For my next installment featuring local and regionally sourced American Wagyu beef, I purchased a really nice full packer brisket from the A Bar N Ranch folks. Their retail operation is out of Celina, Texas just north of Dallas. Check out their website for various mail order offerings, A Bar N Ranch.
One thing that has always attracted me to the American Wagyu cross breed are the benefits you get from the meat itself. From their website I think they say it best....
"For years the American public has been told that all fat is bad, but we are here to tell you that our fat is good. That’s because Wagyu is intensely marbled with softer fat, it has higher percentages of monounsaturated fats, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, and is lower in cholesterol than commodity beef. Meaning that our Wagyu is not only rich in taste and tenderness, but it is perfectly suitable for a well-balanced and healthy diet."
Regardless I gotta say this was absolutely one of the best full packer briskets I've had in a long time. I'd put it up against a comparable SRF brisket any day. What struck me right off the bat was the fact that it came fully trimmed, not sure I've ever seen that to the degree they presented it....
I did go ahead and cut away some of that hard deckle fat between the flat and point, that never really renders anyway. Note the striations in the meat, this thing was beautifully marbled. Other than less than a pound of fat cutout, he was ready to go right from the cryovaced package ...
Started out about 12# so with the small cutout I got a great yield right around 11#, an outstanding value. Unfortunately we have a problem eating even 11# of brisket so I did what I usually do and cut off the front half of the flat to make pastrami and the other point end became my weekend cook....
The wife prefers medium rare meat period. Obviously the only way to get a brisket medium rare is to sous vide it, so I went ahead and did a full blown QVQ treatment on it. After wet aging for about 45 days, a 30 hour dry brining with Kosher salt and a seasoning of POG, I smoked the point until it reached 125*F internal in my 22" fan controlled Weber with some chunks of cherry wood to get the bark initially established.
I let it cool down a bit then double bagged it and put it in a 130*F SV bath for 52 hours. It was done late Saturday night so I shocked it in ice water and refrigerated it until the next day. On Sunday I de-bagged, reapplied my seasoning and again set it on the same kettle at the same temperature until it got back up to about 125*F internal once again. Wrapped it in foil and placed it in the oven while we made the rest of the meal.
Nothing short of spectacular, ate just like rare roast beef. Every piece, from the tail end of the flat to the middle of the point was fully rendered, medium rare and amazingly tender. In fact I cubed up part of the point muscle that was closer to rare and we ate them with toothpicks like little pieces of A5 Wagyu appetizers !!
Well obviously this method and result aren't for everyone. I think it's safe to say that smoking this traditionally to probe tender would yield excellent results as well. I really like the way the fat kept the meat super moist and tender. There were sections where the fat got a bit thick but that was easily cut out and discarded. Needless to say, I really do endorse this purveyor's products. I have some tri-tips from them that I will feature in a future segment as well.
So enough chit-chat, let's let the star of the show off his stuff......
Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July holiday !!! Trout is out !!!
One thing that has always attracted me to the American Wagyu cross breed are the benefits you get from the meat itself. From their website I think they say it best....
"For years the American public has been told that all fat is bad, but we are here to tell you that our fat is good. That’s because Wagyu is intensely marbled with softer fat, it has higher percentages of monounsaturated fats, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, and is lower in cholesterol than commodity beef. Meaning that our Wagyu is not only rich in taste and tenderness, but it is perfectly suitable for a well-balanced and healthy diet."
Regardless I gotta say this was absolutely one of the best full packer briskets I've had in a long time. I'd put it up against a comparable SRF brisket any day. What struck me right off the bat was the fact that it came fully trimmed, not sure I've ever seen that to the degree they presented it....
I did go ahead and cut away some of that hard deckle fat between the flat and point, that never really renders anyway. Note the striations in the meat, this thing was beautifully marbled. Other than less than a pound of fat cutout, he was ready to go right from the cryovaced package ...
Started out about 12# so with the small cutout I got a great yield right around 11#, an outstanding value. Unfortunately we have a problem eating even 11# of brisket so I did what I usually do and cut off the front half of the flat to make pastrami and the other point end became my weekend cook....
The wife prefers medium rare meat period. Obviously the only way to get a brisket medium rare is to sous vide it, so I went ahead and did a full blown QVQ treatment on it. After wet aging for about 45 days, a 30 hour dry brining with Kosher salt and a seasoning of POG, I smoked the point until it reached 125*F internal in my 22" fan controlled Weber with some chunks of cherry wood to get the bark initially established.
I let it cool down a bit then double bagged it and put it in a 130*F SV bath for 52 hours. It was done late Saturday night so I shocked it in ice water and refrigerated it until the next day. On Sunday I de-bagged, reapplied my seasoning and again set it on the same kettle at the same temperature until it got back up to about 125*F internal once again. Wrapped it in foil and placed it in the oven while we made the rest of the meal.
Nothing short of spectacular, ate just like rare roast beef. Every piece, from the tail end of the flat to the middle of the point was fully rendered, medium rare and amazingly tender. In fact I cubed up part of the point muscle that was closer to rare and we ate them with toothpicks like little pieces of A5 Wagyu appetizers !!
Well obviously this method and result aren't for everyone. I think it's safe to say that smoking this traditionally to probe tender would yield excellent results as well. I really like the way the fat kept the meat super moist and tender. There were sections where the fat got a bit thick but that was easily cut out and discarded. Needless to say, I really do endorse this purveyor's products. I have some tri-tips from them that I will feature in a future segment as well.
So enough chit-chat, let's let the star of the show off his stuff......
Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July holiday !!! Trout is out !!!
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