Panera Bread did it to me again.

[jim]

This brisket had nothing to do with BBQ. When I've heard the term brisket it's always had BBQ on it, but this stuff just gross.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Omg had a hamburger at the wild goose (a place I named correctly as one of the best honky tons in america) and have been [expletive] green and dry heaving ever since. You'd think all the whisky would kill any bacteria. But nooooooooooo

[lukethedrifter]

Is someone going to tell jim that a deli isn't a bbq joint?

Jewish deli brisket ( is German brisket the same?) is definitely a different beast than bbq brisket. The slow grilling does amazing things to all that fat that you don't get deli style.

[jim]

It makes sense that brisket is the same meat as Corned beef, because I can't stand corned beef. I have had it everywhere and it's disgusting, less disgusting than the brisket I just had but disgusting nonetheless. Putting cabbage on it seems logical - if you are going to serve disgusting food may as well go all out and make it as absolutely disgusting as humanly possible. It's not so much the taste although I'm definitely not crazy about it, it's the fact that my stomach starts convulsing the second it hits bottom. I can't finish a sandwich without wanting to throw up.

[lukethedrifter]

Pastrami is basically smoked corned beef.

I too used to share your disdain for corned beef. Pastram too, actually. Until I had it at a place that knows how to do it right.

[jim]

Pastrami doesn't taste as fatty to me. Does the smoking dry it out? Because Corned Beef needs some serious drying out.

[33anda3rd]

Brisket in German butchery is the same as in traditional Jewish deli butchery. In Europe and in the US where people are doing proper butchery it's going to be the same. In the US we have an ugly tradition that started in the 40s or 50s where meat is cut on big bandsaws to be easily portioned, placed on styrofoam, wrapped in plastic, and tagged with a price for a supermarket shelf. Traditional butchery is the opposite, with the cuts running along bone and muscle lines.

Another note, re brisket or anything. A lot of what shows up in supermarket, Wal-Mart, Target "meat" packages is called case ready. It gets processed off-site, packaged, and sent in--which if you think about it, there's no butcher at your Target, right? It has to come from somewhere. So how do they keep it from spoiling? Saline. Salt. Typically these cuts are injected with a saline solution to preserve them. Why does that pork chop from the Kroger shrink so much? It's got a lot of liquid in it from that saline injection. Why did you oversalt your sirloin from Hy-Vee so much? You might not have, it's just already full of salt. If you buy a brisket at one of those spots, or buy a brisket from a good butcher or from an upsacle place like Whole Foods, where they butcher in-house, you will get an honest piece of meat that's not screwed around with. it will shrivel less, it will have a higher weight post-cook, and it will taste a lot better. The cheap deli that is selling brisket sandwiches is getting their brisket off a Sysco truck, I assure you. They're not butchering it in house. The diff between that and their corned beef/pastrami is that the latter two are cured off site and come in as a finished product more or less.

[thrill]

I'm going to Chompie's for lunch pastrami now.

[Fat_Bulldog]

I've been making homemade vegetable soup out of leftover smoked brisket. It's really good.

[jim]

Brisket in German butchery is the same as in traditional Jewish deli butchery. In Europe and in the US where people are doing proper butchery it's going to be the same. In the US we have an ugly tradition that started in the 40s or 50s where meat is cut on big bandsaws to be easily portioned, placed on styrofoam, wrapped in plastic, and tagged with a price for a supermarket shelf. Traditional butchery is the opposite, with the cuts running along bone and muscle lines.

Another note, re brisket or anything. A lot of what shows up in supermarket, Wal-Mart, Target "meat" packages is called case ready. It gets processed off-site, packaged, and sent in--which if you think about it, there's no butcher at your Target, right? It has to come from somewhere. So how do they keep it from spoiling? Saline. Salt. Typically these cuts are injected with a saline solution to preserve them. Why does that pork chop from the Kroger shrink so much? It's got a lot of liquid in it from that saline injection. Why did you oversalt your sirloin from Hy-Vee so much? You might not have, it's just already full of salt. If you buy a brisket at one of those spots, or buy a brisket from a good butcher or from an upsacle place like Whole Foods, where they butcher in-house, you will get an honest piece of meat that's not screwed around with. it will shrivel less, it will have a higher weight post-cook, and it will taste a lot better. The cheap deli that is selling brisket sandwiches is getting their brisket off a Sysco truck, I assure you. They're not butchering it in house. The diff between that and their corned beef/pastrami is that the latter two are cured off site and come in as a finished product more or less.

Is Manny's on Roosevelt/Jefferson a cheap deli that does that? Because I'm telling you, it was just plain awful. I don't know how anyone could eat that.