieve but in terms of the product itself it was a bloody disaster. After the 72 hour bath, I ice bathed it and stuck it in my refrigerator for the weekend final smoke and finale. The weekend came and I planned to cook it for a big meal on Sunday.
All seemed well, I pulled it when it got up to about 125* in the thinnest part, let it rest for about 20 minutes then carved. Much to my dismay, and what I could not see from the exterior, the entire brisket was simply fat, maybe 60% fat. The normal fat that renders did so, but most of what was left was the inedible, off putting deckle fat type.
Here are the pictures, I just went ahead and carved it all. It sort of had the appearance of pork belly bacon more than that of brisket. The medium rare finish was spot on. When the fat was cut away, the actual meat itself was very beefy (as expected from dry aging) as well as very tender. What little we salvaged was really very good. The amount we threw away dang near made me sick.
I roughly figured my overall yield was about 3# of meat, or about a 75% lose to processing, cooking and inedible portion. So at the end of the day I ended up with a $21.80/lb brisket meal.
The takeaway on the positive side was this process. Although some would consider ridiculously long, the combination of aging and QVQ really does work. I'm thinking about trying this with some chuck or other cuts that would benefit from this type of aging/cooking.
The obvious negative is having been stuck with a poor piece of meat. Since I'm not a big grass finished beef fan anyway, I'm probably not going to buy this product ever again. Their wagyu and prime briskets are way better and in the case of prime, actually much cheaper. If any of my Texas brothers have cooked one of these, I'd like to hear your take on it.
Sometimes you bite the bear....sometimes the bear bites you !!!
Troutman, poster of things good AND bad, is out !!!
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