Wagyu Brisket vs Prime Brisket

BethV

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A friend is sending me a Wagyu full packer brisket. I have cooked many prime briskets and I use Chris Lilly's Slow-Smoked Beef Brisket recipe (this is his competition recipe).

I have never smoked a Wagyu brisket and I'm curious if anyone has had experience with one? Does it require any different preparation or cooking method? Does it cook faster or slower? I am going to be using it for a party in September and I want to make sure I know what I need to know about wagyu brisket before I smoke it.

I appreciate any advice. Thanks!
 
Sounds like I need to talk to you about setting up my home network.

A friend is sending me a Wagyu full packer brisket. I have cooked many prime briskets and I use Chris Lilly's Slow-Smoked Beef Brisket recipe (this is his competition recipe).

I have never smoked a Wagyu brisket and I'm curious if anyone has had experience with one? Does it require any different preparation or cooking method? Does it cook faster or slower? I am going to be using it for a party in September and I want to make sure I know what I need to know about wagyu brisket before I smoke it.

I appreciate any advice. Thanks!
BethV. Congrats, you are in for a real and somewhat rare, treat. Wagyu in general is fun and the brisket is a cooking delight. I have only done a couple but my experience was to cut down on the salt versus a prime cut. I usually do a dry rub, wrap in saran wrap and put it in the fridge for 24 hours before I pull, let it come up to approx 45 degrees and then put it on the smoker. You can take your trimmings render, strain and cool then use them for basting or as a binder for this or future cooks, or for grinding into home made sausages, or even to use with lean ground beef to add fat and flavor. I also put a drip pan/tray below the flat (elevate the flat on a rack and don’t put it directly on the bottom of the pan (so it doesn‘t boil/float in the juices and ruin your bark). You can capture all that wonderful, greasy, juice for later use. From a prep perspective, using a little dark brown sugar and unlike my regular flats, I actually put the fat cap up as it has a much lower melting point than regular prime and will begin to dissolve into the meat making it extra juicy. It also makes it easier to remove as the fat cap down in rack method makes the fat ooze into the rack and you have to pry it apart. The most important thing is to make sure you let it completely finish the stall (my last one took almost 7 hours to render) before you wrap it in peach paper for the last few hours of the cook until the IT on the flat is 195-200. Because it is so greasy, I pull wrap the saturated peach paper in saran wrap completely to keep it from leaking everywhere, double wrap in 2 bath towels, wrap in a packing blanket and leave it in the sun to slowly drop temperature (if I remember correctly you are also in SoCal). I let mine rest following the pull until the temp hits about 135 and serve away. Enjoy.
 
BethV. Congrats, you are in for a real and somewhat rare, treat. Wagyu in general is fun and the brisket is a cooking delight. I have only done a couple but my experience was to cut down on the salt versus a prime cut. I usually do a dry rub, wrap in saran wrap and put it in the fridge for 24 hours before I pull, let it come up to approx 45 degrees and then put it on the smoker. You can take your trimmings render, strain and cool then use them for basting or as a binder for this or future cooks, or for grinding into home made sausages, or even to use with lean ground beef to add fat and flavor. I also put a drip pan/tray below the flat (elevate the flat on a rack and don’t put it directly on the bottom of the pan (so it doesn‘t boil/float in the juices and ruin your bark). You can capture all that wonderful, greasy, juice for later use. From a prep perspective, using a little dark brown sugar and unlike my regular flats, I actually put the fat cap up as it has a much lower melting point than regular prime and will begin to dissolve into the meat making it extra juicy. It also makes it easier to remove as the fat cap down in rack method makes the fat ooze into the rack and you have to pry it apart. The most important thing is to make sure you let it completely finish the stall (my last one took almost 7 hours to render) before you wrap it in peach paper for the last few hours of the cook until the IT on the flat is 195-200. Because it is so greasy, I pull wrap the saturated peach paper in saran wrap completely to keep it from leaking everywhere, double wrap in 2 bath towels, wrap in a packing blanket and leave it in the sun to slowly drop temperature (if I remember correctly you are also in SoCal). I let mine rest following the pull until the temp hits about 135 and serve away. Enjoy.
@SmokeZilla great information. Thanks! I want to make burnt ends but I'm wondering if that's something I should do with this particular piece of meat or if I should just make a separate brisket for the burnt ends. I need the burnt ends for appetizers.
 
@SmokeZilla great information. Thanks! I want to make burnt ends but I'm wondering if that's something I should do with this particular piece of meat or if I should just make a separate brisket for the burnt ends. I need the burnt ends for appetizers.
BethV. Burnt ends are a great solution for prepping the point. I like them with the prime packer points but unfortulately, the Wagyu points were so rich with fat I had to put them in a cast iron skillet with a bunch of BBQ sauce and fry the heck out of them until the fat rendered/burned off. They tasted like meat fat marshmallows, hehe. I also did that to some of the flat and it was fantastic as the meat to fat ratio was actually appealing. One tip I forgot earlier for a full packer is to separate the flat from the point at the fat seam and scrape as much of the fat as you can from the bottom of the flat. It makes it much more “eating friendly” with the additional fat is removed. If you finish it early, wait to scrape until right before you serve it as I found keeping it in-tact keeps it from drying out.
 
BethV. Burnt ends are a great solution for prepping the point. I like them with the prime packer points but unfortulately, the Wagyu points were so rich with fat I had to put them in a cast iron skillet with a bunch of BBQ sauce and fry the heck out of them until the fat rendered/burned off. They tasted like meat fat marshmallows, hehe. I also did that to some of the flat and it was fantastic as the meat to fat ratio was actually appealing. One tip I forgot earlier for a full packer is to separate the flat from the point at the fat seam and scrape as much of the fat as you can from the bottom of the flat. It makes it much more “eating friendly” with the additional fat is removed. If you finish it early, wait to scrape until right before you serve it as I found keeping it in-tact keeps it from drying out.
Thanks. Great advice. I think I'm going to smoke a prime brisket alongside the wagyu. Based on what you're telling me regarding the point, I don't want to go through all that for burnt ends. And I can always use the extra brisket for future meals.
 
I agree. You can‘t have too much brisket and it stores well. Especially if you use a food saver. The shelf life will extend until Thanksgiving and it retains the smokiness of the meat well.

Edit: Your taste buds may be different than mine when it comes to fat content and each cut is different and should be inspected for fat content maybe your’s is A-5 and better quality/leaner than mine was. I actually cut the top of the point off the second one and put it in a bag for grinding later.
 
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I agree. You can‘t have too much brisket and it stores well. Especially if you use a food saver. The shelf life will extend until Thanksgiving and it retains the smokiness of the meat well.

Edit: Your taste buds may be different than mine when it comes to fat content and each cut is different and should be inspected for fat content maybe your’s is A-5 and better quality/leaner than mine was. I actually cut the top of the point off the second one and put it in a bag for grinding later.
I definitely do not like to eat fat. I know people do but I don't have much interest in it. I haven't seen the brisket yet. It's being sent to me from Texas along with some Texas links, which I don't know what those are but I do need them for my dinner party.
 
Texas links are a fancy way to say sausages. They are typically a beef/pork mix with seasonings. Or, if they are truly texan, more beef than pork (80% v. 20%). If you can find out if they are fresh or already precooked or smoked, that will determine the way you will prepare them. Hopefully they are fresh (i.e., ground meat in fresh casings) and you will be in for a treat because you will be able to smoke them at the same time your brisket is cooking, low and slow.
 
I’ve done numerous wagyu briskets…only 1 on my RT-700. I haven’t noticed a huge difference in cook times. I would never try to do burnt ends with that kind of brisket because of its fat content. Good luck!

Late,
Cox
 
I’ve done numerous wagyu briskets…only 1 on my RT-700. I haven’t noticed a huge difference in cook times. I would never try to do burnt ends with that kind of brisket because of its fat content. Good luck!

Late,
Cox
@Majekboy. I'm actually going to smoke a second brisket for the burnt ends based on everything I've watched and read.

My plan is to do an overnight cook with this and have it ready to at least go into a cambro by 5:00. The meat hasn't arrived yet but I'm going to assume it's going to be somewhere between 15 and 19 lbs. Is it possible it will get done by morning? (too soon). I'm curious how much faster it cooks than a regular full packer brisket. I don't mind throwing this one on in the morning assuming it'll be done in 10-11 hours. I just don't want a chance that it's not going to be done in time for my party which starts at 6:00 p.m. I would rather have it done around 3:00 or 4:00 to be safe.
 
Most of my briskets have gone past that amount of time…most have been cooked on my egg or my offset smoker. How did it turn out? I just noticed your question.
Late,
Cox
 
I am making it September 3rd. The brisket came from KOW. I called them and they talked me through the entire process of how to cook it and also some interesting burnt end ideas. Definitely some interesting ways of cooking it. I will post the recipe along with photos next weekend.
 
My go to brisket is always prime, I did a Wagyu once and it was good but not worth twice the price. The smoke time was very similar, maybe a bit longer.

Overall you will be happy with the results and make sure to send your friend a really nice xmas gift!

Greg
 
My Texas Style BBQ is tomorrow. I start prepping the brisket today. I'm super excited to see what this wagyu hunk of meat looks like once I get it out of the wrap. I did buy a second full packer. I want to use the point from that for burnt ends. I will definitely post pictures.

Our wonderful friend sent us an enormous amount of sausage from Texas as well. It filled up the freezer! I'm making the coiled beef sausage for the party. More to come!
 

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My Texas Style BBQ dinner was lots of fun! To report back, the Wagyu brisket is very good and very moist. It cooked for 17 hours. The company where it was purchased suggested we smoke it at 200°. I started it at 10:00 pm. By noon the next day I raised it to 225. It had been between 147 and 151°for 5 hours and that was not even the stall. I wrapped it when it hit 160, raised the temp to 250°. And took it off at 5:00 when it hit about 204° and probe tender.

One of the interesting things they had me do is to make tallow and mix the tallow in with beef stock, butter, thyme a splash of wine. That mixture went into the foil when I wrapped it.

When it came off the grill, I reserved the jus, wrapped it in butcher paper and put it into the cooler to rest.

Based on what some of you mentioned I did not use the point for my burnt ends. I bought a prime brisket at Costco and separated the point from the flat. Froze the flat and smoked the point. Worked great.

When I sliced the meat so that people could get a piece of point and flat, I thought the point looked pretty fatty. But people loved all of it. They could not believe it was brisket.

In the picture of the burnt ends, the company where the wagyu brisket came from suggested I add strawberry, a jalapeno slice and a piece of cilantro to the meat on a skewer. It was really an interesting and good combination.

Would I spend that kind of money on Wagyu? This had to be about $300. It's very good and it's also very forgiving because of the fat content. But I think the prime briskets that I get from Costco or Restaurant Depot are very good as well.

I think the burnt ends were actually the hit of the evening. No one ever had a burnt end before. They were like kids in a candy shop! I probably could have stopped there 😉

The menu was burnt ends, habanero shrimp for appetizers. First course was smoked mac and cheese. Dinner consisted of wagyu brisket, Port of O'Connor Texas potato salad, coleslaw, beans and cornbread. Dessert was pecan pie with ice cream and peaches and a shot of Angels Envy. A lot of wine, bourbon and Modelo on tap.
 

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