Smoking brisket, any tips?

You are right. Snow's also uses choice and sometimes even select grade brisket. They also wrap in foil and not butcher paper like most bbq joints. Tootsie is basically doing a massive backyard style brisket cook every weekend, and reached #1 in Texas doing it.

I always felt that lower grades just reduces your margin for error as far as drying out or screwing up, but if smoked to perfection, a choice can be just as good as a prime.

 

I pretty sure HEB with their crazy buying power is getting it for about 5 bucks a pound. 20 percent margin is about what they are looking for. HEB isn't making much money on fresh meat.

 

I honest don't know how these restaurants are hurting when they are charging up to 35 bucks a pound for cooked brisket. The food cost for finished briskets is roughly 10 bucks a pound.

 

I have always asked this question but just assumed I didn't know the restaurant industry or business well enough. I understand it takes wood, manpower, time, etc. I used to think it was because everybody switched to using prime to be competitive with one another and added cost because of the meat being used. Then you have people like Franklin needing briskets by the second - I think he does something like 80-100 briskets a day. He wants the best cuts, and from what I recall, he used to get the best cuts from Creekstone Farms, so I'm guessing he may be paying up for that and passing those negative savings along. Then again, maybe he gets discounts because he buys so much. No idea.

But then when you think about it, everything's price is probably jacked up in comparison to what you can cook it for at home. I just remember when you could get brisket for under $10/lbs cooked at restaurants, and it ticks me off when I see $40/lbs brisket now. Even pork ribs are over $30/lbs at a lot of bbq restaurants, and that's a lot of bone you're paying for. Man, I'll cook a steak (or two) at home for those prices.