cooked a brisket for 30 hours at 155 on the sous vide, followed by 2-3 hours on the smoker. juiciest most tender brisket i've ever had

any of ya'll try anything similar?

I LITERALLY just did this and came here to post. I'm honestly a little freaked out right now.

Salt/Pepper/Pink Salt for a fake smoke ring. 155 for 24 hours, then on to the smoker for 3 hours with a fresh coating of rub. I've definitely had worse.





Not a very experienced brisket cutter, but I'll get there.

lol, jinx. glad it worked out for you!

i enjoyed this method. low effort, only had to maintain the water level, didn't have to get up early am on a saturday. great end result

Seems like the knock on it is that you don't as much smoky flavor. How did yall find it to be?

diehard03 said:

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Seems like the knock on it is that you don't as much smoky flavor. How did yall find it to be?

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i like smoky flavor and it was smoky enough for me

So did you smoke to a final internal temp of 205*F per normal smoking?

phideaux_2003 said:

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So did you smoke to a final internal temp of 205*F per normal smoking?

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i didn't worry about that. brisket is fully cooked after the sous vide. smoking was just to add smoke flavor and a bit of a crust

As an avid sous-vider I am extremely intrigued by this thread.

I have done this before but added a little liquid smoke to the sous vide as well.

It wasn't as good as a traditionally smoked brisket can be, but it was definitely tender and had decent smoke and some bark after a couple hours on the smoker.

The benefit is obviously the lack of babysitting time. I had a busy family reunion I was cooking for and didn't want to miss out on all the activities in order to watch the brisket. Doing the sous vide allowed me to be sure I would have something that was at least pretty solid without having to spend a bunch of time on it.

The downside is that the bark and smoke were not as good as I would have preferred. But I've definitely had worse briskets and people enjoyed it. I would do it again for an occasion where my monitoring time was limited.

I will say that I recently did a quicker (higher temp) brisket on a pellet grill that was better than my sous vide method. Better smoke and bark, despite wrapping in foil for the last portion.

I only have a pit barrel smoker at the moment and have tried one brisket, but my problem is being able to keep the temperature down.

Was kind of debating this sous-vide combo method vs the 'fast and hot' brisket method. You've had better results with fast and hot?

I wouldn't be worried about that with a 24+ hour cook in the sous vide.

Two days to cook a brisket?

Think I'll stick to hot and fast. Thanks,

bobinator said:

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I could see the upside in a few ways. Less tending if you're busy and/or have other stuff to work on or need to leave the house a lot and easier to nail a specific end time if you know you have people coming over.

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Agree. I can see the benefit. Sous vide can just sit there and run unattended. No weather concerns, and you can pretty much know exactly when it will be ready.

Typically when I've seen this discussed, people smoke the brisket first for a couple of hours to get some smoke flavor on it. Then they finish cooking with the sous vide. I've also seen them throw it on the fire again at the end just to crisp up the bark a bit.

07ag said:

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diehard03 said:

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Seems like the knock on it is that you don't as much smoky flavor. How did yall find it to be?

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i like smoky flavor and it was smoky enough for me

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Same for me.

The convenience factor was a big plus. Just let it go in the sous vide, smoke at 275-300, then pull, rest, and slice. And the flavor honestly exceeded my expectations. Like I said, I've definitely had worse brisket and if I didn't know it was sous vide, I would have been fooled into thinking it was done traditionally.

2 days for brisket sure, but 1 hour of active time, if that.

bobinator said:

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I could see the upside in a few ways. Less tending if you're busy and/or have other stuff to work on or need to leave the house a lot and easier to nail a specific end time if you know you have people coming over.

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On a kamado or pellet is this even an issue? I could see if you only owned an offset. Buy kamados and pellets are pretty much set and forget.

I mean maybe it doesn't have upside for you personally if you can just throw a brisket in your kamodo and not have to worry about it and you know exactly when it's going to be done, but I can definitely see the upside for a lot of people.

bobinator said:

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I only have a pit barrel smoker at the moment and have tried one brisket, but my problem is being able to keep the temperature down.

Was kind of debating this sous-vide combo method vs the 'fast and hot' brisket method. You've had better results with fast and hot?

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The fast and hot brisket I did last time was among the best briskets I've ever done. There was more active involvement and anxiety than with the sous vide (people asking the benefit of the sous vide aren't getting that it really is just set it and forget it for 24-36 hours, with only a few hours of smoking where you're not even trying to get it to a specific internal temp but just trying to get smoke and bark on it), but a lot less time than a traditional low and slow.

I would be happy to give you my exact recipe, but I usually keep notes on my phone and appear to have accidentally deleted them which really ticks me off. I'm going to have to recreate from scratch now, but I know I used an amalgamation of the hot and fast recipes on the net and this is my best recollection:

- Total cook time was closer to 6 hours than some of the recipes that are more like 5 hours. There was an additional hour+of rest time in the foil (unwrapped foil first to let some temp out, then rewrapped a little more loosely) after

-I started the smoke closer to 250 than some of the recipes I've seen which are at 300 or more from the jump. Placed the point closer to the known hot spot in the smoker.

- inserted probes about 3 hours in and bumped up temp to 300 with the idea that I wanted the internal temp to be climbing when I wrapped it. Once the internal got over 160 I double wrapped in foil. I did not put in a liquid before wrapping which I've seen some of the hot and fast recipes do, and I think this is what allowed me to keep a good bark.

- bumped up the temp to 325 and it was reading 350 by the end. Probably two hours in foil before internal hit 205 and I removed from heat.

The smoke, texture, and especially the bark were all better with the hot and fast than with the sous vide.

But, frankly, as this was one of the best briskets I've ever done even vs a traditional low and slow, I may be converting to hot and fast from now on. This assumes that I can repeat the results, as there is always some randomness to brisket and I don't even have the times and temps to go by.

I'm definitely going to do my next brisket hot and fast, though, and see if I can get similar results. Got several compliments that it was the best brisket they'd ever had and I was quite happy with it. Might have been an unrepeatable fluke, but I hope not.

Now that I'm reading this again I think I may have underestimated on the times. I'm not sure if I could get the internal temp on a 15ish pound packer up over 160 in that short of a time. I definitely started the smoke closer to 250, so I think I may have gone a little longer before wrapping, but not more than another hour I don't believe.

Thanks for the post, I might have to give this a shot this weekend.

Shouldn't it water bath at a little over 160 to render?
That 3 hours on the smoker isn't giving it enough time at high enough heat I would guess.

cclearman said:

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Shouldn't it water bath at a little over 160 to render?
That 3 hours on the smoker isn't giving it enough time at high enough heat I would guess.

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The seriouseats sous vide brisket is at 155. I made it often when I lived in an apartment, and it was great.

https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/08/food-lab-complete-guide-sous-vide-barbecue-smoked-bbq-brisket.html

A lot of doubters is kind of what I expected. I've eaten plenty of brisket in my day, and this one, FOR BEING COOKED SOUS VIDE, was amazing, and I would make it again.

The proof is in the 2nd post. The bark practically crackled at 3 hours at 275-300, and, while not perhaps being the smokiest brisket I've ever had, it definitely had enough.

At the end of the day, do what you want, hot and fast, low and slow, sous vide, whatever.

phideaux_2003 said:

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07ag said:

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https://www.seriouseats.com/2016/08/food-lab-complete-guide-sous-vide-barbecue-smoked-bbq-brisket.html

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I'm not gonna lie to you, and this is no dig on you, your method or your preferences... but none of those briskets look done to me.

It may very well be delicious! And I'm no sous vide denier. I have one and love it. I guess I'm just gonna have to try it...

155* for 24 hours then 3 on the smoker huh? Hmmmm...

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It's not going to 100% simulate a really good smoked brisket, but what Kenji Lopez says is true: A sous vide brisket is going to be better than 98% of the brisket you'll find in most people's homes and restaurants. It's a great alternative for people that don't live next to a world class barbecue restaurant, doesn't have a smoker or doesn't want to spend hours monitoring a brisket. It's pretty food proof and pretty much anybody can do it.

Fair enough

Looks like it definitely breaks down over time, but man, that 36 hours @ 155 looks like roast beef, not brisket. Just falling apart.

I've done a few out of curiosity. The flat is odd. Tender as can be but texture of a dry brisket. The point turns out great. outside texture is difficult. Typically went on Kamado after but hit one with pear burner once that helped.

I didn't think about why it shouldn't work when I did it. But after a few I had silly thoughts in my head about competing with a big bank of sous vide inside an offset. Steam billowing out. Everyone is in their fuel groups mocking me. The pellet grill guys finally having someone to pick on.

Point turns out fine using just select. A select flat turns out dry. Never tried a prime or choice flat.

DTP02 said:

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I have done this before but added a little liquid smoke to the sous vide as well.

It wasn't as good as a traditionally smoked brisket can be, but it was definitely tender and had decent smoke and some bark after a couple hours on the smoker.

The benefit is obviously the lack of babysitting time. I had a busy family reunion I was cooking for and didn't want to miss out on all the activities in order to watch the brisket. Doing the sous vide allowed me to be sure I would have something that was at least pretty solid without having to spend a bunch of time on it.

The downside is that the bark and smoke were not as good as I would have preferred. But I've definitely had worse briskets and people enjoyed it. I would do it again for an occasion where my monitoring time was limited.

I will say that I recently did a quicker (higher temp) brisket on a pellet grill that was better than my sous vide method. Better smoke and bark, despite wrapping in foil for the last portion.

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Major fail. Liquid smoke is ass, I don't care how tender the brisket was.