Brisket: Holding in Cooler Questions

[Greg60525]

I foil my brisket, wrap in towels and hold in a hot cooler. When I pull it out of the cooler, how long do you wait until you slice it? Do you unwrap it for a while first. I'm assuming that if sliced immediately it would be more difficult and might shread some. For competition you probably wouldn't want to wait too long because the meet is cooling. Typically, I'll have a couple briskets and pork butts in the cooler at the same time, so this will add to the thermal mass.

Here's another related question: At what temp do you put it into the cooler for holding, as the temp will continue to rise. Will holding too long dry out the meat or over-cook it?

Is pork butt treated the same (assuming pulling)?

Thanks,

[bbqfans]

I do the same thing, Wrap, Towel and in the Cooler. I take the pork till I can Pull the bone(I like the flavor the bone gives and it's a perfect thermometer for me)and Brisket to 190* to 195*F. Yes they continue breaking down some, but if you wrap and LEAVE it wrapped, the moisture will remain in the meat. You can slice it right out of the cooler (the juices have cooled enough to keep them from gushing out.)
With PP, I re-introduce the drippings from the foil after pulling and it keeps it nicely-add extra flavors here too if you want...
What you don't use from the cooler, leave wrapped and freeze. Will keep for 3-4months,but they'll be gone far sooner than that!

[tommykendall]

If I can stand the wait, I like to let it sit long enough whereby I don't burn my flippin fingers off while slicing it.

[QDoc]

Briskets are my toughest meat to time right, often resulting in over-cooked meat. The mistakes I have identified are:
1. Placing other hot meat on top of the brisket and holding too long.
2. Cooking to tender and done then wrapping and holding too long.

I think if your brisket is tender and done the thing to do is to vent it
slightly to cool a bit then re-wrap and hold in or out of the cooler depending on when you plan to serve trying to keep the meat above 140* but below 180*.
Where I live the boiling point is about 210 so allowing a brisket to stay at 205 for any length of time is gonna dry it out in my experience.
If the brisket is coming off early pull it at 180-185 before it becomes tender then wrap an retest maybe an hour later. I haven't found any fool proof methods.

[paperboy98]

I've always wondered how long you could safely leave them in the cooler. I have occasionally left them overnight when I was too tired to deal with them. Is that a little risky? Thanks
Paperboy98

[thillin]

Originally Posted by paperboy98

I've always wondered how long you could safely leave them in the cooler. I have occasionally left them overnight when I was too tired to deal with them. Is that a little risky? Thanks
Paperboy98

As long as they don't get too cool. (Below 140)

[BBQ Grail]

Hey Shane!

W.W.W.D?

[Greg60525]

Originally Posted by QDoc

Briskets are my toughest meat to time right, often resulting in over-cooked meat. The mistakes I have identified are:
1. Placing other hot meat on top of the brisket and holding too long.
2. Cooking to tender and done then wrapping and holding too long.

QDoc,

I do exacly what you have found to be issues. I generally load up the cooler with a bunch of hot meat that has been taken to the fully tender state. For comps I generally hold for 3-4 hours. I have held meat for family cooks for up to 6 hours............piping hot.......really unbelieveable!

I need to perform some experimentation on this. I never get "dry" meat when I do this, but I think it should have more moisture. Could be a reason??

Thanks,