Sous vide brisket?


 
H

Howard Wong

New member
I just tried Momofuku's 48 hour short rib recipe, where you vacuum seal your short rib's in marinade and sous vide at 140F for 48 hours. I fried the short rib whole after to give it a bit of crust. The beef was Medium Rare pink and tasted divine. I was wondering if anyone has tried this application with brisket or any other cut of meat and finished in the smoker? Or would it be better to smoke the meat first then seal it so that it cooks with the smoke flavor that entire time it's in the water bath.

Would like to hear your ideas or experiences with this.
 
I have only finished brisket cured for pastrami sous vide (smoking it to 165 or so first).

Were I to cook a brisket sous vide from start-to-(almost) finish I'd likely not smoke it at all. Were I wanting smoke flavor I would either season it with something smoked prior to vacuuming (smoked paprika, smoked salt) or prior to searing to finish. One could, however, smoke as noted above (skipping the pastrami cure), and finish sous vide.
 
OT: J - regarding your smoking gun, I seem to remember you expressing regret for not getting a bigger one. Which model would you recommend for an 18" wsm?

<<edit>>
oops, that isn't it (your link). Didn't you get a wood burning model?
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">OT: J - regarding your smoking gun, I seem to remember you expressing regret for not getting a bigger one. Which model would you recommend for an 18" wsm?

<<edit>>
oops, that isn't it (your link). Didn't you get a wood burning model? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The smoking gun is not suitable for filling a wsm with smoke. It's more for "marinating" in small containers.

For cold smoking on the wsm, I have an 8" smoke daddy.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">are you happy with the 8" model or would you recommend the next step up? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

As I recall, the next one up is a big jump in price. I'm still tinkering with the 8" so I can't say whether even that unit is worth the price.

I'm having trouble keeping the 8" lit for the claimed 1 hour. A bigger capacity won't mean much if you still have to check on it ever 15 min.

Geir recommended drying out the chips so the burn better. I'm also trying to score some pellets to see how they burn.

I do recommend some kind of smoke generator if you want to smoke bacon or sausage. I much prefer the flavor to a wood/charcoal mix.
 
I heat my home- made chips, made with a regular chainsaw in the micro before I use them. Then I get lots of smoke for up to three hours in my DIY- version of the generator. I have to give it a rap with something every thirty minutes or so to keep it going.
 
Thanks for the response Kevin,

I was thinking that using sous vide I could cook a brisket through to medium or medium rare breaking down all the collagen and good stuff so that it's pink and tender. Then dry it off, and re-apply some rub and smoke it in the WSM (I'm guessing High-heat) to apply some smoke flavor as well as build up a little bit of bark. I'm not sure if anyone has tried this, but if not is there anything wrong with my theory? Would an already cooked to medium/medium rare brisket absorb smoke flavor?
 
By the way I'm using the PolyScience immersion circulator and looking for a good way to marry my love for BBQ and smoking meat with this amazing device. I'M dreaming of perfect BBQ with great bark and smokiness along with the pink medium rare nature of sous vide with that prime rib/filet mignon texture.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by j biesinger:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">are you happy with the 8" model or would you recommend the next step up? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

As I recall, the next one up is a big jump in price. I'm still tinkering with the 8" so I can't say whether even that unit is worth the price.

I'm having trouble keeping the 8" lit for the claimed 1 hour. A bigger capacity won't mean much if you still have to check on it ever 15 min.

Geir recommended drying out the chips so the burn better. I'm also trying to score some pellets to see how they burn.

I do recommend some kind of smoke generator if you want to smoke bacon or sausage. I much prefer the flavor to a wood/charcoal mix. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

12" is the next step up and is the one I bought. They are $25 more than the 8". $125 with the air pump $100 without. Haven't tried mine yet the weather and business travel have prevented that so far. So can't speak to performance just yet.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I was thinking that using sous vide I could cook a brisket through to medium or medium rare breaking down all the collagen and good stuff so that it's pink and tender. Then dry it off, and re-apply some rub and smoke it in the WSM (I'm guessing High-heat) to apply some smoke flavor as well as build up a little bit of bark. I'm not sure if anyone has tried this, but if not is there anything wrong with my theory? Would an already cooked to medium/medium rare brisket absorb smoke flavor? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

First, don't worry about smoke getting absorbed, because it doesn't, it sticks to the outside of the meat.

Second, I'm sure Kevin will provide a better flow that makes more sense, but this is how I would do it:

1) salt the brisket and let it absorb the salt, after a few hours, pat it as dry as you can get it

2) air dry the brisket in the fridge for 24 hrs and then cold smoke for a few hours

3) vac pack and sous vide as you like

4) chill the brisket

5) rub the brisket with a no salt or very low salt spice blend and rewarm on you smoker. The goal here would be to probe the brisket and return the center to your sous vide temp (140*?) while establishing some kind of crust. you may want to forgo the water pan so that you're are getting some direct heat to help with browning.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I was thinking that using sous vide I could cook a brisket through to medium or medium rare breaking down all the collagen and good stuff so that it's pink and tender. Then dry it off, and re-apply some rub and smoke it in the WSM (I'm guessing High-heat) to apply some smoke flavor as well as build up a little bit of bark. I'm not sure if anyone has tried this, but if not is there anything wrong with my theory? Would an already cooked to medium/medium rare brisket absorb smoke flavor?



First, don't worry about smoke getting absorbed, because it doesn't, it sticks to the outside of the meat.

Second, I'm sure Kevin will provide a better flow that makes more sense, but this is how I would do it: </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks for the tips, that's what I was looking for. I don't have a smoking gun (Might have to look into that) would smoking it for an hour or so on the smoker before Vacu-packing the brisket be a bad idea? Not sure I see the purpose in the cold smoke here.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Not sure I see the purpose in the cold smoke here. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

just my preference.
 
The purpose of the cold smoke is so as to not cook the brisket appreciably, allowing that to occur during sous vide cooking.

That would be my preference as well. Were that not possible I'd suggest a mini-Minion with very little lit and not much unlit, keeping the temps low, and generating as much smoke as possible in this small set-up. I would do this after the salting/drying flow j notes.

Then I would continue following the j's flow.

Where I might differ is after the cooking is completed sous vide. Since I would look to completely cook sous vide, I do not think I would use the cooker to establish surface texture but would, rather, apply my rub of choice and sear in an oiled pan or on an oiled flat griddle. I'm sure it could be done in a WSM or on a grill as well, but I'm thinking I would prefer the texture of a higher temp, quick-sear finish.
 
1) salt the brisket and let it absorb the salt, after a few hours, pat it as dry as you can get it

2) air dry the brisket in the fridge for 24 hrs and then smoke at low temp (vents closed, small amt of coals) until wood is burned off (about 1 hour)

3) vac pack and sous vide as you like (I'm thinking 135F for 48 hours)

4) chill the brisket

5) rub the brisket with a no salt or very low salt spice blend and sear on grill or griddle

Sound like a plan? I can't wait to try this but want to be as close to successful as possible since it's so labor intensive.
 
Yeah, I'm with you on that. So when doing sous vide does the point and flat finish the same time or does one go through that separate and finish as usual for the point?
 
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