The term “packer cut” brisket refers to a whole, untrimmed brisket.
The People who prepare your meat for retail sale are technically Butchers but in the industry they’re called “Meat Packers.”
The job of a Meat Packer is to do things like:
- Inspect the meat
- Cut, prepare, weigh, and process meat
- Slice meat into retail cuts from whole primals/sub-primals
- Package, wrap, and label meat
- Store meat
Essentially, these people quite literally, prepare and “pack” animal’s – like cows – for retail sale.
Why a Packer’s Brisket isn’t Simply a “Whole Brisket”
While both have the point and flat muscles attached, they are not the same thing.
A Packer’s brisket is as is – meaning it hasn’t been trimmed, shaped, or altered, at all.
Here’s the meat side of the brisket above, right out of the packaging:
This packer brisket has:
- the deckle fat,
- surface fat and silver skin on the flat,
- it isn’t rounded or shaped near the lean,
- it has hard fat on the fat cap,
- muscle attached to the point that isn’t actually brisket
- etc.
Where-as some “whole” briskets can be trimmed for retail sale.
This is common when purchasing brisket online and in some grocery stores.
Here’s the same brisket above, trimmed – this would still be considered a “whole brisket”:
You’ll see phrasing and labeling like:
- Whole brisket
- Whole brisket, super trimmed
- Whole brisket, trimmed
Where I’m from, I can’t find whole brisket locally. All they sell near me are brisket flats and these are nearly $9/lb.
Meaning, I buy all my briskets online and the above wording is important.
People who do BBQ like to buy Packer briskets because you have more control over the trimming. If something gets scalped or messed up, I want it to be on me – not the Meat packer.
Here’s the fat side after trimming:
With ALL that Said, Not Everyone Likes Paying for Fat
Not everyone:
- Grinds their own meat.
- Renders beef tallow.
- Makes sausage.
So buying brisket that’s pre-trimmed is beneficial – especially for higher grades like prime. But trimming also affects the price-per-pound as you have to pay for labor.
To illustrate, we’ll use the pricing from Wild Fork Foods (as of 6/6/2024) to demonstrate:
| Grade of Brisket | Price per Lb |
|---|---|
| USDA Prime Beef Brisket | $4.98/lb |
| USDA Choice Beef Whole Brisket | $3.98/lb |
| USDA Choice Whole Brisket Trimmed | $5.98/lb |
So in the above table, the first 2 briskets are packer briskets, even though they’re labeled differently.
The prime brisket is described as a “Packer’s” in the description where-as the choice is listed as “whole” but untrimmed.
In this instance, the price per pound is higher because the meat is graded higher.
Wild Fork Foods also sells a “trimmed” version of their whole Choice brisket – the one they use for their pictures shows the deckle off and some of the exterior fat cap trimmed.
This trimming caused the price per pound to increase by $2/lb.
