Butcher story

MN-Egger

While picking up a Butt Saturday at my local butcher, the owner was there and we got talking about smoking. He has smokers out back and does up several things weekly.  He had two interesting stories or pet peeves of his. One is where a guy comes in and wants a big packer brisket boasts that they just bought a smoker and have heard the best thing to make on it is brisket. Butcher said this happens a lot and floors him that they want to attempt brisket on their first cook. He tries to get them to get to know the smoker and techniques first but as he said, they want that brisket.

His second story was on steaks. People come in and see the ribeye's and other steaks in the case and tell the staff that they want a huge steak and hold up their fingers to show the thickness, usually 2 inches or so. He had to go to a policy of showing people what a two inch steak looks in your hand AND what it will cost because too many when upon seeing the 2" steak on the counter in front of them, say, whoa, that is way bigger than I thought, gimme the one in the case. 

A different visit, I asked him if he ever carries prime cuts and he replied that he used to but didn't sell well as he had hoped. He said he got tired of people looking at all the marbling in the steaks and asking him, why does your meat have so much fat in it?

He also used to smoke excellent spare ribs but people wanted the baby backs so that is what he now smokes. He will sell you spares anytime however for you to smoke yourself and I take him up on this often!

onedbguru

Had an egg for the past 7years.  On Saturday, bought 4 bone-in chops 1.25", a whole packer ~13lbs, and a pork butt in addition to the 14lbs of Pork Belly for making my next batch of BACON!!!   A 2" steak is very thick - I typically do 1.25-to-1.5".  Most people have problems cooking stuff that thick ruining a very expensive steak. 

jlsm

Interesting but not surprising

BilZol

At some point a steak becomes a roast. Your cooking a very expensive ribeye roast if you get it cut too thick. 

northGAcock

Two inchers are perfect for Caveman cooks!

YukonRon

My first cook was right off a YouTube video, and it was awful. I made soooooo many mistakes, until I figured out decent airflow, and decent lump is about you need. For large groups of folks, I will cook roasts, otherwise steaks and chops are 1 and a half inches, period.
I was too intimidated to do a brisket, and bought a very small one for my first, and had the brisket Gods, from this forum, help me. These folks rock. (@lousubcap, thanks, you have created a brisket cooking monster now, so much so, that if I have less than 5 prime in the deep freeze, I start getting nervous.)
Spares over baby backs all day.
The learning curve is there, and it is worth the ride.

onedbguru

as for ribs, I have become a fan of Country Ribs. (big hunks of rib meat goodness) and prefer them over spares OR baby backs. 

lousubcap

The above story doesn't surprise me at all.  Great tasting Q is not something where you throw the switch, light the rig or load the charcoal and go.  It does take time to understand the nuances of the whole process.  As long as I manage the adult supervisory beverages for the first few hours of the cook I am always learning something.  Now, positive or negative is certainly up for discussion.
@YukonRon -  Thank-you for the acknowledgement but we all try to offer insights where we can.  And I gotta admit, your low-level brisket alarm is higher than mine.  I now have faith in Costco having a ready supply, so I restock at two Costco and one SRF.  
Costco on tap for a couple of weeks from now and the post Thanksgiving turkey hangover cure is SRF on tap for either the Sat or Sunday after.
Brisket cooks-the most fun you can have on a BGE (even at brisket camp  ).