Briskets for a BIG party (100+ wedding)


 
R

RickRS

New member
OK, people, I'm in deep.

The back story:
I'm committed for cooking enough briskets to feed a wedding dinner that will be between 100-130 people in a few weeks. It's my daughter's, and she's been trying to minimize cost by doing the whole affair as a DIY project. The wife and I are supporting her by cooking the whole affair, doing the wedding cake, as well as setting up the hall, decorating, etc. etc. Right now my house is a staging ground for this and there's tons of work in the final week before the wedding on a Saturday. Friday will be especially busy with rental pickups, rehearse, and trying to get the hall set up for Saturday.

I'm done a few briskets on my 18" WSM using the midnight cook method. For this big of a party I'll be using a full case of briskets from Sams Club that typically is 70-80 lbs, so it will be 1/2 lbs. per person. Sams Club brisket are about 9-12 lbs. so I'm expecting maybe 9 briskets. I'm going to modify my WSM to add a rack to cook 3 at a time, still using the tried and true "midnight cook". Since that's at least 3-4 days to complete the task of cooking the briskets, I'm planning to cook, slice, and freeze to allow all the work to take place the Sunday to Wednesday before the big weekend. So the stay in the freezer will be short but it will allow me to pitch in in the last days on other stuff to pull off the wedding. Only thing I'm really concerned about is making sure I get it all thawed out and, hopefully, tasting fine for the crowd.

Any tips on thawing out frozen pre-cooked briskets for the big day? Any other constructive comments on the plan to cook the briskets?
 
I cooked the meat for my cousin's wedding back in 2011. I spent the 2 weekends beforehand cooking/pulling/freezing the pulled pork & shredded beef (about 50# each).... re-heated in the oven, covered, in foiled pans.

That's a lot of meat, and you're going to have some shrinkage.... I might suggest increasing your starting weight by 50%, but that's just a guess.

What rubs / sauces / sides / buns? are you going to use? Sounds like a big project.... and important too - good luck!
 
Personally, I'd leave the briskets whole, wrap in foil with some apple juice and freeze. To reheat, defrost then place them in a 250-300 degree oven for about an hour.

If I absolutely had to slice the brisket first, I'd vac seal all of it, defrost then carefully reheat the pouches in very warm water.


As for cooking the brisket, the additional thermal mass will require more fuel/heat to maintain your normal chamber temp and the bottom one will probably cook faster than the one on top.


Lastly, would need more info on exactly what kind of briskets you are getting from Sams. If they are full packers, then the yield will probably be about 60%. If they are trimmed briskets, the yield will be closer to 75-%.
 
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I cooked for my son's wedding, too. It was hairy but it all worked out. Brisket, Chicken, Pulled Pork, and Spare Ribs. I even had guests come ask if I do it for a livin and want my card. I'll bet yours turns out well also. I'm pullin for you.
 
Thanks for those suggestions and encouragements :) Quite frankly, I'm scared to dead of what I have to do. First time ever do a party and it just had to be a huge and important event.

DaveW, I was going to vacuum pack before freezing. I just assume that it would be easier to slice before freezing but I'll rethink that. About how much apple juice would you suggest per brisket if I froze it whole; just enough to wet the surface, or maybe a cup?

The menu was slanted toward a somewhat formal and less a picnic style. So my daughter wants slice brisket without buns for the beef and I'll include plenty of Jack Daniels No. 9 for those that want it, as it's my wife's favorite. Going to have hot wings for a starter (what was that I just said about "formal" :) ) then mash potatoes, green beans, vegan stir fry rice, egg rolls, Caesar salad, rolls to go with the brisket. I think there's something else for sides as well, but I forget.

I was going to check for cooked yield as the stuff comes off out of the smoker and get a few more briskets for another day of cooking if it looked like the guest RSVP response is there and the shrinkage is working against me a bit. I'm looking for about 1/2 lb. min cooked per person and figuring it's best to go about 3/4 lbs. per RSVP. I think Sams down here get trimmed briskets, but I'll see.
 
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Definitely DO NOT slice it! Vac sealed whole briskets rewarmed as others have suggested is the way to go. BTW I think your estimate of the quantity needed is about right, given sides etc.
 
RickRS said:
Thanks for those suggestions and encouragements :) Quite frankly, I'm scared to dead of what I have to do. First time ever do a party and it just had to be a huge and important event.

DaveW, I was going to vacuum pack before freezing. I just assume that it would be easier to slice before freezing but I'll rethink that. About how much apple juice would you suggest per brisket if I froze it whole; just enough to wet the surface, or maybe a cup?

The menu was slanted toward a somewhat formal and less a picnic style. So my daughter wants slice brisket without buns for the beef and I'll include plenty of Jack Daniels No. 9 for those that want it, as it's my wife's favorite. Going to have hot wings for a starter (what was that I just said about "formal" :) ) then mash potatoes, green beans, vegan stir fry rice, egg rolls, Caesar salad, rolls to go with the brisket. I think there's something else for sides as well, but I forget.

I was going to check for cooked yield as the stuff comes off out of the smoker and get a few more briskets for another day of cooking if it looked like the guest RSVP response is there and the shrinkage is working against me a bit. I'm looking for about 1/2 lb. min cooked per person and figuring it's best to go about 3/4 lbs. per RSVP. I think Sams down here get trimmed briskets, but I'll see.
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Rick, with things like this, it's all about "trade offs" and constraints/limitations. Obviously, best case would be to slice freshly cooked brisket once it has rested, but that option is out the window. Freezing whole then reheating and slicing is next best option. But maybe you can't do that for any number of reasons, or you decide for option 3 of slicing first just because it's easier.

Which method you choose all depends on the variables. For example, you might not have an oven available but you do have a turkey fryer w/burner. That would rule out reheating whole briskets, but you would be able to defrost and warm up slices that were vac packed. Or it might come down to a time crunch. You have time to slice now, but won't have time to slice after reheating. If that's the case, then by all means, slice now, freeze and reheat.

I face this all the time when doing cookouts. Can I bring all the meats off the smokers at one time ? Will I have to reheat any ? Do I have to smoke 4 days in advance and freeze, or can I do it 1 day in advance and simply cool in the fridge then reheat?

Sometimes, you simply can't do it either the best way or the second best way, the third best is your only viable option as long as it doesn't lower the overall quality beneath what is acceptable to you.


WRT the apple juice, I use a spray bottle and wet the surface down with perhaps a teaspoon or so pooling up in the foil. Be sure to seal it really well. When you reheat, you'll basically create a little steam bath for the brisket.

Menu sounds absolutely delicious. On the wings, I found a great recipe/method on another site that might be a bit more "formal". Basic gist is that you inject the hot sauce inside the wings, then smoke them. Explosive hot wing flavor and kick, without all the mess of dripping wing sauce.

Wrt trimmed vs. packer, Sams up here sells both. Trimmed is more per pound of course, but there's less work and less waste.
 
I wonder if you should consider filet mignon? You might be able to make them right there, it's a lot less work and, after shrinkage, I'm not sure it will be that much more expensive. I bought a couple at bjs for 40 people, used the recipe from this site. I'd never made one before and people still talk about how great they were. It was much, much easier than making brisket which IMO is the most challenging meat to smoke.
 
Tom Golden said:
Filet is less expensive that (shrunk) brisket? You using dog???
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:), in our neck of the woods, brisket is about $4.50/lb and fillet on sale this week at shoprite is $6/lb. allocating 1/2 pound per person filet is $75 more...and the brisket is going to shrink more.
 
God what a tremendously inconvenient way to do this. This is possible but why don't you rent a large smoker instead and just smoke them all the day of?

Your home fridge will have a heck of a time cooling and freezing all this meat.
 
Dave from Denver said:
God what a tremendously inconvenient way to do this. This is possible but why don't you rent a large smoker instead and just smoke them all the day of?

Your home fridge will have a heck of a time cooling and freezing all this meat.
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Perhaps with all the other things he has going on, tending to a smoker for 8 hours or more on the wedding (reception) day isn't at the top of his list of things to do ?
 
to cool large batches of soup I fill put my big pot in one side of the sink, pour ice around it, and then fill it with water.... No reason it couldn't be vac sealed and chilled the same way
 
DaveW said:
Perhaps with all the other things he has going on, tending to a smoker for 8 hours or more on the wedding (reception) day isn't at the top of his list of things to do ?
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Bingo!

Jeff, I wish...Filet Mignon is nowhere close to your price around here. :(

A good suggestion for quick chilling, Clint. I also have the job of reheating all that meat the day of the wedding. I think I'll use both the oven and the smoker as an oven to reheat. Wife has experience running the Meals on Wheel kitchen for several years. She's planning to use coolers loaded with heated rock salt to hold and transport the food to the wedding reception.

I'm scheduling a brisket cook this weekend as a trial run. We'll cook up one flat, bag and freeze, then around Wednesday reheat, slice, and chow down. D-Day is Oct 18 and the troops are getting nervous ;)
 
Do what you must, Rick. But really though cooling these isn't really safe to do in your home fridge, and if you do it in your home freezer you might ice over your coils.

I like the vac seal -> ice bath technique mentioned above by Clint.
 
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Dave from Denver said:
Do what you must, Rick. But really though cooling these isn't really safe to do in your home fridge, and if you do it in your home freezer you might ice over your coils.

I like the vac seal -> ice bath technique mentioned above by Clint.
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Agreed completely. You definitely don't want to throw three warm/hot briskets into your fridge or freezer with other food. Do a crash cool down and then freeze them. Another method is to make an ice bath and put the brisket in a plastic garbage bag leaving the top of the bag open/untied. Lower the bag into the water and the water pressure will force the air out of the top of the bag leaving the brisket surrounded by very cold ice water.
 
I wish you luck and success with this Rick. It is a tremendous task to take on, and you are brave for doing so. I'm anxious to see how this turns out.
 
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