When people think about the quintessential Texas food, barbecue ranks high, jostling with Tex-Mex for the top spot. And if you’re eating barbecue in Texas, brisket is what you want.
Rising prices, though, are making it harder to enjoy this Lone Star staple, not to mention putting an added strain on restaurateurs whose smokers turn out dozens, if not hundreds, of briskets each week.
Today, a pound of smoked brisket at popular barbecue places can cost upwards of $30 or $40. That’s a far cry from the old days when brisket was an inexpensive favorite of working-class Jews who learned to slowly cook this notoriously tough slab of meat to tender perfection.
Some of the expense has to do with the labor involved in cooking a brisket just right. But a lot of it has to do with market prices.
Alex Cobb pulls brisket off the smokers at Dayne’s Craft Barbecue on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026, in Aledo. Abigail Dollins Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Even as little as six years ago, brisket was relatively cheap. In late July 2019, the raw wholesale price of USDA Choice brisket was $2.67 a pound. For the week ending July 24 this year, that price had risen to $4.57 a pound, a roughly 71% increase.
Part of that is driven by supply. The U.S. cattle herd is the smallest it has been since 1951, owing to factors such as prolonged drought conditions, fewer people in the ranching industry and increased competition from international producers.
A cow yields only two briskets, and unlike some other cuts of beef, brisket can’t be butchered in such a way to produce higher yields, which further contributes to the supply crunch.
Is Texas brisket a victim of its own hype?
While wholesale brisket prices have risen more than 70% over the past seven years, prices for top sirloin, tenderloin and boneless rib-eye haven’t been far behind, with an average per-pound price increase of around 66% for those cuts. Only boneless chuck, which is used for hamburger meat, has gone up more, from $2.10 in 2019 to $4.53 last week.
What makes brisket unique is that its price increase has coincided with an explosion in demand, driven by an almost cult-like obsession with barbecue over the past several years. That has been stoked in part by the media, with publications such as Texas Monthly reviewing and ranking barbecue places, creating a frenzy around the best ones.
One of those is Dayne’s Craft Barbecue in Aledo, which was No. 7 on Texas Monthly’s 50 Best BBQ Joints in Texas list in 2025.
“We’re part of the problem, I guess,” owner Dayne Weaver joked, taking some responsibility for the skyrocketing brisket demand.
While he’s not complaining about being popular, the corresponding high price of meat has made running a business more challenging for Weaver.
“It has definitely impacted us, for sure.”
Dayne Weaver, owner of Dayne’s Craft Barbecue, slices up brisket on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026 in Aledo. Abigail Dollins Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Weaver said he’s now paying roughly $6 a pound for brisket from his supplier. A little more than a year ago, he said, it was just under $4 a pound.
Dayne’s Craft Barbecue sells around 100 briskets a week. If you figure the average pre-trimmed weight of a brisket is 15 pounds, higher market prices have resulted in a year-over-year cost increase of $3,000 a week for Weaver.
Of course, he’s had to adjust his prices to keep up with operating costs. But there’s a limit to how much customers can and will pay for even the best barbecue, so Weaver has also gotten creative.
On average, about 20% of a brisket is trimmed away before the meat is smoked. Instead of throwing those trimmings out, Weaver found ways to put them to good use.
He sells brisket bologna, brisket sausage and a brisket burger, all of which are made with trimmings. The burgers have proven so popular, in fact, that Weaver believes they’ve helped keep him in business.
“If you’re a barbecue place and you don’t have a plan for your trim, you’re in trouble,” he said.
Alex Cobb pulls brisket off the smokers at Dayne’s Craft Barbecue on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026 in Aledo. Abigail Dollins Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Weaver said barbecue restaurants often don’t respond quickly enough to higher costs. Operators will keep menu prices the same hoping the price of meat will plateau or drop, only to later realize they should have reacted quicker. By that point, it could prove fatal to the business.
“People don’t have expendable cash,” Weaver said of restaurant owners.
What can be done to curtail high brisket prices?
While Weaver is focused on reducing waste, managing portions and improving efficiencies to keep his costs down, larger macroeconomic factors will dictate if and when beef prices fall. Chief among them is fuel costs. As long as diesel is high, the cost to move cattle and produce beef will be high.
Some assistance from Mother Nature could go a long way, too. While rains in Texas have helped regenerate rangeland, virtually everywhere else in the West and Southwest is still very dry. No rain means less grass, and less grass for feed makes it harder to grow the cattle herd without relying more and more on supplemental feed, which is comparatively expensive.
A tray of barbecue and sides is served up at Dayne’s Craft Barbecue on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026 in Aledo. Abigail Dollins Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Then there’s the question of whether demand will taper off, which is difficult to predict. When asked if there was another cut of meat to replace brisket or at least give diners another option, Weaver said some barbecue places are experimenting with smoked tri-tip or smoked flat iron steak.
Prices for those cuts are generally higher than brisket, but there’s a better yield with less trimming, Weaver said.
Still, it will be hard to usurp brisket as the king of Texas barbecue meats. People love it, and that love shows no sign of abating — and as long as it’s popular, you can bet on it being pricey.
People grab lunch at Dayne’s Craft Barbecue on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026 in Aledo. Abigail Dollins Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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Matt Adams is a news reporter covering Fort Worth, Tarrant County and surrounding areas. He previously wrote about aviation and travel and enjoys a good weekend road trip. Matt joined the Star-Telegram in January 2025.