Commercial/Catered Brisket question

[AndyK]

How are those caterer guys cooking those commercial style briskets that are in the stainless tubs on water in food lines ?
A group I belong to always has a tub of brisket in the food line.
Doesn’t appear to have any bark and always falls apart way too easy as you pick up a large piece.
I’m not sure if they are even bbq’ed. I’m also not a fan of meat that falls apart or isn’t properly spiced.

I’m wondering if they sous vide it then finish off in the oven or something because it’s almost always too wet.
Other than the lack of spice/ flavor my wife likes it.
We think that since they are catering to old people they don’t spice properly.
I’m not a hater but I’m not really a fan.
I ended up breaking my diet again by eating a big plate of that on mash potatoes last night.

I’m thinking with a few tweaks it might be good enough to serve but I’m not sure and I don’t want to be serving cafeteria grade food.
Maybe a good rub, heavy smoke smoke on the Weber for an hour or two for smoke instead of using liquid smoke, then vac seal, sous vide and possibly finishing off on the barby for firming up a bit and some texture.

So in a nutshell, I guess I’m asking if anyone sous vide’s a brisket.
It just seems easier and more consistent.

Thoughts ?
Thank you.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Never done a brisket Sous vide but, maybe as a “reheat”, It might work. Is it a project I’m willing to lose a brisket to? Nope. Have I seen that before, yes and, with decent “post cook” flavor (good buns, and tongue twisting sauce, NEVER experienced), it could work.
Now let me get back with Chewbacca and getting the Millennium Falcon back in the vacuum of space…

 

[Brett-EDH]

Steam trays hold temp while adding moisture. Dry temp holds will damage a cooked brisket so steam trays are preferred.

It doesn’t matter how they’re cooked. A steam tray will kill any bark. Think Jewish deli pastrami and corned beefs.

If the brisket is colorless and low on flavor and no smoke ring, it could be being oven braised. You can crank out a brisket in 5 hours that way and slice to order.

Without any supporting pics of the finished product, we’re just playing 1,000 guesses.

Now there’s 999 more since I took my guess here.

Sous vide? Doubt it. Too long for no net benefit. Way above the workload and time cost for volume pricing and revenue making.

 

[timothy]

I've SV corned beef briskets before. There are a bunch of different times/temps doing a search.
Basically take it to just shy of your target temp and finish it in the oven/broiler/ grill.
And if you want to try BBQ,

Sous Vide Smoked Brisket Recipe

Here's how to get a moist and tender brisket without a smoker, using sous vide cooking.

www.seriouseats.com

 

[AndyK]

How did that turn out for you timothy?
Any difference in flavor or texture?

I’ve never really Sous Vide’ed anything.
I have used hot water in a pot for our meat in the bag type dinners but those type of dinners really need a longer hot water soak so I often run them through it twice via another pot on a different element.
I’m considering picking up a sous vide cooker to do that better.

 

[timothy]

How did that turn out for you timothy?
Any difference in flavor or texture?

The corned beef was easy to slice and the texture was perfect.
I guess it depends on the quality of the corned beef. These ( point & flat) were Vienna beef brand. We did one in guinness for 24 hrs ( really good )
The issue with doing brisket is finding a vac bag big enough. You can get the XL ziploc bags and dispace most of the air. I've seen guys SV'ing the whole cryovac packer. That's wrong IMO because you can't trim the hard fat or season it.