Another Cape Grim Brisket - Comparison with Costco brisket

  • I cooked a Costco Brisket a few weeks ago and yesterday made a Cape Grim brisket that was purchased through our Sydney CG group buy and all I can say is WOW! What a difference!

    Whilst some of the taste/texture/moisture difference was no doubt due to the cooking (I used lower heat and slightly different spices) there's no doubt in my mind that the CG is a superior product.

    Some points of comparison and my ignoramus opinion:
    - Cape Grim beef is grass fed, Costco beef is grain fed.
    - The Cape Grim brisket weighed around half of the Costco one.
    - The Costco brisket was significantly cheaper, despite the group buy of Cape Grim.
    - I can't see myself cooking another Costco beef product again, at least until they switch to grass fed. I found the cape grim product to be so much better.
    - The biggest difference was visible in the fat: When cleaning the Costco brisket, I felt the need to remove huge amounts of fat. The reason was that the fat felt like cardboard. Dry and flaky, it seemed horrible and to my untrained eyes unnatural. The Cape Grim brisket also had lots of fat on it, but the fat seemed like regular beef fat, it was soft and as a result I only removed a small amount.


    Cape Grim Brisket rubbed with salt, pepper and merquen:


    The finished CG brisket took 10 hours, 9 of which unwrapped, the last hour was wrapped in baking paper then foil. The juices are just drippings from the brisket:

    The balance on the finger tenderness test:


    On the plate (a slice of flat and one of point), with a crunchy sour dough slice covered in roasted baby eggplant:

    The verdict was that it was the best brisket I've made so far, very tender and moist. The smoke ring could have been more pronounced, but it didn't matter as the flavour was so good. Merquen was a big hit too and it worked really well with the beef.

    The Cape Grim brisket gets a big thumbs up from me.

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  • Can't wait to get mine on.

    Thanks Hopsta. You won't regret it when you do.

    I'm completely sold on CG and for me the grass fed/grain fed question is resolved once and for all. IMO grass fed beats grain fed hands down.

  • I can't see Costco ever changing to grass fed beef, grain fed is a much cheaper & quicker way of producing large fatty beasts & Costco (as with many stores) will always go for the cheaper option to maximise profits.

    Cape Grim is an amazing product, I'm biased though, 1. From northwest farming family in Tassie 2. My brother is chief buyer for Greenham (Cape Grim).

  • Cant see it happening Narm Naleg, simply because of family budgets, and i can only see prices getting worse as this style of cooking increases in popularity. :/

  • Cant see it happening Narm Naleg, simply because of family budgets, and i can only see prices getting worse as this style of cooking increases in popularity. :/

    My brother and I many years ago in our mid teens used to make mum buy lamb ribs. They put the out at 50 cents per kg just to get rid of them. $10 kg now. We used to herb them up and cook slow on the bbq.

    No one wanted them back then, people do now so they cost more. Bummer.



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    Edited once, last by Wazza (April 11, 2016 at 9:03 PM).

  • Always the way Wazza, i remember making satay with lamb back straps 25 yrs ago, the butcher used to give them to me for free.
    $40 plus per kg these days :(

  • Always the way Wazza, i remember making satay with lamb back straps 25 yrs ago, the butcher used to give them to me for free.
    $40 plus per kg these days :(

    Backstraps, thats even if you can find them. Hmm, just did a quick bit of maths and it turns out my story was 25 years ago.

    Chump chops used to be cheap only 10 years ago, now its called lamb rump and you're looking at 20.

    Time to head up the farm and knock a few off I think. Pretty sure I know how to get chump chops, will give it a go next time.



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  • Backstraps, thats even if you can find them.

    I agree about the grass fed being best. That's my experience and it's why I use a good butcher and don't buy any meat from Costco, or Woollies or Coles for that matter.

    Back straps are great but it's getting to the stage where you need to take out a second mortgage to buy them. :(

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  • Agree with the above, something which is miffing me lately is secondary low and slow cuts. Recently purchased a pressure cooker and I'm still paying decent dollars for secondary... $14kg for beef shin (on special) and $16kg for lamb shanks... Someone needs to tell these people you lose a lot breaking things down :cursing:

    Buying cape grim here is cheaper than local dog food

  • While it's not green grass, the sheep on the farm get hay all through the summer, next to no grain.

    It's all hay we produce. I know its good because on the rare occasion others get some for horses they alway say how much the horses love it at try to come back for more. But we just don't have enough to share around.

    Last kill I did last summer I had to cut massive amounts of fat out of them, an ongoing argument with Dad about over feeding, but thats a whole other post.

    For me grass, or hay, I'll take it any time I can, but it's so hard over here in the west, we just don't have the climate for it.

    And for the record, we are getting shafted at the price we pay for secondary cuts, especially bone in, take into account the weight of the bone and per kg it's pretty big, osso bucco selling for more than gravy beef, WTF.



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