I'm making a brisket for an out of town trip this weekend. I'm going to have to have it ready by Friday night, or Saturday morning, but it won't be eaten until Sunday lunch.

What's the best way to do this without drying it out?

Again, with this this stuff there's multiple ways that work but here's how I would do it.

Finish it up like you normally would, but don't slice it.
Leave it whole until it's ready to eat and slice it cold.
Heat up the slices in a microwave with a slightly damp paper towel on top.

I slice (or chop) it up after it cools. Pop it in the fridge till day of.

Heat it up at 250-300 degrees in a roaster pan.

Pour a bit of apple juice over the top of it to keep it from drying out.

I've done it once, and it turned out great. It's been a few years so I don't remember exactly what I did. I know we reheated in an oven and had an additional pan of water in the oven to keep it from drying out. I just can't recall my timing of everything. I know I left whole too.

Aaron Franklin once told me to wrap it in foil and warm it in the oven with a little butter on top. I've yet to try that, as I've always warmed it sous vide.

BSD, I've never used the sous vide method. What's your thoughts: cook brisket about 3/4 of the way on Friday, seal and refrigerate until Sunday morning? How long would you let it sit in boiling water? Also, I guess I would use the smallest cooler possible?

Chop it and reheat in a crock pot.

cgarcia23147 said:

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BSD, I've never used the sous vide method. What's your thoughts: cook brisket about 3/4 of the way on Friday, seal and refrigerate until Sunday morning? How long would you let it sit in boiling water? Also, I guess I would use the smallest cooler possible?

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Cook in all the way. Vacuum seal. Here is the exact email they send out when you asked about their chilled briskets.

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Reheating Instructions:

Sous-vide method:

Set vacuum sealed package on the counter for a couple of hours to let come to room temp.

Submerse in a pot of simmering (not boiling) water, for about 1 hour.
Best to leave sealed edge outside of water.

Reheat to preferred internal temperature (USDA recommends reheating internal temp of 165)

Oven method:


Set vacuum sealed package on the counter for an hour to let come to room temp.

Unwrap from plastic and place the brisket in a baking dish. slice some butter onto brisket & cover with foil.

Place in pre-heated oven at 225

Reheat to preferred internal temperature (USDA recommends reheating internal temp of 165)

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Last brisket we made I quartered it, vacuum packed three portions and froze them.

Just threw in a sousvide bath for a few hours at 165. Seemed to work out pretty good. I'm not dead.

When I've ordered from Snow's, I've always reheated mine sous vide at 140. 165 seems a little high.

I've done sous vide at 180 to get it going quicker. 140 is ideal serving temp so it'll take more time to reheat at that temp. 180 isn't going to cook it any more so go warmer if you can.

I hate you people.

In a seriousness a good friend of mine owns a pretty successful BBQ restaurant in San Marcos, he has actually said he thinks his baskets are better this way. He cooks them pretty much done, take them off into his meat tubs and stores them in his walk in cooler. He says the main thing is not cutting it and not letting it stiffen up more than 24 hours in the fridge. He also would wrap his briskets when putting them back on the pit. I know he usually will build a raging fire to start, but once it's died down he'll load the back half with briskets on the back half of the pit for a few hours. He doesn't have his pit scorching, figured I should mention that. More just gets himself a good bed of coals to start the process

BSD said:

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Aaron Franklin once told me to wrap it in foil and warm it in the oven with a little butter on top. I've yet to try that, as I've always warmed it sous vide.

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He told me this as well - tried it one time and it worked out great.

Quinn said:

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BSD said:

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Aaron Franklin once told me to wrap it in foil and warm it in the oven with a little butter on top. I've yet to try that, as I've always warmed it sous vide.

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He told me this as well - tried it one time and it worked out great.

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"He told me this as well"...well the instructions on his $120 vacuum sealed mail-order brisket that my brother bought said it. I thought it didn't do his briskets justice. Tasted nothing like the incredibly good briskets he serves at his restaurant. Pretty hard to reheat these things and still keep them perfectly cooked it seems. I haven't done sous vide however. I'm sure that's much easier.

Mail order?

agcrock2005 said:

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Quinn said:

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BSD said:

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Aaron Franklin once told me to wrap it in foil and warm it in the oven with a little butter on top. I've yet to try that, as I've always warmed it sous vide.

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He told me this as well - tried it one time and it worked out great.

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"He told me this as well"...well the instructions on his $120 vacuum sealed mail-order brisket that my brother bought said it. I thought it didn't do his briskets justice. Tasted nothing like the incredibly good briskets he serves at his restaurant. Pretty hard to reheat these things and still keep them perfectly cooked it seems. I haven't done sous vide however. I'm sure that's much easier.

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Not sure if you are questioning that he said that to me or not? I took his brisket from Austin to Dallas and ate it about 8 hours after picking it up using that reheating method. Still tasted incredible to me, sorry that it didn't work out for your brother.

Nm

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Mail order?

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Well that's what he said, but it appears that's not possible! I guess he did the "preorder" and then had someone pick it up for him. Sorry for confusion. Surprised he doesn't do that though. Must not have capacity considering his preorders have a 6-week lead time.

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Not sure if you are questioning that he said that to me or not? I took his brisket from Austin to Dallas and ate it about 8 hours after picking it up using that reheating method.

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Definitely wasn't questioning you. There's something about freezing an already cooked brisket and then thawing out, adding butter and reheating that just doesn't allow me to believe it can be finished correctly to where it tastes as good as fresh at the restaurant. I know that's different from what you did though. Sounds like you ate same day. Man I need to get back down there. His brisket was insane.

agcrock2005 said:

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Mail order?

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Well that's what he said, but it appears that's not possible! I guess he did the "preorder" and then had someone pick it up for him. Sorry for confusion. Surprised he doesn't do that though. Must not have capacity considering his preorders have a 6-week lead time.

Quote:

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Not sure if you are questioning that he said that to me or not? I took his brisket from Austin to Dallas and ate it about 8 hours after picking it up using that reheating method.

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Definitely wasn't questioning you. There's something about freezing an already cooked brisket and then thawing out, adding butter and reheating that just doesn't allow me to believe it can be finished correctly to where it tastes as good as fresh at the restaurant. I know that's different from what you did though. Sounds like you ate same day. Man I need to get back down there. His brisket was insane.

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Gottcha - ya, mine was same day so that would be different. I'm pretty sure Snow's ships briskets - maybe check with what process they provide for next time?

I've reheated Snow's sous vide, and it turned out great.

agcrock2005 said:

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Quote:

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Mail order?

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Well that's what he said, but it appears that's not possible! I guess he did the "preorder" and then had someone pick it up for him. Sorry for confusion. Surprised he doesn't do that though. Must not have capacity considering his preorders have a 6-week lead time.

Quote:

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Not sure if you are questioning that he said that to me or not? I took his brisket from Austin to Dallas and ate it about 8 hours after picking it up using that reheating method.

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Definitely wasn't questioning you. There's something about freezing an already cooked brisket and then thawing out, adding butter and reheating that just doesn't allow me to believe it can be finished correctly to where it tastes as good as fresh at the restaurant. I know that's different from what you did though. Sounds like you ate same day. Man I need to get back down there. His brisket was insane.

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Is there still a wicked long wait? I live in New Braunfels and still haven't had Franklin's. Austin is a PITA and I don't want to stand in line for hours, but I need to make it a point to get up there and try it.

Vacuum seal, heat up in simmering water is the only way to go IMO. Keeps the brisket from drying out and honestly there is little to no falloff on flavor or texture of the meat this way.

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Is there still a wicked long wait? I live in New Braunfels and still haven't had Franklin's. Austin is a PITA and I don't want to stand in line for hours, but I need to make it a point to get up there and try it.

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I hadn't been in a few years, but I can only imagine the wait is still very long. I know he's upped his capacity with more/bigger smokers but the building isn't very big so it seems tables would be the bottleneck.

I'm a very impatient person and hate lines, but it really didn't bother me. I just wish now that I had known what everyone else did...bring cards, beers, table/chairs and enjoy yourself. It was more of a tailgating atmosphere. I strongly recommend trying it once. His brisket is legit. Some of the best ribs I've ever had as well.

BEaggie08 said:

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agcrock2005 said:

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Quote:

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Mail order?

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Well that's what he said, but it appears that's not possible! I guess he did the "preorder" and then had someone pick it up for him. Sorry for confusion. Surprised he doesn't do that though. Must not have capacity considering his preorders have a 6-week lead time.

Quote:

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Not sure if you are questioning that he said that to me or not? I took his brisket from Austin to Dallas and ate it about 8 hours after picking it up using that reheating method.

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Definitely wasn't questioning you. There's something about freezing an already cooked brisket and then thawing out, adding butter and reheating that just doesn't allow me to believe it can be finished correctly to where it tastes as good as fresh at the restaurant. I know that's different from what you did though. Sounds like you ate same day. Man I need to get back down there. His brisket was insane.

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Is there still a wicked long wait? I live in New Braunfels and still haven't had Franklin's. Austin is a PITA and I don't want to stand in line for hours, but I need to make it a point to get up there and try it.

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Still a long wait. I can't say for sure if it was worth the three hours but I'll be damned if I didn't say that it was some damn tasty food. Bucket list scratched off.

Done this many times and always had good luck when cooking a day or 2 in advance of eating:

1. Open beer
2. Cook brisket
3. Open another beer
4. Let brisket cool down to room temperature in foil pan to catch juices while it cools down
5. Either double wrap top of foil pan or double wrap the brisket in foil whole with the juices and into the fridge
6. Sleep

7. Heat oven to 275
8. Put brisket in w/ a little opening in the foil to let the steam out / avoid making pot roast
9. Warm it up until a temp probe hits 160 on the point - give yourself plenty of time, I'm always surprised by how long it takes to get it back up to slicing temp. Usually a couple hours or so.
10. Slice and serve - pour the juices from the pan on as needed

I have always found this gives me a really juicy brisket. The thing you lose out on is that good bark as it gets a little more soggy with the cool down and reheat process.