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Costco Brisket quality

I love me some fat on a brisket and tend to be light handed on my trimming. But 4lbs of it….

Comments

  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,167
    Over several years I have noticed that the butchering of the Costco packers has gone south,  For a while it was even worse than now.  Give the search function a look but many (self included) have expressed this to Costco.  
    Now I can find a solid Costco  "prime" brisket that is going to support organizations or neighbours (nod) that is better than a couple of years ago.  
    But I get where you are coming from as I have been there.  BTW- have not checked the local Costco for brisket in a good 3+ months.  FWIW-
    Time to see what I can find.  
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
  • MrA46221
    MrA46221 Posts: 95
    It was cheaper than pork belly this week! Just an old man rant. Still gonna eat the heck out of it and smile. 
  • I am a known Costco beef hater on here but I am fortunate to have options (Wagyu at $7.99 at the grocery store). That said, I was in Costco this week and half the briskets had 2lbs of neck meat on them (a sign of garbage trim and a way to get the weight up with useless stew meat). 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • paqman
    paqman Posts: 4,660
    I am a known Costco beef hater on here but I am fortunate to have options (Wagyu at $7.99 at the grocery store). That said, I was in Costco this week and half the briskets had 2lbs of neck meat on them (a sign of garbage trim and a way to get the weight up with useless stew meat). 
    I can’t comment about brisket specifically but other pieces of beef (ribeye, tenderloin) are typically top notch here in the GWN.

    ____________________
    Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage. •Niccolo Machiavelli
  • This is more accurate of what a well trimmed packer trim should look like


    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • JohnInCarolina
    JohnInCarolina Posts: 30,866
    So… neck meat is kind of like the neck pour of a bottle of bourbon?   
    "I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike
  • So… neck meat is kind of like the neck pour of a bottle of bourbon?   
    Only less douchy 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • paqman said:
    I am a known Costco beef hater on here but I am fortunate to have options (Wagyu at $7.99 at the grocery store). That said, I was in Costco this week and half the briskets had 2lbs of neck meat on them (a sign of garbage trim and a way to get the weight up with useless stew meat). 
    I can’t comment about brisket specifically but other pieces of beef (ribeye, tenderloin) are typically top notch here in the GWN.
    Liking because I can’t use an agree button. 

    Always been happy thus far. 
  • I bought a Costco brisket about a month ago and it’s in the freezer awaiting for when I have the time and courage to try my first brisket cook this summer. Thanks for the tip in the neck meat so I’ll know to trim that off
    Plainfield, IL
    XL BGE
  • I bought a Costco brisket about a month ago and it’s in the freezer awaiting for when I have the time and courage to try my first brisket cook this summer. Thanks for the tip in the neck meat so I’ll know to trim that off
    @lousubcap

    send this man your trove of brisket info. We are always glad to help. 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • bbracey21
    bbracey21 Posts: 319
    For those wondering:

    this is brisket:



    This is brisket with neck meat (extremely common with “cheap” commodity briskets like costco and others)



    That whole flap is garbage meat and should be cut off and made into sausage or trashed. Almost every brisket I saw in Costco had a huge chunk of this neck meat. 
    Thanks for info. Next time I’m shopping will take this info with me. 
  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 32,167
    I bought a Costco brisket about a month ago and it’s in the freezer awaiting for when I have the time and courage to try my first brisket cook this summer. Thanks for the tip in the neck meat so I’ll know to trim that off
    @lousubcap

    send this man your trove of brisket info. We are always glad to help. 
    Message sent. 
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
  • stevez
    stevez Posts: 122
    I purchased a 8.5 pound brisket flat a few days ago from Costco in Louisville.  They had full packers but the flats looked better to me.  Smoked it yesterday and it was awesome. It was only "choice" as they didn't have any prime in stock. 
    Steve

    X/L BGE

    Louisville, Kentucky
  • lkapigian
    lkapigian Posts: 10,708
    As long as we can use it , I’m ok with it…Short of ordering from SRF , Costco is what we have…. I usually get 17 pound range, with aggressive trim I’ll get 3+- pounds of sausage anothe pound of tallow , if I’m doing chopped brisket, I really don’t trim much 

    That’s a solid brisket @The Cen-Tex Smoker !
    Visalia, Ca @lkapigian
  • lkapigian said:
    As long as we can use it , I’m ok with it…Short of ordering from SRF , Costco is what we have…. I usually get 17 pound range, with aggressive trim I’ll get 3+- pounds of sausage anothe pound of tallow , if I’m doing chopped brisket, I really don’t trim much 

    That’s a solid brisket @The Cen-Tex Smoker !
    Internet pics ha ha. Not mine 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • Last week went to Costco ready to do my first full packer prime brisket. After rereading Caps emails and the Franklin video on what to do/expect I passed. The four they had to pick from were subpar so I went for ribs. The flats thinned out fast and the other end was a sloppy knuckle. Thought I might be crazy because allegedly Costco packers were the standard— this was helpful counterintelligence. Thanks for sharing. 
  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,951
    edited June 2022
    bbracey21 said:
    For those wondering:

    this is brisket:



    This is brisket with neck meat (extremely common with “cheap” commodity briskets like costco and others)



    That whole flap is garbage meat and should be cut off and made into sausage or trashed. Almost every brisket I saw in Costco had a huge chunk of this neck meat. 
    Thanks for info. Next time I’m shopping will take this info with me. 
    To be clear, a poorly trimmed packer does not mean the brisket itself is bad. This is just a tactic that packers use to pad the price of the brisket and most people don’t know that is not even part of the brisket. They can leave 2-3lbs of neck meat on a brisket and sell it for $3-$4 lb wholesale when it would be well under $1 if trimmed and sold as ground beef. That $3.99 Costco brisket is really more like $5-$6 when you take all the excess trim (2-3lbs more than a normal brisket trim) into account 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • QDude
    QDude Posts: 1,052
    This is more accurate of what a well trimmed packer trim should look like


    Thanks for the lesson!

    Northern Colorado Egghead since 2012.

    XL BGE and a KBQ.

  • MrA46221
    MrA46221 Posts: 95
    It’s a hustle but still delicious. 
  • abpgwolf
    abpgwolf Posts: 558
    paqman said:
    I am a known Costco beef hater on here but I am fortunate to have options (Wagyu at $7.99 at the grocery store). That said, I was in Costco this week and half the briskets had 2lbs of neck meat on them (a sign of garbage trim and a way to get the weight up with useless stew meat). 
    I can’t comment about brisket specifically but other pieces of beef (ribeye, tenderloin) are typically top notch here in the GWN.
    Be careful with steaks from Costco. Most locations "Blade Tenderize" (jaccard) their steaks (even their USDA Prime steaks). Jaccarding can push surface contamination deep into the meat. If you look at the fine print on the Costco steak labels they recommend cooking these steaks to 165 degrees. Who wants to cook a USDA Prime steak beyond well done?

    Lititz, PA – XL BGE

  • abpgwolf said:
    paqman said:
    I am a known Costco beef hater on here but I am fortunate to have options (Wagyu at $7.99 at the grocery store). That said, I was in Costco this week and half the briskets had 2lbs of neck meat on them (a sign of garbage trim and a way to get the weight up with useless stew meat). 
    I can’t comment about brisket specifically but other pieces of beef (ribeye, tenderloin) are typically top notch here in the GWN.
    Be careful with steaks from Costco. Most locations "Blade Tenderize" (jaccard) their steaks (even their USDA Prime steaks). Jaccarding can push surface contamination deep into the meat. If you look at the fine print on the Costco steak labels they recommend cooking these steaks to 165 degrees. Who wants to cook a USDA Prime steak beyond well done?
    I have never cooked a Costco steak for this reason. 
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
  • dbCooper
    dbCooper Posts: 2,061
    abpgwolf said:
    paqman said:
    I am a known Costco beef hater on here but I am fortunate to have options (Wagyu at $7.99 at the grocery store). That said, I was in Costco this week and half the briskets had 2lbs of neck meat on them (a sign of garbage trim and a way to get the weight up with useless stew meat). 
    I can’t comment about brisket specifically but other pieces of beef (ribeye, tenderloin) are typically top notch here in the GWN.
    Be careful with steaks from Costco. Most locations "Blade Tenderize" (jaccard) their steaks (even their USDA Prime steaks). Jaccarding can push surface contamination deep into the meat. If you look at the fine print on the Costco steak labels they recommend cooking these steaks to 165 degrees. Who wants to cook a USDA Prime steak beyond well done?

    Beyond the safety concerns, it is my belief that a "good" steak should not need a bunch of holes poked in it to be tender, it should be able to stand on its own.  Additionally, when flipping during cooking my understanding was to use tongs, not anything that will pierce the surface such as a fork.  This is to prevent juices from escaping.  Seems the Costco method would really magnify that.
    Bottom line is there are many quality steak options in my area, so Costco steak offerings get bypassed.
    LBGE, LBGE-PTR, 22" Weber, Coleman 413G
    Great Plains, USA
  • HeavyG
    HeavyG Posts: 10,323
    It's all those news stories one sees daily about people getting ill/dying from the hundreds of thousands of Costco steaks sold each year that keeps me from buying them.
    Oh wait... :)

    Anybody having reservations about eating a Costco steak should keep in mind that using sous vide offers a very simple solution - pasteurization.

    “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” ― Philip K. Diçk




  • 1voyager
    1voyager Posts: 1,157
    edited June 2022
    abpgwolf said:

    Be careful with steaks from Costco. Most locations "Blade Tenderize" (jaccard) their steaks (even their USDA Prime steaks). Jaccarding can push surface contamination deep into the meat. If you look at the fine print on the Costco steak labels they recommend cooking these steaks to 165 degrees. Who wants to cook a USDA Prime steak beyond well done?
    I'm glad I read your comment before going to Costco today. 

    The only part of the label I have ever looked at is price per pound, weight and packaged date. I was shocked to read today that every cut of beef I purchase from Costco is blade tenderized.

    Thank-you.
    Large Egg, PGS A40 gasser.
  • QDude
    QDude Posts: 1,052
    Some of the best steaks I have ever cooked have come from Costco.  Sam's steaks are also good most of the time.

    Northern Colorado Egghead since 2012.

    XL BGE and a KBQ.

  • Legume
    Legume Posts: 14,602
    They don’t blade tenderize the neck meat.
  • Foghorn
    Foghorn Posts: 9,794
    QDude said:
    Some of the best steaks I have ever cooked have come from Costco.  Sam's steaks are also good most of the time.
    Agree with this.  And as someone pointed out earlier, I don't know that anyone is aware of a case of illness related to Costco beef.  With that said, we're fortunate to have HEB and a high quality local butcher shop within a mile of our house so I don't buy much Costco beef any more.  A good friend does and serves it to us at his house (cooked on his L BGE) all the time and we enjoy it.

    XXL BGE, Karebecue, Klose BYC, Chargiller Akorn Kamado, Weber Smokey Mountain, Grand Turbo gasser, Weber Smoky Joe, and the wheelbarrow that my grandfather used to cook steaks from his cattle

    San Antonio, TX

  • JohnInCarolina
    JohnInCarolina Posts: 30,866
    abpgwolf said:
    paqman said:
    I am a known Costco beef hater on here but I am fortunate to have options (Wagyu at $7.99 at the grocery store). That said, I was in Costco this week and half the briskets had 2lbs of neck meat on them (a sign of garbage trim and a way to get the weight up with useless stew meat). 
    I can’t comment about brisket specifically but other pieces of beef (ribeye, tenderloin) are typically top notch here in the GWN.
    Be careful with steaks from Costco. Most locations "Blade Tenderize" (jaccard) their steaks (even their USDA Prime steaks). Jaccarding can push surface contamination deep into the meat. If you look at the fine print on the Costco steak labels they recommend cooking these steaks to 165 degrees. Who wants to cook a USDA Prime steak beyond well done?
    I have never cooked a Costco steak for this reason. 
    Don’t you get your steaks out of the back of a trunk in a parking lot or something?  ;)
    "I've made a note never to piss you two off." - Stike
  • paqman
    paqman Posts: 4,660
    abpgwolf said:
    paqman said:
    I am a known Costco beef hater on here but I am fortunate to have options (Wagyu at $7.99 at the grocery store). That said, I was in Costco this week and half the briskets had 2lbs of neck meat on them (a sign of garbage trim and a way to get the weight up with useless stew meat). 
    I can’t comment about brisket specifically but other pieces of beef (ribeye, tenderloin) are typically top notch here in the GWN.
    Be careful with steaks from Costco. Most locations "Blade Tenderize" (jaccard) their steaks (even their USDA Prime steaks). Jaccarding can push surface contamination deep into the meat. If you look at the fine print on the Costco steak labels they recommend cooking these steaks to 165 degrees. Who wants to cook a USDA Prime steak beyond well done?
    All labels have the warning but not all cuts are blade tenderized.  It may vary from store to store but ours doesn’t tenderize the Canadian AAA ribeyes.

    ____________________
    Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage. •Niccolo Machiavelli