MUCH loved by the low-and-slow Texas BBQ smoker movement, briskets have become a more significant part of the revenue stream from a typical grainfed or grassfed beef carcase.
Depending on trim level and seaming, whole briskets are currently worth anything up to $13/kg for grainfed examples in the wholesale market, and have risen in value – relative to other beef primals – over the past ten years as the popularity of smoking has risen.
While most briskets are now seamed-out in the beef plant into items like navel end, rib-end and shortplate, a whole well-trimmed grainfed brisket can weigh as much as 11-12kg, accounting for 7pc of the carcase yield, representing a unit value of $120-$150 each in some examples.
And in the highly-competitive world of Texas BBQ competitions, the brisket division is regarded as the most coveted category to win, contestants say.
MSA cooking method research
In response to the momentum being seen in brisket meat demand and use in Australia and overseas, the first steps towards creating a ‘cooking method’ category for use under the Meat Standards Australia grading system have been taken.
MSA currently lists a dozen different cut-by-cook methods for use in beef, ranging from the familiar (grill, roast, stir fry, casserole) to the exotic (shabu shabu, yakiniku), to processes used almost exclusively in the smarter end of food service (combi oven, sous vide). Thin-slicing, used widely in Japanese and other Asian cooking styles to improve eating quality in less tender cuts, is covered by no less than five separate MSA cooking method pathways (see image below)
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Now in its 26th year, the MSA program is continually evolving, with ongoing testing using untrained consumers for new and existing cooking methods for both domestic and international markets.
Transpacific sensory analysis
In the first steps towards development of a dedicated low-and slow smoker BBQ cooking method pathway, a research team comprising personnel from Australia’s University of New England and University of Queensland, plus their equivalents at Texas Tech, and Michigan State U in the United States, have completed a study into consumer acceptance of beef briskets cooked under the low and slow BBQ method.
To date, beef brisket (possessing high collagen content, best broken down through slow cooking to reduce toughness) has not been evaluated within the MSA program using a Texas barbeque low and slow cooking technique. Smoking beef is a long-standing practice in the US, but while the trend of smoking meats is now generating considerable interest in Australia, it remains in its infancy.
Meat Standards Australia sensory protocols have been utilised in beef for international consumers employing several cooking methods. The research team’s objective was to compare the consumer response of Australian and American consumers to paired beef brisket samples, utilising the ‘on-trend’ low-and-slow smoker BBQ cooking method.
As the basis of the project, briskets were collected from Australian carcases with diverse eating quality. Half of the briskets (totalling 24) were retained in Australia and their pair from the same carcases was exported to Texas for consumer sensory testing in both countries.
A total of 480 consumers in Australia and the US evaluated paired barbequed briskets for the standard MSA taste panel metrics of tenderness, juiciness, flavour and overall liking. A weighted composite meat quality score was later calculated.
Results suggest cultural influence
Australian consumers scored briskets lower for tenderness and juiciness, but higher for flavour liking; however there was no difference between the countries for overall liking and combined meat quality score.
Differences between Australian and US consumers’ evaluations indicated that there is an impact of cultural background, potentially driven by Australia’s naivety to the low and slow barbeque cooking method which is already well entrenched in the US. Similar findings around culture occurred with earlier MSA sensory work in consumer acceptance of non-traditional cooking methods in regions like Japan and Korea.
To date, no cross-country comparisons have been conducted on brisket eating quality utilising the relatively novel Texas smoker low-and slow technique.
“Our aim was to investigate the consumer response to the low and slow barbeque cooking method for inclusion into the MSA program, utilising both Australian (naïve) and American consumers from the US, who are more familiar with this cooking method and the presentation of beef samples in this form,” researchers said.
Their hypothesis was that there would be no difference in the consumer eating quality scores of briskets cooked using a low and slow cooking method by naïve Australian and familiar US consumers given the similarity in their cultural backgrounds.
Briskets were harvested from 24 Australian beef carcases from two plants in northern and southern Australia, consisting of high, medium and low-quality, as determined using the MSA eating quality grading model. The carcases represented a mixture of sexes, feed (half on accredited grain and the other half on grass) and HGP treatment.
From each carcase, a point-end (PE) brisket was collected from both left and right sides during boning, giving 48 briskets. All were frozen and remained frozen during transport.
Briskets from each carcase were paired (left and right side) between Australian and American consumers rotated between countries. Brisket preparation in both countries followed the same protocol. Treatment conditions within each brisket pair were also identical, so the only varying factor was the country of sensory evaluation.
Briskets were cooked using Green Mountain Grill and Jim Bowie pellet smokers using Green Mountain Grills proprietary “Gold” hardwood blend. The smoker temperature was set to 120 °C. Once at temperature, briskets were placed fat side down on the smokers and the time and temperature of each brisket was recorded.
When the internal temperature reached 65.6 °C, briskets were removed and wrapped in heavy duty aluminum foil and returned to the smoker in the same orientation with time and temperature recorded. When the internal temperature reached 93.3 °C, briskets were removed, retained in the foil wrapping and placed in an insulated holding box with time and temperature recorded.
Briskets rested for a minimum of 30 minutes prior to portioning for the sensory samples.
The PE briskets were separated into their two muscles (M. pectoralis profundus and M. pectoralis superficialis) prior to portioning.
Preparation styles included sliced (6mm), pulled or chopped (10mm cubes).
Conclusions
The low and slow smoking method was perceived to be acceptable by both Australian and US consumers.
While differences occurred between the two countries for tenderness, juiciness, and flavour liking, the MQ4 score (tenderness) was not considered different.
The trial showed the eating quality of the navel and point-end brisket was considerably lower than the dorsal and ventral brisket samples – identifying a potential for marketing these two muscles independently at different price points – particularly for the food service industry.
The serve method identified that pulled meat had the lowest eating quality compared to sliced and chopped, which must be considered for consumer satisfaction in a commercial setting and for future data collection on briskets for the MSA model, the research team found.
- Taking part in the research were Australians Jarrod Lees from the University of New England, Nicholas Hardcastle from University of Queensland, Holly Cuthbertson and Rod Polkinghorne from Birkenwood International, Pete McGilchrist from UNE and Rohen Wong and Garth Tarr, statisticians from University of Sydney. From the US side were Justin Johnston, Andrea Garmyn and Markus Miller from Texas Tech University.