Not a Fan of the Mason Hill Burnt Ends at Costco

I am a sucker for great barbecue but do not always have the time to fire up my smoker and slow cook a brisket for 12-14 hours.  That is what got me excited when I saw the Mason Hill Bistro Burnt ends at Costco!

Burnt ends are the pinnacle of barbecue nirvana and I love the idea of being able to buy them “Ready to Eat” off the shelf.

Mason Hill Burnt Ends at Costco

The packaging looked perfect and advertised fully cooked smoked beef brisket along with some barbecue sauce.

Let’s take a closer look at what you get with these Costco burnt ends so you can decide if they are going to end up in your shopping cart!

Nutrition and Ingredients

Let’s take a closer look at what you get with this package of Mason Hill barbecue.

Nutrition Facts

You get one pouch of burnt ends and one pouch of barbecue per  package.  The full tray is considered four servings.

The nutrition facts for a single serving, 1 cup, of this barbecue are:

  • Calories: 420
  • Fat: 20g (25% DV)
  • Cholesterol: 85mg (28% DV)
  • Sodium: 980mg (43% DV)
  • Carbohydrates: 32g (12% DV)
  • Protein: 27g

Burnt Ends Nutrition

From a nutrition standpoint the burnt ends are not nearly as unhealthy as I thought they would be.  The barbecue sauce loads them up with 25 grams of added sugar but the fat and cholesterol, while elevated, are not as high as I expected.

Ingredient List

The burnt ends have the following ingredients:

  • Beef
  • Water
  • Cornstarch
  • Salt
  • Soybean oil
  • Dextrose
  • Sugar
  • Sodium bicarbonate
  • Rice starch
  • Cure (salt, sodium nitrite)
  • Beet Powder
  • Yeast Extract
  • Beef stock
  • Garlic
  • Beef Fat
  • Onion powder
  • Paprika
  • Barbecue Sauce

I am not crazy about this ingredient list.

There is absolutely no reason for this brisket to be cured other than to give a faked appearance of having been slow cooked in a smoker.  You cure a brisket to make pastrami, not burnt ends.

There are a lot of other ingredients on this list that you would never find/use when making burnt ends at home.  This looks like classic proceed meat.

Heating and Serving

Here is how to heat and serve this “Ready to Eat” barbecue.

Pouches of Meat and Sauce

Heating Instructions

The heating instructions for this product are:

  • Remove the tray from the box.
  • Cut a slit in the pouch containing the burnt ends for venting.
  • Place the pouch of burnt ends in a microwave safe bowl and heat on High for 2.5 minutes.
  • Carefully fluff and separate the burnt ends while still in the pouch using your hands.
  • Microwave on High for 2.5 minutes.
  • Remove the burnt ends from the pouch and serve with the barbecue sauce.

Taste

The Mason Hill Burnt Ends are just okay.

The flavor is acceptable as real barbecue.  The beef comes in large pieces, has some smoked flavor, is extremely “beefy” and the sauce is thick and robust enough to pair nicely with the meat.

There is very little bark on the product and I didn’t pick up any meaningful or interesting flavors from a dry rub.  The meat could be a little more tender.

The biggest problem is that, in my opinion, the product doesn’t really qualify as authentic burnt ends.  While the product does appear to be made from a smoked brisket, almost all of the “burnt” ends in this package were extremely lean and came from the “flat”.  True burnt ends are made from the fatty, juicy and much more succulent “point” section of the brisket.

I guess the use of mainly the lean flat instead of the fatty point explains why the product has less fat and cholesterol than I expected.

Sliced Burnt Ends

It was also a little weird seeing the entire cubes of meat be deep red from the curing process instead of having a beautiful smoke ring from a smoked process.

The burnt ends cost $11.99 per pound and this 1.78 pound package came with a price tag of $21.

Considering that about a quarter of the weight of the package was barbecue sauce I am not sure that this product qualifies as a Costco bargain.

Given that the barbecue was just okay, and you end up paying a lot for barbecue sauce, I don’t think that I will be buying this product again.

David

Good morning and welcome to the site dedicated to helping you find great products at Costco and other stores! My name is David Somerville and these are hands on reviews of products that I have bought and used or am seriously considering purchasing. I do most of my shopping at the Costco in Baton Rouge, Louisiana but will check out any other Costco warehouses I find while travelling. Please get in touch with any questions and let me know of any great products that deserved to be featured in this blog!

19 thoughts on “Not a Fan of the Mason Hill Burnt Ends at Costco

  1. We paid over $20 for a bunch of blubber!!! More was thrown away than eaten. Sooooo disappointing!

  2. I don’t get this review at all. The meat was horrible unless you like fat and gristle. The only good part was the sauce. There’s no accounting for taste but whoever wrote this must be on the payroll.

  3. A lot of fat, no smokey taste. With real burnt ends the fat is pretty much mostly melted away.These we’re not
    2 thumbs down

  4. These burnt ends had great flavor but…… they had more fat than meat ….
    It says it says it has 4 servings and serving size is 1 cup….. this is not so after you take all the fat off the meat that was left was maybe 1/2 cup if that …… will not buy this again…. very much a waste of my money

  5. You are charged $6.39 for 8 oz. of an okay BBQ sauce every time you buy a box of Mission Hills Bistro “Burnt Ends”, that would be almost $13 for a 16oz. bottle at this rate! No one would pay that much for a pint of this sauce! Notice the BBQ sauce is not for sale online, nor in stores. As for the commenters that claimed the product was fatty and gristly, the meat that I got was lean, tough, not smoked long enough, and took a knife and fork to eat! Real burnt ends of brisket smoked properly would fall apart after being reheated and forks and fingers would be the correct tools necessary. But the “burnt ends” had rub on all sides of the pieces, proving that they are just cut up pieces off the flat, lean, tough brisket that is rubbed with seasoning on all sides and cooked in as quick of a method as Mission Hills Bistro can muster. We are being misled! Out of a 1.57 lb pack I netted only 16.6 oz. of beef, which is about $20/lb! Too much garbage is going into our landfills from their deceptive packaging too. They should spare us that sauce and all the packaging, and just seal the meat up in beef jerky type bags that are vacuum sealed so we can see what we are really purchasing!

  6. We thoroughly enjoyed them. We had them for a second time bc my husband loved them. There just barely enough for our family of three, certainly not 4 one cup servings! I wish the calories and carbs were broken down between meat and sauce. We are low carb so we don’t use the sauce. Ingredients are sugar, sugar, sugar but not sure what all the added sugar in meat crust is. We won’t get again after reading the nutrition panel but we thought they were very good. Also, both our experiences were tender so questioning how people heated? I did in a hot skillet as it says, after it reached room temp. NO microwave!

  7. i tried these tonight and was very disappointed , enough to find a thread to complain of this product , very fatty , two of the pieces were total fat , an very salty , i thew away at least 25% of blubbery fat , poorly done and will avoid the brand in the future

  8. the packaging for these Mission Hill Bistro Burnt ends were totally missleading, when i opened the package there was just enough for 1 person! seriously it looks so much bigger before you open it, plus it was $19.00 will never ever buy this again, it was’nt even very good.

  9. I got suckered into these as well. The packaging lead me to believe these were truly “burnt ends” of a brisket. They are not. Have smoked many briskets. Took a chance at a short cut and shoulda known better. They also stink your house up after heating. In my opinion leave these at the store. Will not buy again…PS: I typically never comment or give a review for anything, however after I have had this experience, I had to comment. Chapped!

  10. What a rip off!
    Super expensive BBQ FAT! Not one of our guest ate them after trying 1 bit; it was mostly GROSS FAT!

  11. So so so so so bad 😞 we are so disappointed! This was the worst meat product ever. Nothing but fat and grizzle.

  12. Not Happy. Net weight on package said 1.52 lbs. Got about 1 pound of of average fatty meat and 8 ounces of BBQ sauce. Paying $12 a pound for so much extra sauce seems a waste. Won’t buy again.

  13. Stupid me.I forgot that I bought them once before,exactly the same as now.These are,to put it mildly,absolutely horrible,Unless you like a tub of fat with barbecue sauce for $ 20.00,do not buy these,3 actual pieces of meat,the rest was fat,absolutely the same as the first time I bought them.Why Costco carries a product like this is beyond me,a total consumer ripoff.Please save your money for something edible,the worst meat product I have ever bought.My dog won’t eat it,and he loves Sweet Baby Rays Barbecue Sauce.Horrible product,you should be asamed Costco😡

  14. Complete waste of money unless you like to pay $20 for FAT!!!! Will never buy again! Wish I had looked at the reviews!!!

  15. SALTY SALTY & MORE SALTY NOTHING PREVIOUSLY LIKE BEFORE COVID BURNT ENDS.
    SOOO, I HAD TO BOIL THE MEAT IN WATER FOR 15 MINUTES TO DILUTE THE SALT.
    WILL NEVER NEVER BUY AGAIN !!!!!!!!

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