Using a turkey roaster or crock pot as a brisket holder?

[Mosca]

The warming feature will hold food at 150°. That’s just about where we would want it to be for holding briskets, or pretty much anything like ribs or shoulders/butts, or chicken or turkey. Bonus, I’m sure many of us have one of these already.

[LA Pork Butt]

The brisket would have to be small to/ fit my crockpot. If I had a roaster it would be a different story.

[Mosca]

I have a 7 quart oval shaped. Most of my briskets have shrunk enough that they’d fit. I’m thinking it would work. I haven’t googled it yet, probably should.

Better yet, next time I’m thinking about it, I’ll put a couple inches of water in there and a thermometer probe, and see what it reads.

[LA Pork Butt]

Mosca Crock Pots temps are typically high = 300 and low = 200. I just googled warm and the range is 145-165 depending on the brand of Crock Pot. Checking it with water is a good idea

[Ace]

Mosca
Wow. Holds a 30 pound turkey!
If the lid seals tight so that moisture doesn't escape that should work fine.

[Finster]

I've seen mention of this before. perhaps/probably even here. I actually considered getting a roaster just for this purpose, but I don't do whole briskets, and I've started cutting my pork butts into chunks, so I'm not sure it would get used. I certainly don't think it would get used for its intended use of actually roasting things. My kids gifted me a rest EZ BBQ blanket to rest ribs or other small items short term. It does seem to be a really great idea for those that could take advantage, though.

[Mosca]

Finster I have the Rest EZ. I don’t think it outperforms any other quilted/reflective insulator, like the bags that come from Creekstone/SRF etc., but it is another layer. I’ve been using multiple layers for years: foil wrapped, then towel wrapped, then lining a YETI with the insulated bags. That’s always held as long as I’ve needed it to.

I figure, no time like the present to see if this works. I put about 4” of hot water into the crock pot, and put the probe through the vent hole. I’ll give it a few hours.

Also LA Pork Butt: yeah, I always remember these things being bigger than they actually are.

[Mosca]

170⁰+. That's the same as if I used the oven. No extra benefit, and I'd have to get the thing out from under the counter and also clean it when done. So, nope.

[TripleB]

Yes, I bought one just for this purpose. Works great.

[Mosca]

I’ll look for one of the roasters used, the crock pot just set off the 180° alarm.

[jfmorris]

We had a large electric roaster for many years. We no longer have it, but I feel it was Rival or some such brand. I know it was large enough to roast a 25 pound turkey, as I did that exactly once. I was having to live down the year I made people wait 2 hours past dinner time for the bird on the offset smoker! That was also when I thought EVERYTHING needed to be smoked at 225F. I never needed the roaster after I started running all my turkey and chicken cooks at 350F (325 to 375 actually).

I feel like while the roaster had an analog temperature nob that started at 140F and went up to maybe 400F, I don't know that I would trust it to hold at those exact temperatures, as it was an analog thermostat, probably based on the temp at the bottom of the roasting pan insert. And the lid was thin metal and prone to leaking steam and vapor.

I feel like someone on here has talked about using a roaster to hold brisket, but I don't see it working much better than the oven or the faux cambro method I use now (double wrap of foil, wrap of old towel, into a 40 qt cooler with more towels on top).

Now, if you added a temp controller - maybe ink bird or something - to the mix, like I use with my beer fermentation fridge, where I strap the probe to the outside of the fermentation vessel (carboy, Spiedel), and the temp controller turns the fridge on and off (or a heating belt on and off), that would let you have a precise hold temperature.

[Mosca]

For example:




On the other hand… there’s nothing keeping me from lowering the BGE to 150°, and keeping $10 in my pocket. Let alone the $10 in gas it would take to drive to Lehighton.

[Smoke em if you got em]

I used a roaster oven on my last brisket, and it worked great. I put a little water in the bottom below the rack. I also used two probes, one in the brisket and one in the oven to verify the temperatures were in the safe zone. I seldom do a brisket, but I will do it the same way from now on.
The roaster oven is big enough and deep enough for any size brisket, with room to spare if you needed to add anything like ribs when you get closer to serving time.
I considered giving away the roaster oven a few years ago, I’m glad I didn’t.

[dpearce]

I've got a pretty sizable roaster sitting around, I think it's a Rival. No idea what temps are available (or how accurate they are). Guess I'll have to look when I get home. Never thought of using it for something like this.

Just wondering, I know mine doesn't have any kind of locking lid, so I would assume you'd add some water to the unit (using the stand-off to keep the brisket out of the water), and wrap the brisket in something like butchers paper in order to keep it from drying out?

[Mosca]

I don’t know. I think I’d keep it wrapped in paper or foil, and use the rack and no water. That’s how it would be if it were held in a true cambro.

[Lynn Dollar]

I tested my 70 someodd yo Westinghouse turkey roaster, that was a hand me down from my grandmother, several years ago for use as a warmer. It passed.

I had wide temp swings until I put a half pan of water in the roaster to similate meat . We've since bought a new convection oven that has a warmer setting .

[Brian_M]

I’ve used a turkey roaster at home for brisket for big holiday meals. I’ve also used roasters at Church functions to hold smoked chicken. They work just fine. I set them in the 150-160 neighborhood. I’ve never temp checked the cooker itself but the meat temp has always stayed in that range.