Beef Cost is Unreal!

[realdocBBQ]

Not only has the price of brisket surged, but the fat cap has gotten larger.

This is completely true and ridiculous. They have started leaving on giant hunks of some muscle that hangs off the top end of the point, usually a pound or more on the larger briskets. They are doing this to make it a 'super sized' brisket to sell at the big box stores. It's mostly junk meat that gets trimmed off anyways, and if you're not doing sausage, then you're most likely throwing it away. I hate it.

I never would have learned to do brisket at the prices now!

Most definitely. I can barely ever bring myself to WANT to buy one, and my wife ALWAYS tries to convince me not to. She's not a huge brisket person, she'd much rather have pork butt or ribs.

I looked at some Tri Tip at Publix last weekend. $19 lb . Would up at with 2 chucks from Food Lion @ $6.99 lb on sale.
Will be back to chicken or pork this weekend .

Keith

That is flat out robbery. I know just a couple years ago I bought a case of tri-tips at around $3.29/lb. You gonna tell me that inflation has been THAT bad? No sir, that is packers realizing that people now WANT tri-tip, whereas before, in my area, it was pretty unknown as a cut. You can thank YouTube for the price of tri-tip skyrocketing over the last 3 years.

That's a decent price these days.
An advert for a new location of a BBQ joint in southaustin showed their menu board and brisket was $30 per lb.

At $30/lb that's probably a loss leader for them. Especially in the Austin area, from the way I read it.

I don't have all the overhead of a restaurant, labor, all that rot, and when I cook BBQ for friends and family, coworkers, etc., I won't bother with brisket for less than $23-25/lb, AND I've got to have multiple orders to make it worth my while. A 16 lb brisket is gonna cost me over $100 including tax, and I'm going to end up with about 3 lbs of flat, maybe 3 lbs of point and a pound or two (max) of chopped. I'll have 3-4lbs maybe of trim, but that has to be processed more to make into sausage or something. And figure it's one of the most labor-intensive cuts for the average cook in terms of time, prep, portioning, etc.

Brisket just isn't in the cards for me most of the time. Suckage, but it is what it is. People LOVE my brisket when they eat it - but they damned sure don't want to PAY for it. Oh well...

 

[banderson7474]

I have not. But I watch the weekly mailers close for meat deals and that is where I found them in the past.

Yep that's where we saw it. I actually missed the email of weekly ads but my buddy called me. The weird thing is the ad shows cooked sliced brisket which kind of threw me b/c nobody wants already cooked brisket

 

[jirodriguez]

I got super lucky around St. Patrick's day, our local Fred Meyer (Kroger) had whole packer briskets on an unadvertised special for $3.99/lb. They were Select... but at that price I really didn't care (and with low and slow cooking they will still come out tender), haven't seen that price on any beef since before Covid. I grabbed two of them and threw them in my freezer.

 

[sandyut]

I got super lucky around St. Patrick's day, our local Fred Meyer (Kroger) had whole packer briskets on an unadvertised special for $3.99/lb. They were Select... but at that price I really didn't care (and with low and slow cooking they will still come out tender), haven't seen that price on any beef since before Covid. I grabbed two of them and threw them in my freezer.

Nice score!

 

[Fueling Around]

... my next haul will be because I won $200 of gift certificates for a good Meat Market in Fargo.

John & Wayne
Prime
?

 

[luvcatchingbass]

John & Wayne
Prime
?

J&W

 

[luvcatchingbass]

Stopped to grab some 80/20 and burger supplies at daughters request. Here are some prices in Fargo.

 

[chopsaw]

Here are some prices in Fargo.

Is that brisket a full packer ? , and how much knife work has been done on any of it ?

 

[luvcatchingbass]

Is that brisket a full packer ? , and how much knife work has been done on any of it ?

Full packer. I didn't look it over very good but used to buy there and normally I used to do a fair amount myself and I didn't get too crazy on the flat back then

 

[sandyut]

Ground beef...93% lean and 80% lean was $7 recently but only in 3lb packs which sold out. Picked up a few 1lb 93% packs for $7.50. Watching the sales much closer now.

 

[philpom]

I have got to be honest for a sec. Sam's and Costco have got to be some of the worst places to buy meat from a price point perspective unless you don't have access to some of the other major chains. Kroger and Albertsons routinely beat them on price. I'd check around and watch the flyers.

On a side note regarding Costco, I heard a while back from what I consider reliable sources that Costco uses a jaccard on most of their primal and steak cuts. That's a no for me.

We did just recently add an additional 16 qft chest freezer to the collection. Got tired of finding sales but with no room to store it.

Good prices can still be found, I'm having skirt steak tonight, picked it up at Kroger this past weekend, $6.99/lb.

 

[sandyut]

I have got to be honest for a sec. Sam's and Costco have got to be some of the worst places to buy meat from a price point perspective unless you don't have access to some of the other major chains. Kroger and Albertsons routinely beat them on price. I'd check around and watch the flyers.

On a side note regarding Costco, I heard a while back from what I consider reliable sources that Costco uses a jaccard on most of their primal and steak cuts. That's a no for me.

We did just recently add an additional 16 qft chest freezer to the collection. Got tired of finding sales but with no room to store it.

Good prices can still be found, I'm having skirt steak tonight, picked it up at Kroger this past weekend, $6.99/lb.

I respect your opinion, but remember you live in TX. Up here is Colorado the price and quality are far better at Costco. Kroger's steaks are meh and costly. I believe the differences are likely regional. Not sure about the jaccard, never heard or seen this. Not arguing just a different perspective from a different region (not cattle country ; ) )

 

[philpom]

I respect your opinion, but remember you live in TX. Up here is Colorado the price and quality are far better at Costco. Kroger's steaks are meh and costly. I believe the differences are likely regional. Not sure about the jaccard, never heard or seen this. Not arguing just a different perspective from a different region (not cattle country ; ) )

I hear you loud and clear, certainly it is different by region and I agree, we kinda live in a sweet spot from that perspective. I will add regarding my previous post.... I'm a Sam's club shopper and the meat is consistently of high quality and I have seen poor quality that appears mis-graded even at some of the national chains. For example, our other home is up near Bentonville Arkansas. The saying up there is, "if Walmart doesn't sell it, you don't need it". Selection is pretty limited from a competitive retailer perspective. In and around DFW there is a grocery store on every corner and they compete for your dollar.

loss leaders here are always meat of some sort, just got pork butt for $.97/lb. Small towns with access to a Aphilliated would never offer that price.

Best of luck to all the carnivores out there!

 

[realdocBBQ]

I find Costco and Sam's to be the best overall pricewise and quality as well. We don't have Albertson's or Kroger, no. It's tough these days no matter where you are, though...

It's hard out here for a pimp...

 

[chopsaw]

I have got to be honest for a sec.

Please , be honest all the time ,,, Lol .

Sam's and Costco have got to be some of the worst places to buy meat from a price point perspective

I get 99% of my meat at Gordons food service . Not everyone has that option . Daughter had a Sam's membership last year , and We recently got a Costco .
Most of the beef is around $1.00 a lb. higher than GFS . The pork at Costco was a non starter for me .
However , some of the beef pricing is in the grading . Most of the GFS beef is choice or " No roll "
No roll just means it hasn't been graded , not that it's sub par . So you have to know what you're buying . Some is upper quality , but some isn't . Plays mostly into steaks .

To really be informed , you have to have time to go real time . See what's in the case , check the dates , and what the pricing is . I used to go once a week . That way you can see what the prices are doing . What goes up and what drops . Also helps to figure out the delivary dates . So you can decide when to buy , and when the prices might change .
I take pictures of the labels so I have a reference .

So , if checking pricing between stores , you should compare it by when it was packed , and priced . Most beef will have a 30 to 40 sell by range on it .

Something packed on 4-25-2026 might have been priced cheaper than something packed 2 weeks later at a different store , and both still be in the case .

 

[mneeley490]

Definitely NOT trying to get political here, but they're reporting that one of the results from the recent summit in China was an agreement to export US beef to China.
What???
Didn't we just hear about an agreement to import beef from Argentina to supplement our low beef stocks, and try to bring prices down in the US?

 

[civilsmoker]

Definitely NOT trying to get political here, but they're reporting that one of the results from the recent summit in China was an agreement to export US beef to China.
What???
Didn't we just hear about an agreement to import beef from Argentina to supplement our low beef stocks, and try to bring prices down in the US?

What I read about the export agreement was them taking the hides, skin, tripe, tongue, tendons, ie the parts that get usually gets tossed here cause there isn’t a market for it. If this is actually the case it should help reduce prices overall as it makes the overall $$ per hoof improve….

 

[thirdeye]

Didn't we just hear about an agreement to import beef from Argentina to supplement our low beef stocks, and try to bring prices down in the US?

At certain times of the year, the US producers don't have enough trim to fulfill the demand for hamburger. I think some of the imported beef is trim and cheaper cuts for hamburger.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

At certain times of the year, the US producers don't have enough trim to fulfill the demand for hamburger. I think some of the imported beef is trim and cheaper cuts for hamburger.

Almost 50 years ago when I worked for Winn Dixie in the meat department, we got 50 lb. boxes of trimmings from Australia. It was called box bull meat. We used them in the burger we ground along with the trimmings we generated. Other than the fat being yellow, couldn't really tell the difference once it was ground. I remember joking that it might be kangaroo meat...

 

[hondabbq]

Just looked at my suppliers and I can get AA brisket for $6.53 cad which is about $4.75 usd