Costco Mission Hill Bistro Smoked Beef Brisket Burnt Ends Review

We make lots of BBQ style foods at home but one food we don’t make is burnt ends. These Mission Hill Bistro Smoked Beef Brisket Burnt Ends are said to be inspired by the best pit BBQ experiences and full of flavor. These burnt ends are fully-cooked and ready in minutes but can convenient, store-bought BBQ taste nearly as good as fresh?

If these catch your eye, you also might be interested in the reviews for the Smokin’ Joe’s BBQ Brisket Burnt Ends, Montana’s Texas Style BBQ Pork Back Ribs, Pinty’s Eatwell BBQ Chicken Tenders, Bulls-Eye Barbecue Sauce, Cuisine Solutions Grass-Fed Beef Sirloin, Kirkland Signature Beef Pot Roast, Kirkland Signature Smoked Pulled Pork and The Keg Prime Rib Beef Burgers.

Location in Store

We bought these burnt ends in Kona, Hawaii and the item number is 16677. We found them in the refrigerated deli section near all the other refrigerated packaged meats and appetizers.

Taste

The burnt ends are greasy and salty, but pretty tasty. Surprisingly they don’t seem to have much fat on them (at least they don’t seem to have large chunks of fat on them). I was surprised that I didn’t really get any inedible pieces of fat or gristle. There were a couple chunks that were a bit fattier and less enjoyable than others, but they still weren’t too bad. The meat is pretty tender and kind of flakes apart as you eat it.

The barbecue sauce is pretty plain, but good. It’s more sweet than spicy, but I did notice a touch of heat.

My biggest complaint is that the burnt ends weren’t crispy on the outside. They seem be pre-charred, so they have that smoky, charred flavor, but the texture is off and I think this makes them greasier too.

I wish there was an option to grill these burnt ends as I think they’d be even better if you could actually crisp up the outside. I might experiment with doing that or air frying them as I think it could really make them shine.

Cost

These cost $12.72 per pound and the package I bought weighed 1.62 pounds so my package of burnt ends cost $20.72 USD. Which isn’t cheap for a cheaper cut of meat! You’re definitely paying for the convenience.

Convenience

The best before date on the ends is about three weeks from when we purchased them and they need to be kept refrigerated. If you’re not going to use them before the expiry date you can easily freeze them and thaw them in the refrigerator overnight.

The burnt ends are already fully cooked so you’re really just heating them up and there are instructions to do that on the package. There are microwave instructions or stove top directions, we chose to cook them in a pan on the stove top but still ended up microwaving them initially. Although the microwave method is very convenient, I don’t think the burnt ends would get very crispy just microwaving them.

I recommend serving these with typical barbecue-style foods like corn on the cob, potato salad, macaroni and cheese, coleslaw, baked beans and buns!

Nutrition

Calories

One cup of burnt ends contains 420 calories, 20 grams of fat, 980 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, zero grams of fiber, 26 grams of sugar and 27 grams of protein. Basically these are loaded with sodium, fat and calories and aren’t low in sugar or carbohydrates either. They’re definitely not the healthiest choice. The carbs and sugar are likely coming from the barbecue sauce.

Ingredients

The first ingredient is beef which is great but there are a bunch of cringe-worthy ingredients listed like dextrose, sugar and soybean oil. The burnt ends appears to be gluten and dairy-free but aren’t soy free.

Scoring

Taste: 8/10

Cost: 6.5/10

Convenience: 8/10

Nutrition: 3/10 (Points for protein).

Overall

Give it a try!

We all enjoyed these as an appetizer and thought they were pretty tasty despite being a bit skeptical about them at first. They’re 100% better than the Smokin’ Joe’s BBQ Brisket Burnt Ends from Costco.

Have you tried any burnt ends from Costco? What did you think of them?

Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).