I cook it until it’s done the day before. I then wrap it and put it in my oven set to 150F until it’s ready to serve the next day. It always works out well.
If you take it all the way to perfectly tender, then you need to let it rest/cool before putting it in the oven. I usually take it to about 195ish, usually when it’s almost tender and then it turns out well.
So normally I cook it until its about 92C (190f) and then leave it to rest for a few hours. Do you cook it all the way to 190f or a little under because of how long you keep it in the oven?
140F is the top of the danger zone. An oven doesn’t stay perfectly at 140F, but will have temperature swings. 150F is the lowest my oven will heat to, and knowing the the low swing will be about 10 or so degrees it’ll never go below 140F. When I worked in restaurant, we would hold things between 145-160 depending on the food.
Since I cooked the beef to 195F-ish, the 150F won’t do anything to hurt the meat.
I used to do it on the day of and get up super early, timing the completion of the brisket with the start of the party, and by the time it was ready to serve I was ready to take a nap. 1 hour to prep the smoker while the meat rises to room temp, ~1 hour of smoking per pound of brisket, 1 hour rest… then party. That’s a long day.
Now I do all of that the day before (the prep and the cook), then double wrap the brisket in butcher paper, wrap that in a towel, and place it in a cooler over night. I have an old igloo cooler dedicated for this. The next day: 4 hours before the party I start to get my smoker up to temp again and make sure it’s stabilized. 3 hours before the party I pull the brisket from the cooler, remove the towel and place it back on the smoker at 225-250 for 2 hours or so until it gets back up to the 200-205 range internally. You can use your oven if you don’t feel like getting a fire going again, but I prefer to use my smoker to reheat it. Once it’s back up to internal temp I pull it from the smoker and do a one hour rest. After 1 hour of resting, remove butcher paper, slice it and serve it. This method has never failed me and makes for a MUCH easier day on the day of the party.
Another bonus to this method is if you’re traveling TO a party or say a family reunion or something, your one hour rest can be done in your cooler while you drive. Works great for delivering fresh brisket. Hope this helps you as much as it has helped me!
I'm liking the sound of what you are doing here - what temp is your brisket at by the time you take it out of the cooler the next day? Would this work for a pork butt?
I have a cooler box that will keep ice for 3 days. Was thinking of doing my pork butt tomorrow, hold it overnight in the cool box along with towels and a hot water bottle and hoping it would still be shreddable temp by lunch time the next day. Does that sound risky?
Anything can be risky the first time you try it, haha. I know that’s not much help but I don’t want to say you’re good and then it turns out to be a disaster for some reason. Even with all of my experience things can still go sideways.
With that being said, I’ve never tried it with a pork butt, but I would assume that it would work the same. For the record, the cooler I use isn’t cold. It’s just a basic igloo cooler and I keep it in the kitchen over night. It’s more for just sealing everything up. And I’ve left briskets in the cooler for 10+ hours before pulling and reheating. Make sure you open that bad boy up outside if you can cause it’ll have your whole house smelling like bbq. Like, too much if that’s even possible. I’ve never checked or worried about the temperature of the brisket once it’s in the cooler though. It’s fully cooked and takes about 2 hours to reheat at the temps listed in my original post above. Not sure if I should be concerned about the temp dropping too much or not, I just know that this method has always worked for me.
Nah I get ya man, I'd be hesitant telling me it'll be ok too🤣 I'd be less worried with beef than pork, I'm just not sure it's safe to sit in the danger zone too long. But I'm going to try it out tomorrow - I'll test my oven and see can I get it to hold around 70 or so (Celsius), I reckon I can keep it above 65 in the cool box until early morning when I'll be up putting racks of ribs on so all good by then!
Hey man, so things worked out ok! I put the shoulder in at 11pm, fully wrapped up with a hot water bottle and the probe still in. Was still rocking mid 60s Celsius 8 hours later. So I popped it into the oven and kept it 60s until it got pulled at rpm the next day, was perfect. Thanks for the tips! I'll make a separate post on the ribs, the best I've ever made!
Awesome to hear and no problem at all! Glad to hear it worked out so well, and congrats on the ribs! Haha. Always nice to have things turn out that way after spending so much time on the cook :)
That's true, I imagine it'll hold the temp until the next morning at least. Would I be safer figuring out if my oven can be set on a low temp and hold it in there instead?
I go overnight, with the plan to finish cooking in time so that it has at least 2-3 hours to rest.
Last weekend I put on the pork shoulder at 11pm. It came off around 10am. Rested in double wrap of foil/towels in cooler until 3pm.
I have a Weber Kamado. Pretty sure I could do 250F for more than 24 hours in it without having to reload. I've always had leftover unused coals when I'm done cooking.
K. I have a chargriller side barrel. I used a third of it near the vent for the briquettes and felt like I was adding coal every hour. I ordered an offset smoker for my next one. Thanks.
Using a Weber Smokey Mountain, I make a ring of unlit coal around the outside and place some lit coal in the middle. Spreads slowly and usually lasts at least 8 hours but I have a remote thermometer that wakes me if the temp dips too low or goes too high. I'll usually use it to stay up really late, listen to music and enjoy some greenery.
Day before with a wrapped overnight hold in a 150F oven. I do it this way regardless because the results are more consistent and less dry.
I take the briskets out at 190 when I do it this way. The pork comes out when it's just shy of probe tender near the bone, usually 195. I don't go by feel here because it will continue to cook at 150.
So you’ll probably want the pork ready to be pulled around 11am. I would start that by 8pm. Local bbq that does really good pork in volume told me 250° for 12hrs. I use probes but if you don’t have them that a good rule. You want a bamboo skewer to go in with no resistance. I’m a rookie brisket guy so don’t listen to shit I got to say about that
If I'm in a scenario where it's just not worth it to me to sacrifice sleep so that my bark can be better I smoke it however I normally would on a timeline that lets me sleep and then vacuum seal and fridge it to be warmed sous vide. I started doing it this way after a trip to Austin where I brought a lot of Franklins back with me to bring to the office - it was how they recommended reheating.
I have a whiteboard and I work out a 48 hour timeline. My wife absolutely mocks me, but it might be the only occasion where I genuinely enjoy project management.
Also, staying up late is really fun, and often we have a pre-party to help "watch the brisket"!
I cook until ready to serve the day before, rest until down to 160, wrap tightly in foil and stick it in the fridge. Then reheat the whole thing in the oven at 275 until back up to 160-165, then rest until 145 and slice. Reheat has taken 4 hours for a 10-12 lb brisket and 8lb pork butt, then rested for an hour.
I've done this three times now and it's come out perfect every time. Only downside is there's no crispy bark after reheating in foil.
Most people agree that trying to time the cook just right so it will be ready to go at a certain time is a bad idea, mainly because we tried to time a cook perfectly before and it ended up badly with people waiting around. It’s best to remove all the variables that can shorten or lengthen a cook by doing it before your party starts and planning for an extended rest. The how of how long to rest it, what temp to rest it at, and what method to keep it warm is still up for debate. I like butcher paper with tallow added to the brisket, put in my oven on its lowest temp. Good luck on your cook!
Take the fat you trim off the brisket before you cook it, and add it to a pot with a little water, keep cooking until the fat has rendered and is liquid. Take that liquid beef fat and pour some all over the brisket before wrapping it in butcher paper and putting it into the oven. A lot of the fat will go into the butcher paper but that also means the paper won’t be thirsty and try to wick away moisture or fat from your actual brisket. Plus as the meat is resting, the brisket will slowly draw in some surrounding moisture
It varies on how high your heat is on the pot, and how big the pieces of fat are. Since I will grind my brisket trim for burgers while my brisket is going, I will save enough of the leftover fat to make the burger grind close to 80/20. Then I put the leftover fat though the grinder before I render it; grinding the fat helps speed up the whole process. With ground beef fat, you would be done rendering in an hour.
Smoke the shoulder starting around noon the day before. Pull at 165-170. Wrap, do whatever you normally do to your wrap, pan it, put in oven to rest at 170 degrees until noon next day. Smoked, juicy, easy, fall off the bone pork. Try it.
I cook it until it’s done the day before. I then wrap it and put it in my oven set to 150F until it’s ready to serve the next day. It always works out well.
Do you go all the way done with this? I take briskets out at 190 and they always seem perfect after sitting in an oven for 12 hours.
If you take it all the way to perfectly tender, then you need to let it rest/cool before putting it in the oven. I usually take it to about 195ish, usually when it’s almost tender and then it turns out well.
So normally I cook it until its about 92C (190f) and then leave it to rest for a few hours. Do you cook it all the way to 190f or a little under because of how long you keep it in the oven?
If you’re cooking to 190, then it needs to go in the oven immediately.
150 seems high. I hear 140
140F is the top of the danger zone. An oven doesn’t stay perfectly at 140F, but will have temperature swings. 150F is the lowest my oven will heat to, and knowing the the low swing will be about 10 or so degrees it’ll never go below 140F. When I worked in restaurant, we would hold things between 145-160 depending on the food. Since I cooked the beef to 195F-ish, the 150F won’t do anything to hurt the meat.
Thanks
I used to do it on the day of and get up super early, timing the completion of the brisket with the start of the party, and by the time it was ready to serve I was ready to take a nap. 1 hour to prep the smoker while the meat rises to room temp, ~1 hour of smoking per pound of brisket, 1 hour rest… then party. That’s a long day. Now I do all of that the day before (the prep and the cook), then double wrap the brisket in butcher paper, wrap that in a towel, and place it in a cooler over night. I have an old igloo cooler dedicated for this. The next day: 4 hours before the party I start to get my smoker up to temp again and make sure it’s stabilized. 3 hours before the party I pull the brisket from the cooler, remove the towel and place it back on the smoker at 225-250 for 2 hours or so until it gets back up to the 200-205 range internally. You can use your oven if you don’t feel like getting a fire going again, but I prefer to use my smoker to reheat it. Once it’s back up to internal temp I pull it from the smoker and do a one hour rest. After 1 hour of resting, remove butcher paper, slice it and serve it. This method has never failed me and makes for a MUCH easier day on the day of the party. Another bonus to this method is if you’re traveling TO a party or say a family reunion or something, your one hour rest can be done in your cooler while you drive. Works great for delivering fresh brisket. Hope this helps you as much as it has helped me!
I'm liking the sound of what you are doing here - what temp is your brisket at by the time you take it out of the cooler the next day? Would this work for a pork butt? I have a cooler box that will keep ice for 3 days. Was thinking of doing my pork butt tomorrow, hold it overnight in the cool box along with towels and a hot water bottle and hoping it would still be shreddable temp by lunch time the next day. Does that sound risky?
Anything can be risky the first time you try it, haha. I know that’s not much help but I don’t want to say you’re good and then it turns out to be a disaster for some reason. Even with all of my experience things can still go sideways. With that being said, I’ve never tried it with a pork butt, but I would assume that it would work the same. For the record, the cooler I use isn’t cold. It’s just a basic igloo cooler and I keep it in the kitchen over night. It’s more for just sealing everything up. And I’ve left briskets in the cooler for 10+ hours before pulling and reheating. Make sure you open that bad boy up outside if you can cause it’ll have your whole house smelling like bbq. Like, too much if that’s even possible. I’ve never checked or worried about the temperature of the brisket once it’s in the cooler though. It’s fully cooked and takes about 2 hours to reheat at the temps listed in my original post above. Not sure if I should be concerned about the temp dropping too much or not, I just know that this method has always worked for me.
When the briskets have finished, do you open them up to stop them cooking or just throw them straight in the cooler?
Nope, just throw them straight into the cooler.
Do you cook to the normal temp or slightly under? Don’t want it to go to mush.
I aim for 205 internal on the cook and on the reheat.
Nah I get ya man, I'd be hesitant telling me it'll be ok too🤣 I'd be less worried with beef than pork, I'm just not sure it's safe to sit in the danger zone too long. But I'm going to try it out tomorrow - I'll test my oven and see can I get it to hold around 70 or so (Celsius), I reckon I can keep it above 65 in the cool box until early morning when I'll be up putting racks of ribs on so all good by then!
I’d be interested in knowing how it turns out for you! And dang, now I want some ribs… lol. Best of luck to you, I’m sure it’ll all be delicious!
Hey man, so things worked out ok! I put the shoulder in at 11pm, fully wrapped up with a hot water bottle and the probe still in. Was still rocking mid 60s Celsius 8 hours later. So I popped it into the oven and kept it 60s until it got pulled at rpm the next day, was perfect. Thanks for the tips! I'll make a separate post on the ribs, the best I've ever made!
Awesome to hear and no problem at all! Glad to hear it worked out so well, and congrats on the ribs! Haha. Always nice to have things turn out that way after spending so much time on the cook :)
Use a leave in thermometer. You can always toss it in an oven if it starts to drop below 140.
That's true, I imagine it'll hold the temp until the next morning at least. Would I be safer figuring out if my oven can be set on a low temp and hold it in there instead?
That's what I do. I've never used a cooler for more than 6 hours.
I go overnight, with the plan to finish cooking in time so that it has at least 2-3 hours to rest. Last weekend I put on the pork shoulder at 11pm. It came off around 10am. Rested in double wrap of foil/towels in cooler until 3pm.
How do you make the coal (assumption) last all night? Or are you using propane?
I have a Weber Kamado. Pretty sure I could do 250F for more than 24 hours in it without having to reload. I've always had leftover unused coals when I'm done cooking.
K. I have a chargriller side barrel. I used a third of it near the vent for the briquettes and felt like I was adding coal every hour. I ordered an offset smoker for my next one. Thanks.
Using a Weber Smokey Mountain, I make a ring of unlit coal around the outside and place some lit coal in the middle. Spreads slowly and usually lasts at least 8 hours but I have a remote thermometer that wakes me if the temp dips too low or goes too high. I'll usually use it to stay up really late, listen to music and enjoy some greenery.
Night before. That’s why I like the ole pellet smoker
Day before with a wrapped overnight hold in a 150F oven. I do it this way regardless because the results are more consistent and less dry. I take the briskets out at 190 when I do it this way. The pork comes out when it's just shy of probe tender near the bone, usually 195. I don't go by feel here because it will continue to cook at 150.
So you’ll probably want the pork ready to be pulled around 11am. I would start that by 8pm. Local bbq that does really good pork in volume told me 250° for 12hrs. I use probes but if you don’t have them that a good rule. You want a bamboo skewer to go in with no resistance. I’m a rookie brisket guy so don’t listen to shit I got to say about that
Cook the Day/night before. Wrap it in butchers paper then a towel put it in an ice chest. UT will be good
^ This, seriously. Always works for me, even though Meathead says it’s serving leftovers! 🤷🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤔
No its a long slow rest it comes out very tender
If I'm in a scenario where it's just not worth it to me to sacrifice sleep so that my bark can be better I smoke it however I normally would on a timeline that lets me sleep and then vacuum seal and fridge it to be warmed sous vide. I started doing it this way after a trip to Austin where I brought a lot of Franklins back with me to bring to the office - it was how they recommended reheating.
I have a whiteboard and I work out a 48 hour timeline. My wife absolutely mocks me, but it might be the only occasion where I genuinely enjoy project management. Also, staying up late is really fun, and often we have a pre-party to help "watch the brisket"!
I cook until ready to serve the day before, rest until down to 160, wrap tightly in foil and stick it in the fridge. Then reheat the whole thing in the oven at 275 until back up to 160-165, then rest until 145 and slice. Reheat has taken 4 hours for a 10-12 lb brisket and 8lb pork butt, then rested for an hour. I've done this three times now and it's come out perfect every time. Only downside is there's no crispy bark after reheating in foil.
I don’t have room in my fridge that’s the problem.
Most people agree that trying to time the cook just right so it will be ready to go at a certain time is a bad idea, mainly because we tried to time a cook perfectly before and it ended up badly with people waiting around. It’s best to remove all the variables that can shorten or lengthen a cook by doing it before your party starts and planning for an extended rest. The how of how long to rest it, what temp to rest it at, and what method to keep it warm is still up for debate. I like butcher paper with tallow added to the brisket, put in my oven on its lowest temp. Good luck on your cook!
How do you use tallow?
Take the fat you trim off the brisket before you cook it, and add it to a pot with a little water, keep cooking until the fat has rendered and is liquid. Take that liquid beef fat and pour some all over the brisket before wrapping it in butcher paper and putting it into the oven. A lot of the fat will go into the butcher paper but that also means the paper won’t be thirsty and try to wick away moisture or fat from your actual brisket. Plus as the meat is resting, the brisket will slowly draw in some surrounding moisture
Great idea. How’s longs it take to render down?
It varies on how high your heat is on the pot, and how big the pieces of fat are. Since I will grind my brisket trim for burgers while my brisket is going, I will save enough of the leftover fat to make the burger grind close to 80/20. Then I put the leftover fat though the grinder before I render it; grinding the fat helps speed up the whole process. With ground beef fat, you would be done rendering in an hour.
Smoke the shoulder starting around noon the day before. Pull at 165-170. Wrap, do whatever you normally do to your wrap, pan it, put in oven to rest at 170 degrees until noon next day. Smoked, juicy, easy, fall off the bone pork. Try it.