spinynorman99 wrote:Don't kvetch, the Kosher stuff can run $12.99/lb.
Geo wrote:Just got my flyer from NYC's Fairway Market: prepared brisket, $15.99. Other Passover stuff too.
Fairway is, basically, Heaven on Earth for a foodie-shopper.
Geo
Geo wrote:It takes a lot of people to run a Fairway, lots of hands-on selling required. I bet they don't expand much beyond a few more stores on Long Island.
I don't see how anyone makes a buck in the supermarket biz. Except for one or two exceptions, *all* the supermarkets in Kansas City are owned by one family. There's not a single national chain market in the entire metro area. It's only via that kind of market dominance that profit can get made, I guess. Ugh.
Geo
Geo wrote:It takes a lot of people to run a Fairway, lots of hands-on selling required. I bet they don't expand much beyond a few more stores on Long Island.
I don't see how anyone makes a buck in the supermarket biz. Except for one or two exceptions, *all* the supermarkets in Kansas City are owned by one family. There's not a single national chain market in the entire metro area. It's only via that kind of market dominance that profit can get made, I guess. Ugh.
Geo
Truth #2
The price of brisket is going up and the quality of the cut is going down. The packer’s cut is getting longer and skinnier, forcing barbecue pitmasters to trim away more unusable meat. So how did the shape of the brisket change? The meat industry varies the specifications on meat cuts to make the most money. Nobody complained when the baby back ribs started getting fatter. The back ribs were selling for more than pork loin, so meat cutters started leaving more loin on the chops to take advantage of the higher price. But when the price of beef pectoral got higher than brisket (fast-food restaurants are using it for fajitas), the meat cutters started leaving less of that delta-shaped muscle on the side of the brisket. To make up for the lost weight, they cut lower into the navel—the cut used to make pastrami. The navel meat is too thin to barbecue, so pitmasters grind the “too skinny” stuff for sausage—which is driving the prices up on brisket and sausage.
EvA wrote:Choice whole packer briskets are $2.89/lb. at GFS on Oakton in Evanston. There were half a dozen there yesterday afternoon. Weights range from 11 to over 16 lbs., and they are completely untrimmed from the looks of the thing inside its cryovac. We are smoking one for Rosh Hashanah.
JoelF wrote:EvA wrote:Choice whole packer briskets are $2.89/lb. at GFS on Oakton in Evanston. There were half a dozen there yesterday afternoon. Weights range from 11 to over 16 lbs., and they are completely untrimmed from the looks of the thing inside its cryovac. We are smoking one for Rosh Hashanah.
Argh, I should have checked GFS. I've got my uncle's butcher friend dropping one off at his office for about twice that price.
irisarbor wrote:JoelF wrote:EvA wrote:Choice whole packer briskets are $2.89/lb. at GFS on Oakton in Evanston. There were half a dozen there yesterday afternoon. Weights range from 11 to over 16 lbs., and they are completely untrimmed from the looks of the thing inside its cryovac. We are smoking one for Rosh Hashanah.
Argh, I should have checked GFS. I've got my uncle's butcher friend dropping one off at his office for about twice that price.
ARGH indeed, I thought I was doing good at $5.99 at Costco
at least the darn thing looks good...
Costco Wholeslae #1153
JoelF wrote:Likely to come out stringy. I use brisket for nihari, and probably could for ropa vieja (they're basically the same dish separated by 10000 miles), but not sure I'd love it for stew.