 So a few weeks back I spent a lot of money on this 15-pound Wagyu beef brisket from Snake River Farms So it was all to answer the question is Wagyu worth it and to really gauge this beautiful brisket To a regular brisket I did a side-by-side comparison of a choice grade brisket From Costco Costco brisket versus a Wagyu brisket So in short one of the tricks for a better brisket is just using better meat In fact a lot of competition teams out there will use Wagyu beef Because they believe it gives them that much of a competitive edge a big edge brisket It's gonna be delicious in my opinion if you just cook it properly even if you cook it poorly It's still good. So the question was It's not did it even taste great in the end, but was this Wagyu worth it? So this is the choice one compared to the Wagyu choice brisket on the left wagyu on the right I was just amazed that visually I don't see Now on the right. It is a whole packer brisket from Snake River Farms 150 bucks from Snake River Farms and on the left was $50 choice grade brisket from Costco So the the size is a little bit of a difference with the size because I have the point Which would be on the top side of the right-hand brisket included with the Wagyu By the way, I use these briskets for the new book. I worked on doing recipes for smoking meat one-on-one Huge section on brisket here. I'll put a link in the description and get it now And I really like these briskets it turned out phenomenal in the book and in the next couple videos So these tasted great in the end and we'll get into that in just a second, but was the Wagyu worth it I cooked these things the exact same way. So here I'm using the recipe from the book just simple salt pepper so the ingredients With the exception of one is Wagyu on the right and the other is not Are exactly the same by the way, I didn't get any freebies from Snake River Farms I purchased this through their website. It was 50 bucks and then another 10 for Shipping within a couple of days and it was really convenient. It was good to be able to use PayPal Super easy and convenient as far as the Costco meat it was It was about two hours out of my day driving and parking shopping Of course, I had to get the buck 50 hot dog while I was there There is a cost to all that time. So I do kind of consider that all in the equation simple recipe salt pepper Rub the meat and we're gonna smoke it until it's done Again, I do the deep dive on the actual recipe in the book smoking meat 101 the USDA does grade different levels of beef those grades are select Then choice then prime is better There's BMS levels that Snake River Farm uses for like the marbling. Let's beef marbling scale Prime is better. It's about a BMS of four or five Snake River Wagyu Has additional gradings that they have created this one is a black grade and then there's also a gold grade which is a BMS of nine and up so even more so The Costco brisket I'm looking at on the left is an eight pound flat It was about 50 bucks compared to the Snake River Farms 15 pounder on the right It's Wagyu on the right and that was again 150 bucks plus about 10 bucks Shipping so anyway, I cover the ordering in my unboxing video. I did a couple weeks ago It's definitely it's a great thing to get Wagyu for gifts ordering was really quick easy It was great to use PayPal. I was able to add a little note in there as a gift. It's really good No one's gonna not like getting something mail-ordered like that By the way a recipe on this stuff again I use the same for both simply salt and pepper or a layer of mustard to make it stick a little bit some course kosher salt and Black pepper is really all you need and again they both I'll say in the end these both turned out tasting great And I did very little trimming on them as well So what you're gonna do when you I got up real early and what you're gonna do you get your smoker warmed up I use a Traeger here Smells good in the morning to be cooking brisket but I got up before it was dark but before it was light out and What you're gonna want to do is place the briskets in the center of the smoker rack I do fat side up usually it should be in the direct path of This smoke so if there's a cooler area of your smoker Use the warmer and you place the smaller or the thinner flat section in the cooler area since it could quick Since it could smoke quicker So yeah, you'll place the brisket in the center of the smoker rack So if there's a warmer area of your grill or a cooler area, I usually take the thicker side of the brisket in this case you see me working with the The whole packer brisket, which includes the point. I'll have the point Closer to the warm side so the thicker parts because it's gonna cook a little bit faster and a big thick piece of meat can Tolerate that a little bit easier. You're smoking it for at first four to five hours until the internal temperature of These monster pieces of meat reaches about 165 degrees Fahrenheit. This is when really patience is a virtue We're gonna close the lid and just let them absorb smoke Refrain from opening the cook chamber as much as possible unless it's necessary to replenish some wood chips But about four hours later Then you check the internal temperature of the brisket again by inserting a probe of a Instant read meat thermometer into the center of the thickest part of the meat. You're just trying to find the center of things Should be 165 and you know the funny thing is we always think of with steaks or something like that 165 is USDA food safety considered done Well, you're just getting started with brisket because you're gonna go well over that This is where you actually start wrapping Now what you do is you give it more time you wrap it up and butcher paper and you allow all that Rubbery collagen inside the beef all the connective tissues that make up make the brisket stuff Now is the time to wrap it up and melt through all that I Do do a little bit of spray of what I call a perfection spray. There's a simple recipe but really any liquid will just keep it a little bit moist while you wrap it up and Once again, once it's 165 internal you wrap it up And you try and get it as tightly as possible by the way I hadn't used butcher paper all that much But I do like it over foil for briskets because it allows you to really cultivate a really nice bark on this and it still kind of seals in enough moisture to kind of braise through all that tough collagen and Still leave a good bark plus then it's easier. It's actually fairly easy to work with and unwrap and Take the temperature through in the next steps. So the big question is is it wrong a lot of people don't like foil wrapping they call it Texas crutch and I've mentioned it before wrapping and foil I Don't think there's any shame in it wrapping will definitely help power through that stall phase that people talk about It's when it will like just wait and stick on a big temperature or two this will help blast through that and Even out your cook a little bit accelerate the cook a little bit Close the lid and you're off to continue smoking and the paper will still allow a little smoke flavor to get it in But for the most part it's absorbed the smoke you continue smoking it for about four Maybe even five more hours depending on the actual size of your brisket Maybe how cold it is or hot it is outside But don't allow the slow temperature move to frustrate you you don't want to be opening it Over and over again. Just keep cooking until the internal temperature of your meat Hits about 195 to 205 degrees it'll take a while, but it is definitely going to be worth the weight So the funny thing was yeah, the Wagyu even though it was probably five pounds bigger did cook faster than the Costco Choice brisket I will say the Wagyu the larger brisket I did let set before I put it on the I let it get a little closer to room temperature Whereas the Costco brisket I put in cold from the refrigerator, so not a total perfect comparison, but I think your wagyu is going to Smoke a lot faster because that melt that fat will melt a little quicker And thank you by the way view Kennedy Fabian who sent me this great scrape This is a great way to clean your grill with just a wooden plank all natural It's not going to go a little funk on your grill it scrapes it off nicely without Damaging the coatings on your grill grates. It's a pretty easy thing and it'll last you a good long time The great scrape you can find out more about them at great scrape Dot coms so the side-by-side comparison here is what they ended up looking like in the end and we will start with the Costco brisket and this is just the flat so we don't have the point attached to the Costco brisket and It had that familiar jiggle yet. You're gonna want the bark was beautiful and Again in the end I will tell you it ended up tasting great. Let's see cutting into it. We had a nice smoke ring for both So you can see the juices flowing super juicy and again, this was the choice brisket This was the Costco brisket. You can see there's plenty of fat even without it being wagyu Now for the unveiling of the wagyu brisket from Snake River Farms. Hey, there's no complaints here This is a beautiful piece of meat from the start to finish has that same familiar jiggle Which you really want with a brisket. It was really cooked. I got both of them cooked really really nicely Let's go inside the meat under the bark Looked good and plenty of fat still here and you'll see the beautiful juices flowing nicely as well I did give these guys enough time to rest before cutting into it Visually, I don't think I could tell the difference between the two so the question ended up coming down to taste and I'll say there was no Distinguishing flavor difference one wasn't more beefy than the other. I didn't think however. There was maybe a small small Difference in the tenderness. I'd say it's subtle enough that no one at my Gathering I had some friends over to judge for themselves. No one could really judge a difference in tenderness I did a little tug test. I didn't get it on camera here But tugging the two slices apart and yes the wagyu was slightly More tender Teared apart a little bit easier was a little bit softer But no one really in the real world could tell but maybe a competition judge Could that's one of the things they really focus on tenderness. So they might be able to pull that They might be able to really detect that might So is wagyu worth it? I'd say if you are in a competition situation Go for it. Try it. And if you nail everything in the cook Side-by-side you will have a little bit of an edge But are your guests at a dinner party for the backyard are gonna notice? No, I'd say for the hundred bucks Take the time and get the Costco brisket. Also, maybe if you are really intense competitors On the competition scene if there's money involved, maybe you want to go and try the gold level This was the black grade Snake River farm. So That might be worth it for you to get that extra little edge But I think really paying for wagyu for the backyard is going Overboard if you're gift-giving my recommendation would be I wouldn't gift give Wagyu brisket. I would gift give wagyu beef steaks or something like that instead And they've got a ton of that premium steaks still anything From Snake River farms you get a delivery like that you're it they make it really good to deliver as a gift So I would recommend that people just love getting it and they make it really easy to add a little note So again, this is the black level brisket wagyu from Snake River farms I'd only recommend it for competition teams and if there's prize money In Short is wagyu worth it for home. No, maybe for competition cooks I will say Snake River has other premium meats like great steaks wagyu steaks also heritage breed pork like Berkshire Ham's and butcher box has Berkshire and different heritage breed chops and things like that they deliver those things with the heritage breeds And pork I really think you really can taste a difference I do by the way talk about where you can find great meats online in my new book smoking meat 101 You can get it now. I'll put the link in the description box here on YouTube I just want to say thank you very much for those of you that got the other books I have this is the fourth one and it's all about smoking meat one-on-one lots on brisket here and All sorts of different meats as well more tips tricks other fun stuff www.barbecuetricks.com and hit the bell to subscribe