Competition Brisket Roundtable...

All other competition related questions or comments about recipes, techniques, and related topics.

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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby bruno994 » Thu Jan 09, 2014 11:48 am

I like Butchers Prime as well Swamp, I think there have been several factors this past year that has made me stick with copycat. One, I have gotten better as a comp cook, secondly, I follow NPaynes' theory, if it ain't broke, don't fix it and this past year copycat helped me win some $, so for now I'll stick with it.
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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby Que'a Syde » Thu Jan 09, 2014 6:04 pm

Ive been using a Local place here in my home town..They always seem to have good quality briskets..better than what I can usually find at wally world or HEB..and the nearest SAMs for me is 30 min away.Recently I did a cook here at home for the family Christmas party. and used a walmart brisket and the family loved it..Ive been itching real bad to cook a Wagyu brisket.Im wanting to see the difference in marbeling and quality vs store bought.Some say the price isn't worth it..idk..id like to cook one and see..heh. :evil:
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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby jtilk » Thu Jan 09, 2014 6:05 pm

Yes, I inject as well. However I make my own, there might be a hint of a commercial injection in there as well :wink: ... That being said I find most commercial injections are way too strong for my liking on the package. Some of it I'm sure has to do with the fact it's a business suggestion, more product used more you end up buying. My reasoning for making my own was fairly simple, Kosmo's and Butcher's are very well known now that cookoffs have become mainstream and there's a good chance at any given cookoff 5-6 other teams are injecting what you are. I struggled with brisket for a long time using Kosmo's and Butcher's straight, after I talked to KAM from the forum at a cookoff I started tinkering with my own rubs and injections... since settling on what I'm currently using I've taken 6th out of 142 and 1st out of 56. It's safe to say I'll be keeping it for awhile.
-Josh

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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby Que'a Syde » Thu Jan 09, 2014 6:09 pm

I injected using butchers prime at comp..we did ok.i feel it was more rub than injection.Ive done some tweaking to the injection I plan on using at comp trying for a smoothe beef flavor instead of intense..i like the nuance of the injection and if its too overpowering then it just hurts in the overall judging.and please NEVER USE PEANUTBUTTER !!!! :geek:
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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby jtilk » Thu Jan 09, 2014 6:19 pm

I agree QS... Middle of the road beef flavor is what you want. Mixing by the directions is just too strong and salty, not to mention it almost becomes un-natural tasting. IMO Butcher's Prime is quite a bit better than the original, I dont care for the texture the original gives the brisket.
-Josh

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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby js-tx » Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:17 pm

I mostly cook prime packers, about 12lbs or so. I look for one with decent flat thickness and good marbling. Standard trim job on them. I also inject. I've tried both butchers prime and copycat reserve, I've had better luck with Butchers.. but it could be just coincidence. I mix about half-strength but like jtilk said.. there's probably lots of teams using the same stuff, so I plan on tweaking my injection a little bit. I look forward to learning from this thread, right now comp. brisket is my weakness, which is strange cause I think my home brisket is spot on.. I talked to one of the HJ from N.Texas in the WW Gruene comp in November. She said in years past salty was winning, but now she notices a balanced flavor is doing pretty well.
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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby bruno994 » Fri Jan 10, 2014 10:07 am

Dang Josh, I wish KAM (great guy by the way) would have gave me some advice! We tangled with each other at every local cookoff this year in the brisket category, I got him a few times, but for the most part he was always right ahead of me . You are also right about the original Butchers changing the texture of the meat, I had the same thing, switched to the Prime, tried it for awhile, then eventually went to copycat and have stuck with him since then. I think around here (Southeast Texas, Beaumont area) salty still works well, heavy smoke does pretty well also. I haven't cooked a "comp" brisket in a month and a half, so it's about time to start getting some practice in, tweaking my recipe a bit, see what I can come up with.
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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby RangerJ » Sat Jan 11, 2014 7:56 pm

Whatever is at the store that looks good. Not paying for prime for a comp.

I have injected With Butchers Prime but not always. I've hit with select uninjected and missed with choice injected. So, who knows
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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby bruno994 » Mon Jan 13, 2014 8:57 am

What kind of rub are you using? I am currently (and have been for over a year now), using a rub that I concocted myself, heavy kosher salt and black pepper, with brown or turbinado sugar along side numerous other spices including garlic, onion and chili powder. I have tried several other commercial rubs that I like including Oak Ridge Black Ops and Butchers Premium, but have found decent success with my own so I'll be sticking with it heading into 2014.
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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby Swamp Donkeyz BBQ » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:44 am

We use our own concoction. Little salty, garlic with a spicy bite. Doesn't taste good at all if you try it straight out of the bowl, but a little heat and smoke make it get right.
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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby jtilk » Mon Jan 13, 2014 1:35 pm

I'm making my own as well. God only knows how many commercial rubs I ordered and blew through, only to set aside and move on to the next one, usually thought they had too much salt for my liking. The rub I currently use is quite "peppery" and it's not all black pepper, consist of garlic and sea salt as well... what it is missing that most rubs contain is sugar and paprika. I figured brisket was a Texas bbq thing and I wanted Texas/ South West flavors in it.
-Josh

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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby js-tx » Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:06 pm

I'm all over the place with rubs, some homemade variations of kosher salt/ black pepper and commercial rubs. I also shy away from sugary rubs but I wonder if a little sugar/sweet is good to balance all the flavors?
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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby jtilk » Mon Jan 13, 2014 2:20 pm

js-tx wrote:I'm all over the place with rubs, some homemade variations of kosher salt/ black pepper and commercial rubs. I also shy away from sugary rubs but I wonder if a little sugar/sweet is good to balance all the flavors?


Mine started off as a challenge really. A few buddy's of mine use rubs that contain quite a bit of sugar at comps... I told them sweet and beef dont go together and so the debate/ challenge began as to who would win out... haha
-Josh

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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby bruno994 » Mon Jan 13, 2014 4:50 pm

Js-Tx, the sugar in my rub is more to balance out the heavy salt and pepper content than it is to add any sweet. I agree with you as well Josh, sweet and beef don't work for me, salty yes, sweet no. I have tried backing down on the salt and pepper, but then the other spices become a bit heavy handed and I end up with what my oldest son called "taco" brisket. With my current blend (and I'm always tinkering as most of us do), you'll get a hint of the rub with each bite, but nothing overpowering, a slight taste of the spices then the good, beef flavor from the brisket and injection.
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Re: Competition Brisket Roundtable...

Postby RWBTEX » Mon Jan 13, 2014 10:51 pm

I found this nice article about Kobe and Wygu beefs on the Forbes website, will repost below for those who didnt see it on my facebook.

First I will say that I wasn't ready to compete yet this year so rode up to Robstown to judge brisket finals, 83 teams. Glad I did that as I had not done it in about a year. The top 11-20 were ok briskets, some had good smoke and no flavor and some flavor and no smoke. Some tasted better but were not tender enough. Some were bland some were just ok.
The top 5-10 were a little better balanced between flavor, just the right smoke and rub combination and tenderness.
The top 5 were all very tender and had good flavor through the entire slices and again just the right kiss of smoke. When I say smoke I mean it tasted like a bbq brisket, not roast beef, some of the 5-20 did taste a little too much like that imo, beef broth overload. Top 3 had really good well balanced flavor and smoke and very tender, it was a close finish. 1st place had all the above but all the flavors were just abit more bold and yet imo needed a more barky smoky bbq flavor imo but hey I still scored it the highest because it did have the best overall balance of everything.
Out of the top 20 there were only about 3 that had a nice distinct bbq bark, one had a good flavor on the bark, none of the barkers made the top ten so pay attn friends, although we have read it many times we still want to do it, just seems right, hint. Bark is over rated in a competition.
Surprisingly I did not notice the copycat or the Butchers in any of them and usually I pick that up right away, so I guess dont over do it as some of you have already stated. I am very sure it was there on many of them (I know most of those guys that placed) but i just didnt notice it so they were done with less imo.

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryolmste ... be-beef-2/

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