Pre Que'd a Briskett, need some advise?

[Bob Hunter]

Ok, I have a get together I am attending on Saturday afternoon, and I am taking a Briskett with me. The problem was that there was not going to anytime at all to finish the meat up on Saturday. Kids have a Hockey game at 6 AM which means leaving the house at 5 AM and not getting back until about an hour before we leave for the party.

So my solution was to smoke the Briskett today. Just pulled it at 190°f. It looks like one of the best I have ever done.

Anyway where I am looking for some advise is in what should I do now. Should I slice it today, or seperate the flat and the point? How do you think I should reheat? Here are my thoughts.

1) Seperate the point and flat, trim the fat cap.
2) Refrigerate it until later this evening, then slice it on my meat slicer. ( I have found Cold meat slices better on it)
3) Seal large amounts into Food saver bags and store in the frig.
4) Then When we get home, boil the food saver bags and get the meat nice and hot then place it all into servering pans to take with me. Then a little reheat at the party either with the aluminum pans on the grill or in the host's Microwave.

Well that's my plan. Any suggestions, comments are highly welcomed.

 

[K Kruger]

I prefer keeping brisket whole then reheating whole in the oven (on a rack, in a pan, drizzled with a stock-butter mix, covered, at 300, to an internal of ~150).

Your plan can work though. You're correct that slicing is easier once the meat is cold. Don't slice too thin--pencil-thickness is good. Best to do a few vac-packs rather than just one; lay the slices in the bag flat, overlapping, and add a couple T of liquid (stock, saved juices from the foil, or a.j.) mixed with a teaspoon or two of melted butter (unsalted if you have it).

If you can transport cold and reheat on site so much the better. If you reheat in a pot of water, get the water boiling, add the packages, cover, wait a minute or two, then shut off the heat. Allow to sit several minutes till hot (this depends on meat temp before putting in the water).

Brisket should just be reheated till palatably hot and no more. That's the reason ou don't want to boil the bags per se, just allow them to heat through in the hot water for several minutes. If brisket (whole or sliced) gets too hot for any period of time (not long if sliced) the muscle fibers contract again and squeeze out moisture making the meat drier. Though this can be masked somewhat by serving the meat in sauce it's best, obviously, to avoid this.

A problem with reheating twice (at home and on site) is that you expose the meat to excessive heating. Another is that because the meat is best reheated till just hot, you'd need to minimize the time between reheating at home and consumption at the party for safety reasons.

 

[Rob A.]

Seems like either route would work, just be sure to save some of the brisket juices or drippings and reheat it along with the juices.

 

[Bob Hunter]

Thanks Kevin for the advise, I went ahead and waited till I got to my host's house then reheated in their oven and sliced at that point. The Briskett was a 100% success, was killed off long before the Tritips (which I thought were great). Everyone raved about my briskett though