Brisket with a 9-hour rest???? HELP!!!!

Meat Burner said:

Would definately agree with Donnie about not slicing before reheating. Man, slicing and then reheating sounds like a recipe for some dry dry brisket. I may be wrong so don't hammer me if you have a reason for slicing first. I am like the rest of the brethren here, always willing to learn something new. Just a thought.

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jeffboyette said:

Preheat the cooler with some boiling water, shut the lid for 10 minutes,
Pour the water out, and put 1 or 2 heatpacks, like you use for your sore back, in the bottom of the cooler. If the brisket goes in hot, in foil, wrapped in towel, with little extra space in the cooler with heatpacks, it will be perfect when you arrive.

They will be at a safe temperature the entire time! If they are not hot enough for you, keep them in foil, place in oven 250-275 for 20 minutes THEN slice and serve.

I have used this technique for the military family days often, with perfectly tender, juicy, warm, and safe brisket.

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Divemaster said:

Yes I'm going to bring up NASCAR again. In the 4 years I cooked for them I figure that I've cooked up roughly 4 to 5 Tons of brisket. No, I'm not kidding (10-12 races a year, 200 - 250 pounds of raw brisket each race). The process that we came up with is very straight forward.

Once cooked, I normally chill the brisket in the fridge over night, slice it, cryo-suck it (food saver works great), and then freeze it.

To re-heat it I thaw it in the fridge (cause it's safer), and then place the cryo-sucked package in boiling water for 10 - 20 minutes depending on the weight (normally I do 1# packages for myself and my customers, 1/2 a flat for NASCAR). One thing, be sure to put a small towel in the bottom of the boiling water to keep the bag from melting.

This method allowed us, in short notice, to heat only what we needed. I have a customer that each year orders 25# of cooked brisket for his Chistmas party for just this reason.

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barbefunkoramaque said:

Once again, please, the original thread poster should not follow this advice. Yes it works well but considering the cold environment you are going into, simply chilling and reheating would be the safe thing to do.

You asked what a caterer would do so I kept it up to health care standards.

This idea is an excellent one for some applications and it does indeed work. But based with the traveling you are doing.... I would not do this.

All respect to the poster of this best practices procedure for getting the most out of the heat. I used to use heated rocks.

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barbefunkoramaque said:

Dive, you and I measure our brisket experience in tons... one day it will be houses. LOL

I like the paper towel Idea.

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swamprb said:

Just curious here, but should (or could) you add the au jus, assuming you foiled the briskets, to the layers of foodservice wrap. Would the reheating process cause the wrap to melt of leak? It says right on the box, "keeps hot foods hot", "great insulator" and "microwave safe". I've been to classes where it was pointed out that it melts at temps above *250, so I've always re-heated lower.

Great advice from the tonnage cookers!

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miketuman said:

Ouestion...can you hot smoke chicken with the skin on and NOT make the skin shoe leather....

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Divemaster said:

Not speaking for the food service wrap side, but yes, I do save the 'drippings' from the resting pans after the chill phase. I normally store them in quart mason jars if I'm using it within a couple of days or in a plastic container if I need to freeze it.

The problem I run into is not that the brisket is dry because of slicing it early and then freezing it, it's for the guests that get to the serving station later after the brisket's been on for 45 minutes. By adding some of this juice it keeps the meat nice an moist for a far longer period. Heck, I've even had guys make what they would call 'BBQ Italian Beef' by dipping some of the bread in the drippings and then adding the brisket.

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Smokin'Ron said:

I've tried freezing it and IMO it gets pungent... I use your quart jar idea and actually get the canner out. With the rub on the brisket in the juices it creates enough acidity to seal and it's like fresh brisket juice in every jar... Or I make BBQ with it and do the same.

Also, I've never tried to travel in a cooler with just a small peice of meat, but I have the WalMart huge white coolers (9 half pans fit perfectly BTW). I pack one full with meat and piping hot side and put my maverick smoker probe in it. I took a cooler of hot food to my wifes family about 3.5 hours away. It was like having them in a holding oven. Not sure about 8-9 hours, I would not feel safe with that even at holding temps.

I'm no pro yet, but figured I'd post my experience on the subject.

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Divemaster said:

Are you talking about the drippings or the meat?

If the meat, how long between the cook and freezing? As I've said above, it's normally no more than 12 - 16 hours from when it comes off the cooker thru the chilling, slicing, packaging, and into a freezer that normally sits at -20 degrees... Never had a problem...

If the drippings, are you removing the fat? If not that could add some unwanted flavors.

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