- Official Post
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.