Serving brisket for lunch


 

JungWoo

TVWBB Member
I'm planning to serve a 15 lb. brisket for lunch this Saturday.

I was going to start around 6 PM Friday, hoping it would finish by 10 AM the next morning at the latest.

Would it be fine to rest in a cooler for a few hours?
 
At least 2 hours, IMO. 4 is preferable, and I've held 2 briskets in a picnic cooler for 6 hours and they were still too hot to handle.

If you're concerned with the cooler temperature dropping, you can warm it up a bit with warm to hot water. Be careful, it is easy to melt thermoplastic liners. You can also heat up a couple of bricks or other heavy objects, wrap them in towels and stash them in the bottom as a heat reserve.

Probably the single biggest thing will be to put the briskets in the cooler, and walk away. Don't open it until service. Every time you open it, you'll lose heat.
 
I'm planning to serve a 15 lb. brisket for lunch this Saturday.

I was going to start around 6 PM Friday, hoping it would finish by 10 AM the next morning at the latest.

Would it be fine to rest in a cooler for a few hours?
A brisket that large wrapped in foil and a couple of layers of old towels and stuffed into a cooler will easily stay safely hot (above 140F) for quite a few hours. You could time your cook to be done by 6am and that would give you a little extra cook time if necessary, and if it's done by 6 it'll still be fine at lunchtime.
 
Yea and watch out for carryover heat. If you pull the brisket just shy of probe tender, then the few hrs wrapped in the cooler will finish the cooking process.
If you pull it when tender like butter then you should let it rest uncovered for 15 mins to vent excess heat.
Otherwise if you wrap immediately you could overcook it.
 

 

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