Freezer Burn??

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gocubbies09

Newbie
Original poster
Mar 20, 2013
22
10
Waterloo, Iowa
Picked up a brisket Monday from Sam's Club, opened it up tonight to get it ready for the smoker only to find out it has freezer burn all along the side of it. Im assuming this is just freezer burn right? Everything I've read says its still safe to eat just cut off the discolored pieces, is that true??? I should have done a better job examining it before i bought it i guess.



 
Yep
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I personally don't like to return stuff to the store if I can use it....   That piece of meat will have to be thrown away and the store will lose that amount of money.....   So, I would trim the freezer burn and use it....  I don't like brisket fat anyway.....   to me it has a weird flavor...  so I trim it, when I cook brisket....  

If it smelled spoiled or rotten, that is a different story....  Return it....  

Dave
 
It didn't smell rotten so I ended up trimming all of the freezer burn off and using it. I got a little knife happy and trimmed pretty much the entire fat cap off. It actually turned out very good despite all the doubts I had. This is only the second brisket I have ever done and the last one i left all of the fat cap on. I didn't really notice a big difference between leaving the fat cap on vs taking it off. I liked having bark on both sides and got more smoke flavor this time. 

Next time I will look at the meat much closer before I buy it and not wait until the last minute to open it up and examine it. 

Thanks for all the comments!

Joe 
 
I must admit that I would have taken it back too, especially as you had only just bought it. If it tasted OK though that is what counts - even though you had less to taste than you originally paid for...
 
....  I don't like brisket fat anyway.....   to me it has a weird flavor...  so I trim it, when I cook brisket....  
When I first began cooking Brisket I left some of the fat on but now I too trim it all off. I agree, it can have a very weird undesirable flavour and it would get cut off before serving anyway. I know some advocate that the fat is needed to keep it moist during cooking but I have not noticed any reduction in quality since I started removing it.
 
No matter what you do, it's a good lesson for all to think about when shopping for meat.   Don't assume and just give it a quick inspection.
 
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