The quality of brisket at Texas barbecue restaurants

Alberta Canada is a very close cousin to Texas. Similar politics, economies, and beef, and believe me, they take great pride in their beef. The only problem I've run into is that they call anything cooked outside BBQ. That's kinda sad.

HDCTX said:

Alberta Canada is a very close cousin to Texas. Similar politics, economies, and beef, and believe me, they take great pride in their beef. The only problem I've run into is that they call anything cooked outside BBQ. That's kinda sad.

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Your average American does this as well. Most backyard "BBQs" I go to are hamburgers and hotdogs. Hell we even call propane grills "BBQs"

The vast majority of the top places are using prime and upper choice.

With CostCo nearby offering $3.49 Prime briskets, I haven't yet bothered to try cooking a lower grade cut. The Cash and Carry nearby has briskets, but they are all select's and almost the exact same price as CostCo prime, so there's never been a good enough reason to bother trying them.

I would like to tho, mostly out of curiosity to see the difference.

DECENT BBQ said:

From my experience, most restaurants use Ole Hickory or Southern Pride style smokers, and do not trim their briskets prior to cooking. They smoke for ever how long, then wrap and hold hold them until ready to serve. They could easily sit for a day or longer in the hot hold before being served. This will help retain the moisture and make them tender. These tend to be your more reasonably priced BBQ places.

The authentic places that cook on wood only pits will buy choice or higher, not hold them as long, and typically charge a higher price to reflect this.

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This does not apply to the type of places that make the Texas Monthly list.

Tannhauser42 said:

From what I've read, most places used Select or Choice until Franklin upped the ante by using Prime.

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This is still the case. I’ll bet that less than 2% of Texas BBQ restaurants use Prime. The ones that do are the ones that you hear about all the time. I believe that the quality of their BBQ has a lot more to do with how that cook the meat than what grade of meat they use.

luke duke said:

This is still the case. I’ll bet that less than 2% of Texas BBQ restaurants use Prime. The ones that do are the ones that you hear about all the time. I believe that the quality of their BBQ has a lot more to do with how that cook the meat than what grade of meat they use.

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The sad part is, every time I go out for BBQ, they all seem to be charging Prime prices these days. :sad:

Stiles Switch uses prime. I saw the boxes as they were trimming them

Tannhauser42 said:

The sad part is, every time I go out for BBQ, they all seem to be charging Prime prices these days. :sad:

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Who's "they"? What are "prime prices" and how many years of experice do you have running BBQ restaurants to know what they should be charging?

Follow Texas Monthly BBQ Editor Daniel Vaughn’s BBQ Newsletter, his books and reviews via social media. Often times he will do a thorough review including Beef grades used. It’s a start. My experience, except for Pecan Lodge- seems pretty consistent on brisket. Simple seasoning (s) generous pepper 18-25$#, longer hold times. Pecan Lodge was outstanding but theirs was a tad sweeter tasting to me. Really good though.
I always get the beef sausage. To me that’s the fun part. Seems always the sliced brisket sausage sandwich are always stacked high then I kick off the bun.

Most Q places in Texas are very generous with their cooking methodology.

Rockinar said:

Who's "they"? What are "prime prices" and how many years of experice do you have running BBQ restaurants to know what they should be charging?

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Exactly right. People have no idea of expenses associated with running a business yet they complain about pricing.

My wife's socialist anti-American (all socialists are) MIL did the same thing when they were looking for wedding dresses. My mom explained to me how they were in the dress store, and the MIL said "these owner must be rich". My mom asked "how so"? The MIL responded "look at all the people working here and how many dresses they have in stock". Mom foolishly tired to reason with her and said she's looking at it all wrong - instead look at the massive debt with all those dresses in inventory and the owners massive overhead and operating expenses in labor, building, and insurance to cover that inventory.

From the interviews I've listened to with many of these owners on the Texas Monthly list, when you take into account the amount of hors they work and their expense, they are making very little money. Some have figured it out to where they are making not much above minimum wage hourly.

The exception of course would be someone like a Franklin who would be making much of his money off books, merchandise and appearances.

16Adams said:

My experience, except for Pecan Lodge- seems pretty consistent on brisket. Simple seasoning (s) generous pepper 18-25$#, longer hold times. Pecan Lodge was outstanding but theirs was a tad sweeter tasting to me. Really good though.

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Makes sense. Unless they've changed things they use quite a bit of Lawry's in their rub, which has a pretty high sugar content.

I think Mr Franklin makes a decent profit on his que. I saw somewhere that he has sold out of brisket every single day he's been in business, since day one. I find that a miraculous achievement.

HDCTX said:

I think Mr Franklin makes a decent profit on his que. I saw somewhere that he has sold out of brisket every single day he's been in business, since day one. I find that a miraculous achievement.

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If you watch some videos on YouTube though franklin started out as a backyard cook for get together and it slowly took off. He was doing 1-2 briskets a day sometimes 3. Probably not too hard to sell out of when your friends already know about your business. Now that he is doing over 100 a day it’s a huge operation with plenty of followers.

I’m sure how much he is working now but a 24 hours at franklin video I watched I remember him saying something about 14-18 hours a day or so. When you factor in his profits and the fact his wife works there I’m not sure they were “rich” until the other side of the business took off with book deals, TV etc.

He is a stand up guy from everything I’ve seen and deserves all of his success

I'd like to contribute my own experience to this conversation by saying that as someone who has cooked a bunch of choice and prime commodity briskets at home (ibp, excel, etc) and now work at a BBQ place on the Texas Monthly top 50 that uses Creekstone Farms prime brisket exclusively, there is a HUGE difference. I'd say there isn't much difference between commodity choice and prime. I've cooked both at the same time and honestly they're super close most of the time. But there is a major difference in commodity prime and all-natural black Angus prime or wagyu prime or Akaushi prime that the top places are cooking. It has way way more marbling throughout the meat, and stays so much more moist when wrapped in butcher paper and rested before being held in an alto. The amount of juice that comes out of one of those, especially after being rested properly is at least double the amount on a commodity prime. Plus they have more soft fat than the hard white fat that commodity brisket has. I cooked a Creekstone choice brisket for Christmas and it was noticeably juicier than any commodity prime I've cooked. It's all in how the animals are raised. I would rather go to a place cooking responsibly raised super moist meat and charging 20 bucks a pound than a place charging 17 a pound for choice feedlot beef any day. Last thing I'll say is that I'm pretty certain the vast majority of bbq places on the Texas monthly top 50 are using at the very least all natural choice. Many use a mix of choice and prime because they can't get all the prime they want. And then there's Snows, which is an enigma and supposedly uses select (I think) but they foil their briskets and dont use butcher paper at all.

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luke duke said:

This does not apply to the type of places that make the Texas Monthly list.

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Agreed. That statement was based on my assessment of the majority of BBQ places I have tried across the US. My friends think I'm crazy, but every city/town I visit I try out a BBQ joint while everyone else ventures into the local cuisine. I always ask for a kitchen tour, and 90% of the time they let me check it out.

I once flew from Seattle to Austin just to try Franklin BBQ. Got there at 6am, waited in line, got served around 11am, then was back on a plane back at 4pm. I got to meet Aaron, what a great guy. His brisket was not as good as Terry Black's IMO, but the experience was something I will remember for the rest of my life. Folks in line for hours talking and trading stories the entire time. They even provide camp chairs for you to sit in while in line!