Graduation Briskets (Pron)

I had a friend contact me, she had eaten some of my brisket at the bar when we had a memorial for her father after he had passed away. She said my brisket was the best she had ever tasted. I thanked her and politely told her that she need to try more places, as I am sure mine is not the best in Texas. She was wondering if I would cook some briskets for her son's graduation party and that she would pay me. I said sure and we discussed that she wanted three and wouldn't mind if there were leftovers that she could seal and freeze. No probs. She asked how much I would charge her and I said I'll buy the meat, you cover that and then give me what you think it's worth.

I was at HEB a week later (5/13) and found three primes that were really good, so I got them and sent her a picture of the receipt. It was $156 for three Primes that averaged 17 pounds ($2.99 per pound). I didn't have freezer space (need to work on that soon), so I decided they could wet age for that long. This ended up causing me to panic, as they smelled a little odd when I opened them, but after rinsing and trimming, and a LOT of talks with fellow Brethren, I stepped away from the ledge. Later, as I pulled them out to rub down, they smelled fine and I was good to go.

Rubbed them with SPOG and a little Paprika for color, and into my cabinet at 1:30 AM running around 225* with some pecan chunk scraps and four big chunks of cherry. Checked them every couple of hours. Around 7 AM, I kicked the Guru up to 275*. I started probing them around 9 AM and pulled them at noon. Rested on the counter for 20 mins, and then wrapped in foil and into a warm oven until I sliced them at 3:30 PM. Two of them were perfect except for the ever elusive smoke ring, which was barely noticeable. The third was slightly over done. It had a couple of edges I needed to trim off and crumbled a little at the ends. Other than that, it was pretty good too. Sliced them all up, separated all the Flats in one pan and the Points in another.

When I got over there, she and her friend asked if they could split a piece before everyone was ready to eat. I said it's yours, so they quickly pulled a slice in half, ate it and made sounds like Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally. Everyone loved the brisket. As I was leaving, she gave me a check and asked if that was enough. I didn't look, told it her was, folded it in half and put it in my wallet. I wasn't expecting much, did it more as a gift for a friend, and I am not a professional yet. I looked later, she gave me $200. Could have been more. If I start doing it as a side business, I'll have to come up with my rates.

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Yes, that was total including the price of the meat. By "could have been more", I expected at least $100 on top of the costs, but then again, this was for a friend (not close, just a friend), I probably would have done it once for cost alone.

I have another BBQ friend that says "I'll buy the brisket and cook it for you for $100". That's probably closer to what I would expect. I think Bill Miller's charges $10 a pound cooked. Even if I got 50% yield after trim and cook, there had to be around 25 pounds of cooked meat.

Again, I am not complaining about what she paid me. This time. Next time, I will probably establish a rate...