Brisket’s popularity makes prices rise

Brisket used to be a Texas roadside barbecue and Jewish deli staple. Brisket and corned beef were the foods of working men, and the relatively low price reflected its standing in the world of beef cuts. Recently, however, brisket has been appearing on more and more fine-dining restaurant menus and in fast food joints, and this popularity has driven up its cost, according to the Wall Street Journal.

While you can still find brisket at hole-in-the-wall barbecue joints, you’ll also find it in pricey restaurants, where it might be served with garlic-confit-infused collard greens and potato salad with pickled mustard seed. In addition to the uptick in interest by fine-dining establishments, brisket has begun to appear on more fast food menus, too. It’s been estimated that Arby’s has “swallowed up 5% of the already tight brisket supply when it reintroduced its Smokehouse Brisket sandwich last summer.”

What this sudden surge of interest means, naturally, is that the price of brisket has risen dramatically. According to the WSJ, choice grade brisket “was selling at $3.34 a pound in the spot market this week, up from around $2.30 at this time last year and $1.59 five years ago, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.” Some people are calling it a “brisket bubble,” taking the view that prices will come down once the meat’s moment in the spotlight is over. Until then, prepare to pay a lot more for brisket than you have in the past.

Photo of Coffee-rubbed Texas-style brisket from Cooking Light Magazine