Carryover cooking, holding, and doneness of brisket


 

Lynn Dollar

TVWBB Emerald Member
I've found a great explanation of this from Max of Texicana BBQ. Max worked for joints in Austin and spent the last year or two with Franklin. He's now moved to NYC and opened his own joint.

A lot of " breesket " knowledge in the entire vid, but he explains carryover, warmers, and doneness beginning at 16:13. He says too long in the warmers will dry out a " breesket " , it will fall apart and lose its juices.

 
I thought it was an interesting video, but he was hard to understand.
I put on CC and that didn't help much.:(

Tim
 
Hits what is for me, the most difficult part of the cook. And something I see questions about on the barbecue forums. When to pull it. What to do with the meat after its pulled. And holding till dinner. That has as much importance as the prep and rubs.

Lots to learn from the barbecue joints about this aspect. They have to hold everything, some even have to have sides that hold. And not all of them have the luxury of selling out every day.

But the entire vid is a short version of Aaron Franklin's Master Class.
 
I have followed the TVWB advice of cooling to 170° before holding in a cooler. Maybe I should let it cool down another 10 degrees or so. The problem with the cooler is that it doesn't maintain a specific temp -- it just slows down the cooling process. Franklin sets it's warmers to 140°. We do the advance order from them. We bring a cooler with plenty of insulation and it's only an hour back to our place, so there's very little temp drop. Here is what it looks like back at the ranch. This is our last Franklin Fest -- ribs, turkey and brisket. Unfortunately, I didn't get the whole brisket in the shot. It's very aerodynamic.

Jeff

FranklinMeatsPic by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr
 
Id say my own brisket is superior to at least 75% of what i get at bbq joints, so apparently many still have something to master.

From 1/2"+ thk slices of debris, to no smoke flavor, or bark. Much of it is pretty poor....i dont stop for bbq much anymore when traveling unless someone else wants it. As your palate gets refined....gets harder to please.
 
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Id say my own brisket is superior to at least 75% of what i get at bbq joints, so apparently many still have something to master.

From 1/2"+ thk slices of debris, to no smoke flavor, or bark. Much of it is pretty poor....i dont stop for bbq much anymore when traveling unless someone else wants it. As your palate gets refined....gets harder to please.

That's much of my experience until I go to a place where the brisket is so good I begin to doubt I know what I'm doing at all.
 
So everyone I have only done one brisket a few years ago it came out okay never done one since. In about 3 weeks have some relatives coming in from out of town they have had my ribs which I have down pretty good but they were what about a brisket? I would like to use the high heat method, I do not have a WSM, I have a UDS which works well.

Any advice appreciated and on the carryover, my question is I understand he is saying get it down to around 145 before putting it into a warmer which I do not have so at 145 put it into the cooler? Actually we would fairly flexible on what time to eat so does this mean I can let it cool to cut it at 145? It will be about a 12 lb Costco brisket would like to be done in 6 hours if possible, the UDS can get as hot as I need it to be.

If 6 hours is unrealistic feel free to call it unrealistic just no desire to doing a 14 hour cook.
 
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I would cool to 170 to put in a cooler. Letting it get to 145 is only if you have a holding oven set for that. I'd try to slice at 140 to 145. If you only have time to rest to 145, then just do that.
 
This is from Aaron Franklin's Master Class, that he did last summer. Might also investigate making a cambro out of a cooler.

Once you’ve pulled the brisket, allow it to rest in its wrapping until it cools to an internal temperature of 140 to 150°F. That will take a little time. The outermost layers of the brisket receive heat immediately from the convection of air and smoke inside the cooker, but the innermost layers receive heat via conduction—the slow, gradual absorption of heat from the outer layers. So even though the brisket is technically no longer receiving heat, the interior of the brisket will continue to cook. This is known as carryover cooking. How long it takes will depend a lot on the temperature of your environment and how hot your cooker was. (Think: Momentum). It’ll happen faster on a cool, breezy day than a hot, humid one. Factor in at least 30 minutes and up to an hour or two.
 
Here's Meathead's faux cambro .......... or he says in the article, to use an indoor oven.

https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/faux-cambro-can-save-your-butt-turkey-and-save-face

Mrs Dollar's family needs a faux cambro at T-Giving, it seems they can never get the timing right on the turkey or all the dishes and the food is luke warm at best. Right after this past T-Giving, I found this food warmer on Amazon for $21 , and its selling for $58 right now. We bought two of them and I might try to use one for a cambro.

https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B002FWTOQM/tvwb-20
 
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Here's Meathead's faux cambro...

Been using empty cooler with towel in the bottom for ages. What's key here is allowing the internal brisket temp to come down to around 150*F after cooking, then being able to hold it at that temperature in some kind of hot box, empty cooler, oven, etc. for an extended period of time. It's this very long rest that seems to make the difference between OK brisket and really good brisket. Then slicing in the range of 140-145*F for perfect slices.
 
Been using empty cooler with towel in the bottom for ages. What's key here is allowing the internal brisket temp to come down to around 150*F after cooking, then being able to hold it at that temperature in some kind of hot box, empty cooler, oven, etc. for an extended period of time. It's this very long rest that seems to make the difference between OK brisket and really good brisket. Then slicing in the range of 140-145*F for perfect slices.

I've done that also, but I've never put hot water in the cooler. I also read that heating a couple of fire bricks to 160 or 170 in the oven will help hold the temp longer.

I would also avoid wrapping in foil, as Meathead suggests. Just use butcher paper. Foil will soften the bark.
 
From my 2002 article Holding, Storing & Reheating Barbecued Meats:

To keep meat warm even longer, preheat the cooler first. Here are several ideas on how to do this:

  • Pour a gallon of hot tap water into the cooler. Close the lid and slosh the water around. Allow the water to heat the interior for several minutes, then discard the water and dry thoroughly.
  • Wrap several fireplace bricks in heavy duty aluminum foil. Heat in a 500°F oven for 30 minutes. Place a thick layer of dry towels in the bottom of the cooler, then add the hot bricks, then a thin layer of moist towels. This method was described by Alton Brown on an episode of “Good Eats.”
  • Place an electric heating pad inside the cooler. This method was described by Big Al in a post on The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board.
  • Turn the cooler upside down over a heater vent. This method was described by Keri C. in a post on The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board.
This article pre-dates the peach butcher paper trend and the idea that you should bring a brisket's temp down before placing it in the cooler...something I need to update.
 
In the perfect world since I can be flexible with the eating time let it get to that 145 and off we go. First time doing high heat on a brisket used it on my ribs the last 2 cooks and very satisfied gonna be a bit of a learning curve on how long it takes to cook and then get back down to 145.
 

 

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