LOOOOOONG Wet aging

Well, I found a brisket in the back of the cooler yesterday. It appears to have been "wet aging" for about 110 days. The thing is it seems to be good. The package had a good bit more juice in it than they usually do. It was not swelling and the juice colors looked pretty good but maybe a little darker than normal. I opened the package and no horrid stench came out. It is not slimey at all. I gave it rinse and it smells fine. Actually it smells better than some meats that I've bought that are "fresh". The texture is a little different than normal. It seems both a little firmer (maybe because of the more juices that have come out of the meat and into the package) and a little more flexible (being able to be easily bent even at refrigerator temps).

I think I'm Going to cook this bad boy up Sunday morning for a football lunch but I'm going to get another...just in case. From what I've found on here the longest anyone has reported wet aging for is 74 day. This seems like this might be OK and might even taste pretty good but might be too tender for slicing. I don't know. I'll keep you posted but does anyone have any input? I think I'm going to do these hot & fast in my brick pit. LOTS of black pepper like I normally do. That's how you cover up old meat flavor any way, right?:thumb:

OK, so we got the brisket on this morning at 8:45am. Last night I trimmed the brisket up and injected it. It started at 15.5lb. I am not sure what the post trimming weight was. The meat seemed very tender. The odor of the brisket seemed fine but there was a slight aroma that reminded me a little of prosciuto. Not very strong but there. I injected it with about a quart of chicken stock (I was out of beef stock) mixed with some FAB B that I had left over from last year. I then put it in a bag and left it in the fridge over night. This morning I made up my rub (1 cup kosher salt, 1 cup butcher black pepper, 1/2 cup cumin). For Sh*ts & Giggles I measured the marinade that was in the bag. about 1.5 cups so the brisket held about 2.5 cups.

BTW, this was the 1st time I injected the brisket in the kitchen, Usually an outside job. And it will be from now on. I didn't realize how far the squirts go when they come out of brisket. I hit the fridge with one 4 feet away. Shot myself it the face 2 or 3 times. But good thing I am a dog guy not a cat guy. Barley was happy to clean the floor for me.

So I rubbed up the brisket with about 1.5 cups of rub and into the smoker it went. Going to try and keep the pit at 350F. this is the 1st time I'm cooking the brisket in a pan. Usually go right on the rack. I have a water pan in the pit for moisture and a heat buffer. I've only done Hot & Fast once before. And the dripping went in the water pan...and there a small secondary fire but that was handled and the brisket was good. So were trying trying to keep the dripping in the brisket pan.

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Sorry for the delay. Watching football. Go Peyton!

It was great. The rub was a little heavy on the salt. But I think that came more from the injection. I use that rub a lot on brisket but this one was a little salty. I still think I like the way low & slow comes out versus Hot & Fast.

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The fat in the point could have been rendered a little bit more but the flat was done enough that it was hard to get pencil thin slices without it crumbling. The flat was very tender but not dry.

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Very good flavor. Not off at all. Whole cook was about 5-6 hour and 1-2 hours of rest.

I guess the moral (at least for me) is age if you want but more than 45 doesn't seem to make it better and if it looks and smells OK, eat it :mrgreen:.