First Brisket, costco prime angus. The methodology I'm using is a combination of success stories from my research and slight personal touch… advice is more than welcome! I'm going to trim tonight, wish me luck!
by itzgeegee
5 Comments
itzgeegee
My biggest concern is how to divide the brisket after I trimm it to fit in 28cm vacuum bags. Any suggestions?
MaineKent
Good luck and I hope you share your results in a new post. I’ve done this one on a small one and it was great. Definitely want to try again when I have the right situation for it.
As for cooking- **TL/DR: 135/36-48 plus 155/8-12 for the win**
155 for more than 12 hours is too long if you want to save moisture.
135 for the main cook, then kicked up to 155 for just long enough to get a good crumble without losing a ton of moisture. To be clear- I leave the bag in the whole time and just crank the temp up for the last few hours. 135-only left the meat to steak-like, while 155-only dropped out way too much moisture, but the combo has worked really well for me.
I find that 135 (for 36-72 hours) alone gives a nice steak-like bite, while 155 (for 12-24 hours) alone gives that crumble texture, when it almost falls apart when you pick up the slab and slices break when moving from the cutting board to your plate. This combo cook seems to fall right in the middle, with a nice bite while still having a little of the crumbly feel in each bite and still containing a lot of moisture in each bite.
To be honest, you’d get the best flavor if you went the Korean BBQ route and thinely sliced the brisket then grilled it like wagyu. Or even grinding the brisket with short ribes and chuck for a burger blend.
Your cooking technique will work but I don’t think it’ll taste that good, or even better than sous vide chuck. Usually in a Texas BBQ, you smoke the meat for ~8hr-10 @ 225F then hold it for 24hr @ 140-175F. In the first step, you want to carmelize the bark fat and develop clean smoke flavor. In the second half, you want to fully render the fat and break down the collegan. Your method should break down the collegan and render the fat but it won’t develop good smoke flavor or even grill flavor.
Wood flavor is personal preference but Hickory is usually too strong for Brisket.
MetricJester
If you don’t have a deep enough pan gathering the fat under it for the searing step you could start a fire in your oven. So make sure you cut off a lot of the fat, so you can render it separately safely on the stovetop.
5 Comments
My biggest concern is how to divide the brisket after I trimm it to fit in 28cm vacuum bags. Any suggestions?
Good luck and I hope you share your results in a new post. I’ve done this one on a small one and it was great. Definitely want to try again when I have the right situation for it.
Buy rolls instead of bags and cut them to length. Foodsaver makes [11-inch wide x 16-foot long rolls](https://www.foodsaver.com/bags-containers/standard-bags-rolls/foodsaver-11-x-16-vacuum-seal-roll-3-pack/SAP_2159377.html). After trimming, even a full packer should wedge in.
As for cooking- **TL/DR: 135/36-48 plus 155/8-12 for the win**
155 for more than 12 hours is too long if you want to save moisture.
135 for the main cook, then kicked up to 155 for just long enough to get a good crumble without losing a ton of moisture. To be clear- I leave the bag in the whole time and just crank the temp up for the last few hours. 135-only left the meat to steak-like, while 155-only dropped out way too much moisture, but the combo has worked really well for me.
I find that 135 (for 36-72 hours) alone gives a nice steak-like bite, while 155 (for 12-24 hours) alone gives that crumble texture, when it almost falls apart when you pick up the slab and slices break when moving from the cutting board to your plate. This combo cook seems to fall right in the middle, with a nice bite while still having a little of the crumbly feel in each bite and still containing a lot of moisture in each bite.
Scroll [my post history in this subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/sousvide/search/?q=author:iamthinksnow) for for plenty of brisket cooks.
To be honest, you’d get the best flavor if you went the Korean BBQ route and thinely sliced the brisket then grilled it like wagyu. Or even grinding the brisket with short ribes and chuck for a burger blend.
Your cooking technique will work but I don’t think it’ll taste that good, or even better than sous vide chuck. Usually in a Texas BBQ, you smoke the meat for ~8hr-10 @ 225F then hold it for 24hr @ 140-175F. In the first step, you want to carmelize the bark fat and develop clean smoke flavor. In the second half, you want to fully render the fat and break down the collegan. Your method should break down the collegan and render the fat but it won’t develop good smoke flavor or even grill flavor.
Wood flavor is personal preference but Hickory is usually too strong for Brisket.
If you don’t have a deep enough pan gathering the fat under it for the searing step you could start a fire in your oven. So make sure you cut off a lot of the fat, so you can render it separately safely on the stovetop.
(ask me how I know, I dare you)