I need to smoke a brisket for a Sunday gathering but the only time to do it is Friday. Best method for reheating? Ive looked at Franklins video for placing in the oven with butter on top ...any other non sous vide methods to consider? TIA.

I've only ever done the Franklin method you mentioned and it turned out great. I smoked it and reheated it 2 days later and it was still delicious.

if you don't want to do sous vide because you don't own the circulator, then you can do something similar with a cooler and hot water.

Before I got a sous vide setup, I used to buy whole briskets at Franklin, fly home, then heat them up in a giant aluminum tamale pot that I got for around $20 at Walmart or Home Depot or somewhere like that. It has a grate 3-4 inches above the bottom of the pot, so you can heat the water on the stove without the brisket getting direct heat. It served as a cheap, less accurate sous vide system that worked well with the brisket.

It helped that Franklin's brisket was already vacuum sealed though. If you don't have a way to seal it up water-tight, then this woudn't work.

schmendeler said:

---

if you don't want to do sous vide because you don't own the circulator, then you can do something similar with a cooler and hot water.

---

I looked into that and think I'll do it. The meat wont be in cryovac but I can double seal in jumbo freezer bags and make sure the seals are up out of the water to avoid leaks. So go with extremely hot, non boiling water for about 3 hours?

sounds like a good approach to me.

This youtube guy, mad scientist bbq, says franklin's secret is beef tallow. He said Franklin sprays his butcher paper with tallow during the stall. Never tried that myself but may do it the next time I cook. So, for a reheat, you could try wrapping with tallow?

I wanted to report back that the "sous vide" method using hot water in a cooler worked great! I added simmering water , set the bagged brisket in and let it ride for 4 hours. The brisket was thoroughly reheated but not hot, steamed or recooked. It's the way to go!

How long should you wait after reheating before slicing? Is there a resting period?

https://www.texasmonthly.com/bbq/the-best-method-for-reheating-barbecue/