I thought in the interest of improvement and trying something different, why not potentially ruin the most expensive piece of meat I’ve ever bought? Everything turned out pretty good in the end. Solid 8/10. Not my best brisket, but it was by far the least labor intensive.
155° F for 36hrs. Seasoned with S&P + liquid smoke inside bag. Ice bath for 30min, dried, re-seasoned. Finished on a pellet smoker at 250° F for about 4hrs until bark was set and meat was probe tender.
Couple findings:
1. After 36hrs in the sous vide, the brisket was solid. Zero flop, zero wiggle. Only slightly more tender than it was when I first bagged it. I cursed myself and prayed to the BBQ gods for forgiveness. I banked on the final smoke loosening everything up while the bark set, and it certainly did.
2. I did not use any Prague powder / curing salt for a “smoke ring”. Heard one too many reports of it giving a distinct corned beef taste to the meat (which I am a huge fan of, just not what I wanted to achieve for this cook). That slight smoke ring still developed even though the meat was already “cooked” before hitting the pellet smoker. Not impressive by any means, but I’ll chalk it up to a proof of concept that the meat doesn’t need to be smoked while raw to get a smoke ring.
Billyosler1969
Looks delicious!!
danger_one
Is 36 hours necessary? What is gained by going more than 6 or 8 hours?
nbyone
Hey. I did this for the Super Bowl. I smoked for 5 hours before I sous vide it at 155 for 34 hours. I don’t know which is better. I’m sure both were delicious, but I think my smoke ring was better.
Sous vide is a game changer for brisket and harder to screw up.
looneytoonyank
I have this in the sous vide on hour 24 right now! Yours looks great!
N0MN0MCH0MPCH0MP
What kind of bag did you use?
rideincircles
I usually do my briskets for 72 hours at 135 with no seasoning. Then I cold crash, season and smoke until it’s about 135 internal. It’s the only way to cook a brisket to medium. It has less smoke so you do need more seasoning and less fat overall, but it’s stupid tender. I like making chipotle au jus brisket sliders.
Otherwise I have been doing about 18 hour smokes on my briskets with kinders SPG on my masterbuilt. I do prefer the results of that, but still have blown people away with sous vide briskets.
7 Comments
I thought in the interest of improvement and trying something different, why not potentially ruin the most expensive piece of meat I’ve ever bought? Everything turned out pretty good in the end. Solid 8/10. Not my best brisket, but it was by far the least labor intensive.
155° F for 36hrs. Seasoned with S&P + liquid smoke inside bag. Ice bath for 30min, dried, re-seasoned. Finished on a pellet smoker at 250° F for about 4hrs until bark was set and meat was probe tender.
Couple findings:
1. After 36hrs in the sous vide, the brisket was solid. Zero flop, zero wiggle. Only slightly more tender than it was when I first bagged it. I cursed myself and prayed to the BBQ gods for forgiveness. I banked on the final smoke loosening everything up while the bark set, and it certainly did.
2. I did not use any Prague powder / curing salt for a “smoke ring”. Heard one too many reports of it giving a distinct corned beef taste to the meat (which I am a huge fan of, just not what I wanted to achieve for this cook). That slight smoke ring still developed even though the meat was already “cooked” before hitting the pellet smoker. Not impressive by any means, but I’ll chalk it up to a proof of concept that the meat doesn’t need to be smoked while raw to get a smoke ring.
Looks delicious!!
Is 36 hours necessary? What is gained by going more than 6 or 8 hours?
Hey. I did this for the Super Bowl. I smoked for 5 hours before I sous vide it at 155 for 34 hours. I don’t know which is better. I’m sure both were delicious, but I think my smoke ring was better.
Sous vide is a game changer for brisket and harder to screw up.
I have this in the sous vide on hour 24 right now! Yours looks great!
What kind of bag did you use?
I usually do my briskets for 72 hours at 135 with no seasoning. Then I cold crash, season and smoke until it’s about 135 internal. It’s the only way to cook a brisket to medium. It has less smoke so you do need more seasoning and less fat overall, but it’s stupid tender. I like making chipotle au jus brisket sliders.
Otherwise I have been doing about 18 hour smokes on my briskets with kinders SPG on my masterbuilt. I do prefer the results of that, but still have blown people away with sous vide briskets.