Brisket / short loin bag size, anybody using it?

[Scott Mark]

My understanding from the UMAi people is that the brisket / short loin bag size was developed in response to customers wanting to use it for competition brisket.

Yet – I don’t think I’ve seen a single post on the forum about competition barbecue. Is anyone doing brisket like this?

Separately – we’ve all got different names based on our geography and upbringing – what is a “short loin” ? It seems that it might be a strip loin (New York Strip) that includes the bones and tenderloin and would yield T-bone and Porterhouse steaks. Is that what it is?

I’ve used one short loin bag to do a sirloin. Wasted a lot of bag material, but it fit well, sideways in the bag.

And, if I haven’t mentioned it, I’ve used one “roast” size bag for a half-brisket I got at Wal-Mart. Figured I should try it at least once. And it fit in my (repaired, now!) chamber sealer, so sealing was a layup.

I still haven’t come up with a use for the “dinner party” sized bag. Please let me know if you have ideas. Maybe it’d be right for 1-2 racks of lamb.

[Barry]

Toasty,
Good luck getting a definition of what certain cuts are! Every butcher I have asked has a different answer. It seems that this trade has many variables and when asking for certain cuts you better have done your homework to know exactly what you are getting. As far as the short loin bag it would fit a brisket or even a whole NY strip if you cut the ends square and very tightly at that. The dinner bags(useless) that come with the starter kit are for practicing on the included vacuum sealer.

“Competition barbecue” is a very serious thing to a lot of people, just watch food network or Google the term. They all have their “secrets” and you have me wondering if aged meats is one of them. These people are meat Masters and to have one try/use drybag such as Chris Lilly would put UMAi through the roof.

BTW… Thanks for mentioning a chamber sealer, can’t stand this “snorkel” sealer anymore…any recommends?

Barry

[Scott Mark]

Barry593,

I find that a whole NY strip fits in the “sub-primal” bag quite well. A whole ribeye is a slightly tighter fit, but the sub-primal is my go-to bag for those sizes.

I admit that I made a bit of a mistake, there. I stocked up on the sub-primal size, thinking that I’d be mostly aging ribeye. But at 30 days each, the feedback I’ve gotten is that the sirloin is a little more flavorful, a little more tender, and a lot less fatcap waste. (Jury is still out – we’ve got a full NY strip loin to test yet.) But I may have stocked up on the wrong size bag, because wasteful or not, sirloin needs to go into the “brisket / short loin” size.

I am continually delighted by the chamber sealer. Mine is a Vacmaster VP112 that I got through WebStaurant for under $600. I still use the Sinbo for some sizes of drybagging, but the chamber sealer is so much more predictable. I do a fair bit of correspondence with the ARY people, and I think almost every letter starts out “I’m _still_ in love with my VP112.”

The VP112 is much more designed for home use. If you’ve seen commercial units they are a big metal box with a domed lid. The VP112 is much lower-profile. I’m still concerned about the longevity of the lid, but it fits on a countertop beneath a standard cupboard. And it does liquids. AND it does compression infusion, AND bags are less than 20 cents. And it’s luggable. For Thanksgiving I took it with us and used it for packaging venison, and for packaging not only the leftover turkey, but also about 15 qts of lovely turkey stock, in bags and ready for the freezer.

I had to return mine once for repair – hairline cracks in the lid let air in and prevented a good vacuum. Manufacturer replaced the lid without complaint and mentioned that they’d had a bad batch of lids. I don’t know what I think. I’m trying to give the replacement lid a workout to confirm that it was a bad batch of lids, and not a design flaw in the lid. Good news thus far.

[Anonymous]

A short lion is where the T-bones, and porterhouse come from. The porterhouse comes from the end facing the rear of the cattle. That is where the tenderloin protrudes into the ribeye, You only get a few porterhouse off of a whole ribeye because the tenderloin is tapering down at that point. I have done a few short lions. They come out very tender, and flavorful. Alot of flavor next to the bone.Best if cut around the 2″ range. The only problem is you have to have the means to cut the bone.

[Scott Mark]

agedtoperfection wrote:

quote :

A short lion is where the T-bones, and porterhouse come from. The porterhouse comes from the end facing the rear of the cattle. That is where the tenderloin protrudes into the ribeye, You only get a few porterhouse off of a whole ribeye because the tenderloin is tapering down at that point. I have done a few short lions. They come out very tender, and flavorful. Alot of flavor next to the bone.Best if cut around the 2″ range. The only problem is you have to have the means to cut the bone.

Agreed, but is anybody out there selling short loins? I can only get boneless ribeye, which does NOT include any tenderloin, and boneless strip loin, which also does not include any tenderloin.

As for cutting the bone – me cheeldren are still on their milk teeth, so I can sharpen those and they can GNAW through the bones, and no harm done to the next set… Arrrrrrr.

[Anonymous]

Nobody sells them, you have to ask the butcher to sell you a whole one before they cut it up into steaks. I buy mine when the T- bones are on sale, that way you get it at a good price. The reason they don’t sell them whole is because the average person does not have the means at home to cut it into steaks. If you think about it, other than us aging one whole, what else would you do with a whole short lion once you get it home? The first time I asked for a whole short loin, the first thing the butcher asked me was if I wanted him to cut it up.

[Charlie]

Toasty, thats amazing!
B) Charlie

[Scott Mark]

agedtoperfection wrote:

quote :

Nobody sells them, you have to ask the butcher to sell you a whole one before they cut it up into steaks. I buy mine when the T- bones are on sale, that way you get it at a good price. The reason they don’t sell them whole is because the average person does not have the means at home to cut it into steaks. If you think about it, other than us aging one whole, what else would you do with a whole short lion once you get it home? The first time I asked for a whole short loin, the first thing the butcher asked me was if I wanted him to cut it up.

I agree with you. This is the part of the story that makes me sad.

At Sam’s Club, they don’t deal in T-bones or porterhouses. NY strips, ribeyes, and tenderloins. Nothing bone-in.

At the local grocer / supermarket, they do. But the taste is a bit bitter for me. I asked for a full top sirloin sub-primal, and they sold it to me. Full fat cap. NO processing. No labor, no trim, no waste, no nothing. And that gave me five cents a pound off what they wanted for the trimmed, processed meat case.

It doesn’t seem right.

Still looking for a fair butcher in the area.

[Scott Mark]

Clam Digger wrote:

quote :

Toasty, thats amazing!
B) Charlie

That might, possibly be an exaggeration. I should probably double-check me sources on that report.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean the taste is bitter? You’re right, 5 cents off is nothing for a untrimmed whole piece of meat. You don’t have a chain supermarket in your area? They should deal in bone in.

[Scott Mark]

agedtoperfection wrote:

quote :

What do you mean the taste is bitter? You’re right, 5 cents off is nothing for a untrimmed whole piece of meat. You don’t have a chain supermarket in your area? They should deal in bone in.

The cost is bitter. In the whole “economics of scale” we learn that per-item profit goes down as the volume goes up. But I buy a whole subprimal and they end up making a much larger profit than if they’d trimmed, paid someone to section, and wrap, and weigh and label, and answer questions about, etc, etc, etc.

So, all told, I paid more for that sirloin subprimal in bag than I would have paid if I’d let them unpackage it, drain it, rinse it, trim it out, package it, and so on.

I don’t mean to get all activist, but I’m a little bitter about being used like that.

[Anonymous]

Should definitely cost at least $ 1.00 less per lb. I would find a different butcher.

[Anonymous]

I have never used the brisket / short loin bags for either brisket or short loin, but I do use them for larger than average sized ribeye subprimals. I’ve found that a ribeye subprimal more than about 15 pounds in size fits much better in the brisket sized bag than the subprimal bag. I did a 20 pound ribeye recently in the brisket bag.

I also use the brisket size bag for top sirloin. That cut of meat is so fat that it doesn’t fit in any other size bag. There is a good deal of wasted bag material, but I don’t worry about it. The bags, while somewhat pricey, are not so expensive that it makes that much difference to me. A dry-aged top sirloin is a treat.

[Scott Mark]

carne wrote:

quote :

I have never used the brisket / short loin bags for either brisket or short loin, but I do use them for larger than average sized ribeye subprimals. I’ve found that a ribeye subprimal more than about 15 pounds in size fits much better in the brisket sized bag than the subprimal bag. I did a 20 pound ribeye recently in the brisket bag.

I also use the brisket size bag for top sirloin. That cut of meat is so fat that it doesn’t fit in any other size bag. There is a good deal of wasted bag material, but I don’t worry about it. The bags, while somewhat pricey, are not so expensive that it makes that much difference to me. A dry-aged top sirloin is a treat.

Same for me. I’ve never done a whole brisket (I’ve got a half-brisket aging in a roast bag). And I’m not sure what a short loin is. Is it a bone-in Porterhouse / T-bone loin?

I’m not captain dry-age, but I’ve done a few ribeyes. I’ve never found one I couldn’t squeeze into a Subprimal bag. I’m not sure if a larger ribeye would be a better ribeye, or would be an older ribeye.

So far — only using this size bag for sirloin.

[Anonymous]

Yes, the short loin is the bone-in section that the porterhouse and t-bone and delmonico are cut from. I would love to do one, but I don’t know how I’d cut it when done. I think a band saw would work, but I’m not sure if I could get by with a small tabletop model. I don’t have room for a floor-standing band saw.

I busted a subprimal bag once trying to cram a 20 lb ribeye into it. So now if the subprimal looks like it might be a tight fit, I’ll just use the brisket bag. I’d rather use the bigger and more expensive bag that risk totally destroying one.

[Author]

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