I had the Franklin Brisket, Sausage, and his sauce today, so thought I would do a short writeup while it's fresh in my mind.
I went with the Sous Vide reheat method for the brisket, and I followed his instructions exactly... no deviation whatsoever. I say that because he says to heat the sous vide bath to 185 degrees, put the sealed brisket in the bath, then immediately lower the bath to 165 degrees and leave it for 75 minutes. Personally I think that is a little too hot, but I didn't want to deviate.
The sausage, I did deviate though, because his recommendation is to heat it in a skillet on the stovetop and I just didn't want to do that. I opted instead to reheat the sausage the same way I reheat my own smoked sausage... in the oven at 300 degrees for 22 minutes on a cooling rack sitting on a baking sheet. They generally come out perfect that way.
So here are my thoughts on all three items.
The Sauce:
Honestly the sauce was ok, but it didn't blow my mind. Tasting it I could tell the primary three ingredients were Ketchup, Apple Cider Vinegar, and Sugar. There was also a good hint of molasses, but I couldn't really taste much of any spices in it. Looking at the ingredient list confirmed that was in fact the exact order of main ingredients. Again it was good, just pretty plain. I've definitely tasted other craft made sauces I thought were better. But, the real point of this whole thing was to see how my recipes stack up, and honestly, I like my own sauce better.
The Sausage:
Ok, all "weiner" jokes aside... the first thing that I noticed about the sausage, right when I opened the box the other day was that, man, the sausages are a lot smaller than I would have guessed. Length wise they were ok, but they were a lot skinnier than I expected. Weighing them out they were all less than 4 oz, ranging from 3.5 - 3.8 oz. When I make my sausage they generally average about 6 oz so these were small by comparison. After heating them it was time for the taste test. They did have a very nice snap, and the texture was excellent. The texture of the casing was something I was specifically curious about, because I wanted to see if mine were overly tough, or not. And...nope.... Franklin's casings had the exact same texture as mine so I guess I'm good there. They were definitely nice and juicy as well. The overall flavor profile was ok, but again, nothing really to write home about. Now, to be honest, I've seen several people on Youtube say the sausage was ok, but definitely was not their favorite thing at Franklin's. Now I know why. It was a good sausage, but not a GREAT sausage. Again, I honestly like mine better.
And now the star of the show...
The Brisket:
Again, like the sausage, this thing was small. it weighed in at 4.9 lbs, but to be fair I already expected that as it says right on the site they average around 5 lb's. It was definitely a good brisket over all. It was moist in both the flat and the point, the fat was perfectly rendered, it had a good flavor, and it was very tender. But... it was definitely a little over cooked as it shredded a little on the board, and failed the bend test as the slices broke in half. For my taste it was also over salted. Not by a lot, but enough to be noticeable by both me and my girlfriend. And I'm not generally sensitive to salt.
But to be honest I admit I am nit picking. I would love to try Franklin's brisket in his restaurant to see if it is any different. But the reason I wanted to reheat to his EXACT instructions is to remove any possibility of blaming the reheat if it was less than spectacular. If I were ever to order one again (I won't be, this was intended from the get go as a one time thing) I would still do the sous vide reheat, but I would set to 165 and then lower to 141 instead of starting out at 185 per his instructions.
As far as final verdict, I really enjoyed it. But I think the hype is a little overstated. I'm not going to be bold enough to say my brisket is better than Franklin's, cuz I'm just not going to go there, and I haven't had his brisket in his restaurant. But I will say that THIS PARTICULAR Franklin brisket, cooked by his team, shipped to my house, and reheated per his exact instructions, was also not better than my brisket, which I have worked very hard on over the last year and some change. To be fair though, I do think that part of it is that Franklin has so much hype built up that it creates an expectation that just may not be realistic. It was a good brisket, but it wasn't life changing or some magical thing that nobody else could achieve.
So, overall, this little experiment told me what I really wanted to know... how my own brisket, sausage, and sauce stack up against the real deal from a Texas Monthly Top 50 joint. Obviously opinions are like a**holes, everyone's got one, but in my personal opinion, based on the results of this experiment, I feel like my own are solidly in the ball park. My girlfriend who is brutally honest said the same, she said she actually prefers mine, but I think that was mainly to do with too much salt and I'm not going to read anything else in to that.
So in the end, I'm happy I conducted this experiment, and to ME, it was worth the money because it gave me the info I needed.