Sous Vide Brisket

Dplorable · Nov 10, 2019

Apologies in advance to the purists among us who will declare this "brisket blasphemy" 130° 48 hrs water bath, ice bath 1 hr, fridge overnight. On the smoker 3 hrs 160° with a smoke tube, bump to 180° till 125° IT. The thin corner of the flat was excellent, the rest was just a little chewy but very tasty. I'm gonna try this again with another 12 hrs underwater.

Droop

Pull

Thanx fer looking!

bschoen · Nov 10, 2019

Looks good to me.

Stingerhook · Nov 10, 2019

Looks good Rick.

airedale · Nov 10, 2019

It looks like you were pretty aggressive trimming the fat. Right?

jimstocks53 · Nov 10, 2019

48 hours is a very long time to babysit the water level. I've shortened the time in sous vide by cooking brisquet at 150-160. Still lengthy at 36 hours minimum.

airedale · Nov 10, 2019

jimstocks53 said:
48 hours is a very long time to babysit the water level. ...

I have cut a sheet of bubble-pack material to fit my sous vide lashup. It just covers and floats on the top of the water and virtually eliminates evaporation. Not to say it will go for 48 hours, but you wouldn't have to check often enough to consider it baby-sitting.

Stlsportster · Nov 10, 2019

airedale said:
I have cut a sheet of bubble-pack material to fit my sous vide lashup. It just covers and floats on the top of the water and virtually eliminates evaporation. Not to say it will go for 48 hours, but you wouldn't have to check often enough to consider it baby-sitting.

Now see, this is the gem of the day for me.

My parents used to have an above ground pool. Over the season we’d pull a large bubble wrap blanket over the surface to float and keep the heat in. If ya left it on during the full sun of the day it would act like a solar blanket and actually warm the pool.

Genius to do that for a long sous vide bath. :clap::clap:

mcyork28 · Nov 10, 2019

Have you ever smoked it before the sous vide?

jimstocks53 · Nov 10, 2019

mcyork28 said:
Have you ever smoked it before the sous vide?

Yes, I have. I'd smoke at a low temp while the meat is cold to pick up max flavor then bagged and 'watered it'. But I've also placed a sous vide'd brisquet in the fridge to cool off after cooking and smoked it later. I haven't figured out if there is a good way to sous vide AND get a good bark. But always make sure to save the sous vide liquid after cooking for au jus.

Dplorable · Nov 10, 2019

airedale said:
It looks like you were pretty aggressive trimming the fat. Right?

Yes I was, it wasn't going to spend enough time in the smoker to dry out

I have a dedicated 5 gal cooler (with lid) for my SV.....went the whole cook without adding water

"I've shortened the time in sous vide by cooking brisquet at 150-160"

I was looking for that nice pink color I got

This was my first time doing this, I figgered I'd get a better looking brisky smoking after SV?

Happy Hapgood · Nov 10, 2019

You could smoke before then use this to crisp the bark.

Southern Home Boy · Nov 11, 2019

jimstocks53 said:
Yes, I have. I'd smoke at a low temp while the meat is cold to pick up max flavor then bagged and 'watered it'. But I've also placed a sous vide'd brisquet in the fridge to cool off after cooking and smoked it later. I haven't figured out if there is a good way to sous vide AND get a good bark. But always make sure to save the sous vide liquid after cooking for au jus.

That's what I was thinking too. Give it three or four hours in the smoke and get that good and settled in THEN give it the bath; provided of course you keep the meat in a bag while it's in the water bath?

airedale · Nov 11, 2019

@Dplorable, what was the external fat like? How about the fat between the point and the flat? At the temps you are using I'm guessing that it did not render.

jimstocks53 · Nov 11, 2019

airedale said:
@Dplorable, what was the external fat like? How about the fat between the point and the flat? At the temps you are using I'm guessing that it did not render.

No, the fat renders just fine at these low temps - it is simply slower.

m-fine · Nov 12, 2019

Southern Home Boy said:
That's what I was thinking too. Give it three or four hours in the smoke and get that good and settled in THEN give it the bath; provided of course you keep the meat in a bag while it's in the water bath?

I have tried this approach, and it does give a nice smoke ring, but what I didn’t realize was the smoke flavor is able to permeate the plastic bags. Your water gets discolored and gets a strong smoke smell to it, which itself is not a problem, except that it is smoke flavor no longer in the meat. Ugh!

As for SV temp, based on my research, the ideal temp for tenderness will be around 145. I have not done enough of these to 100% confirm this yet but what I have done to date is strongly pointing in that direction. At 145 it will not be pink anymore so a smoke ring from pre smoke will show, but post smoke will not form a ring (if that matters to you). The ideal is probably to smoke-SV-smoke but that gets to be real involved, and at that point I am wondering why I didn’t just smoke it the whole time.

I have also tried a charcoal grill and weed torch to firm up the bark after the bath. They help, but neither comes close to the bark you get from extended smoking. More of a sear than a bark if that makes sense.

OlyQ · Nov 13, 2019

I usually go 60 to 70 hours for a whole packet at 130ish

Rockinar · Nov 13, 2019

Thats disgusting. Just stop.

cowgirl · Nov 13, 2019

I have a sous vide, but rarely use it. Thanks for the reportage! :-D

scp · Nov 13, 2019

mcyork28 said:
Have you ever smoked it before the sous vide?

I read somewhere if you smoke before...the smoke smell will permeate the bags and leave your house smeeling like a fire pit...no actual experience.

patrickd26 · Nov 13, 2019

The only thing I'm sold with sous vide on is: re-heating vacuum meats, and cooking eggs. Everything else is a sham. Just kidding on the "sham" part, but I have yet to see a "go-to" w/ sous vide.

Sous Vide Brisket

is Blowin Smoke!

Babbling Farker

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is one Smokin' Farker

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is one Smokin' Farker

Babbling Farker

Babbling Farker

Take a breath!

is Blowin Smoke!

somebody shut me the fark up.

is Blowin Smoke!

is one Smokin' Farker

Take a breath!

is One Chatty Farker

Full Fledged Farker

is Blowin Smoke!

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is Blowin Smoke!

Full Fledged Farker

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