Cooking Brisket 11 Days in Advance - How to Store

csmcvey · Nov 9, 2014

I am travelling out of state on Thanksgiving and want to take some of my family some of my brisket. My plan is to cook some brisket flats on Sat Nov 15. I will be leaving the next Saturday (prior to Thanksgiving). We are driving so I can easily take a cooler(s).

I want to give some relatives some brisket they can take home and enjoy and would also like to have some brisket to serve with Thanksgiving dinner. Not sure how to store it for the two needs.

For the individual take home brisket I was thinking I would slice it up after cooking and seal it in vacuum bags with a little of the drippings drizzled over it. And then freeze the bags and transport them frozen. I don't have a vacuum system but I am going to get one - how does this work? Any other ideas?

For the brisket to serve @ Thanksgiving I would love to keep it whole, reheat it and then slice it on Thanksgiving but I think 11 days keeping a cooked brisket whole may be pushing it. I guess I could freeze it whole but that sounds suspect. Any ideas? Is my best bet just to do it like the individual packs of brisket and just warm up a few come Thanksgiving?

Thanks in advance

Harbormaster · Nov 9, 2014

I don't think you will have any issues freezing the brisket whole or sliced.

Good luck with your cooks.

Ron_L · Nov 9, 2014

11 days is too long without freezing. In both cases I would vac-u-suck it. It will be in better shape when you want to use it.

You thoughts on sliced brisket is right on. I would freeze in meal sized portions with some liquid and then when they want to eat them they can just drop the bag in lightly boiling water to heat it up.

For the brisket to eat, I would also be tempted to slice it and then vac-u-suck and freeze. I think it will reheat better, but you can certainly freeze a whole brisket and reheat it on site.

thirdeye · Nov 9, 2014

Five or six times a year I get similar requests (football parties, wedding rehearsal dinners, birthdays, and holiday dinners. So I've developed a good method for wrapping, freezing and reheating - and have a complete set of instructions since I'm usually not at the event. I always insist on selecting the briskets and I only use whole briskets, but you could do a test run with a flat and see how well it survives the cook, freeze, thaw and reheat. I've held thm in the freezer for a couple of months, which is great because it allows me to smoke them on my time schedule. I've attached my instruction sheet in a .pdf format for you to look over. I has some basic info so the person reheating can answer the common questions, then full instructions for each step (thaw, reheat, slice).

LMAJ · Nov 9, 2014

Thanks for the info thirdeye!

I would cook it, rest it, slice and vacu seal the meal sized packets, and leave the one you want to eat on Thanksgiving whole. Make sure you will have a place to heat it slowly - if not an oven, then a grill etc. Oven space is usually at a premium on Thanksgiving to make sure you let your host know what your plan is so it doesn't screw up theirs.

Pitmaster T · Nov 9, 2014

thirdeye said:
Five or six times a year I get similar requests (football parties, wedding rehearsal dinners, birthdays, and holiday dinners. So I've developed a good method for wrapping, freezing and reheating - and have a complete set of instructions since I'm usually not at the event. I always insist on selecting the briskets and I only use whole briskets, but you could do a test run with a flat and see how well it survives the cook, freeze, thaw and reheat. I've held thm in the freezer for a couple of months, which is great because it allows me to smoke them on my time schedule. I've attached my instruction sheet in a .pdf format for you to look over. I has some basic info so the person reheating can answer the common questions, then full instructions for each step (thaw, reheat, slice).

Son of a bitch.... I never in all my years thought of the v notch thing. I always knew myself how to slice it but every once in a while it was disastrous when I gave slicing over to a novice and saw a table eating strands of brisket sliced the wrong way. This would be a simple solution... dang man.

Be careful of course of FOIL or this may happen:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epSXr7XNiiE"]Pitmaster T on Alzheimers - Foil and BBQ - YouTube[/ame]

Cooking Brisket 11 Days in Advance - How to Store

csmcvey

Knows what a fatty is.

Harbormaster

somebody shut me the fark up.

Ron_L

Administrator

thirdeye

somebody shut me the fark up.

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LMAJ

somebody shut me the fark up.

Pitmaster T

Babbling Farker

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