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That USDA Prime brisket grade stat I found blew my mind
I was digging through the American Meat Science Association papers last weekend and found out that only about 2-3% of all beef in the US actually grades out as Prime. I always figured it was way more common since every BBQ joint brags about it. Turns out most of the brisket you see at comps is actually high-end Choice that got the fat cap trimmed just right. I checked the 2023 USDA annual report to confirm and the number held up at 2.8%. Has anyone else run into that stat and changed how they buy meat?
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wells.olivia14d ago
The 2.8% figure feels way too low to me because I've personally grabbed Prime briskets at Costco like four times in the last year alone and they weren't hard to find. I think that stat gets thrown around to make people feel special about buying Prime but it doesn't match what I see on the ground. @noaht15 probably would have had a better time with a cheap brisket if he'd just focused on temp control instead of blaming the smoker but that's a different argument. My local grocery store runs Prime sales every few months and I've never had to hunt for it like it's some rare treasure. The USDA definition of Prime is so broad anyway that a lot of what they call high-end Choice is basically Prime if you look at the marbling close enough. I just think people lean on stats to sound smart when really they should just buy what looks good and cook it right.
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