Franklin's pre-cooked, sealed & chilled briskets?

[David C]

Hi -- We're here in Austin for a few days, and of course are mapping out our BBQ plan of attack. Started off with Salt Lick today, which I always enjoy. One idea I have had for awhile is getting 1-2 of Franklin's pre-cooked & chilled briskets and then taking it/them home to California. Since we have a car this time, I could actually throw them in a cooler on ice.

However, I have no clue whether a chilled & re-heated brisket will be awesome, and especially whether one would last for several days (assuming it is chilled). Does anyone have any experience with his pre-cooked briskets? If they don't travel, but are great for a day or so, we could get one to reheat here. I like the idea of doing it this way as we can have brisket for dinner & not wait in line. Otherwise, it seems like it is a multi-hour line, and lunch is the only option.

Other than that, I expect we'll try to sort out Lockhart and get to at least one of the places there, depending on lines and such. Thanks, as always, for any thoughts! -- David

[Jerod Broussard]

I've cooked and reheated plenty briskets. Hard to tell the difference. Not sure I could even tell the difference, due to the fact that 2 of my best were reheated.

[David C]

Jerod -- Thanks! Do you do anything special to keep the crust well, "crusty", when you reheat, or does it just work out?

[Jerod Broussard]

Any well established bark will bounce back, unless you really saturate it in the juices. That is why I like to go fat cap down when I wrap and reheat. As it steams off the bark firms up nicely. Franklin doesn't look to wrap until he has mucho bark.

[fzxdoc]

Jerod, Jerod Broussard, how about giving us a step by step on how you cool down, store, and then reheat briskets?

Thanks!

Kathryn

[bestefar]

I second fzxdoc's request. This would be great information.

[Jerod Broussard]

Alright, I am not finished, since I found out that you really should have reheated meat hit 165 internal by the two hour mark. I was taking 3-4 hours since I had taken things to 200+, and figured reheating at 250 was fine. But if you are going to do that commercially, you better have a pretty good reason in your HACCP Plan or some type of variance. 300 is recommended by the folks who sell already cooked briskets online.

I recently passed my Food Protection Management training, so I will give the recommended cool down temp/times.
135 degrees to 70 degrees in two hours.
70 degrees to 41 degrees or lower in 4 hours. (70-125 is that super galactic microbe growth range)

1. Remove brisket and place on racks at room temperature to cool. They are either wrapped, or get wrapped when they come off the pit if they made it all the way without getting wrapped. If I have them in foil I add some water to coat the bottom, whenever they get wrapped, be it during the cook, or after. DOT NOT PUT IN A CAMBRO OR SOMETHING SIMILAR, THAT WILL LEAD TO POSSIBLE OVERCOOKED BRISKET ON THE REHEAT.

2. I let them sit at room temperature for a couple hours until they are kinda cool to the touch and not piping hot. I have left thermometers in the thickest part of the flat to watch the temp. drop, making sure I put it in the freezer before it gets below 135.

3. I will leave in the freezer until they are absolutely cool to the touch, so I don't jack up the fridge and/or the food in the fridge.

4. I don't typically leave in the fridge for more than 2-3 days. I never purposely froze them, but have had at least 1 get frozen when other people were in charge of getting them out the freezer.

5. To reheat, just get that sucker in a 300 degree oven and take to 165 internal.

Let me know if they are any questions, currently running electrical lining and setting up two plugs. Could use some breaks.

[David C]

Jerod -- Thanks for the great info. FWIW, Franklin's say 225F to reheat theirs, so I guess they aren't worried about any potential liability if someone runs into trouble. (http://franklinbarbecue.com/whole-chilled-briskets/)

[Jerod Broussard]

Probably not, plenty bugs get killed on the initial cook. I think most if not all reheating recommendations are for foods taken to much lower finished temps.

[(drowen)]

Great info! What is your brisket temp coming off the initial cook? 195 to 203? Or is it slightly undercooked?

[Spinaker]

Jerod Broussard How long does it usually take for the briskets to get to X temp in the freezer before you put them into the fridge? Very interested in this topic.
Thanks

[Jerod Broussard]

Close to 3 hours I'm guessing. I'm usually setting an alarm, checking by feel, getting back to bed.

[Spinaker]

Thanks

[Jerod Broussard]

One thing I forgot to mention, waaaaaaay easier to reheat brisket for a gathering, than to try and time an initial cook. Especially when you got a nice commercial convection oven, and a warming tower.

[fzxdoc]

Jerod Broussard
Jerod, on average, how long does it take to get the packer brisket up to 165deg internal in a 300 degree oven?

And mucho thanks for all that great info. I'm cooking brisket for a crowd in a couple of weeks and plan on going the reheating route, so this is a huge help!

Kathryn

[Jerod Broussard]

fzxdoc you could probably get it done in 2 hours, depending on thickness, obviously.

My two best briskets were as follows: Wal-Mart Choice hand selected by moi. Wet-aged approx. 43 days.

1. Cook, crutch with foil, when done, put on racks and open foil to allow them to steam off.

2. Once down to 140 internal, wrap back up, put in freezer until cool to the touch with no hint of warmth.

3. Remove from fridge 1 hour before putting in the oven. Reheat at 250 degrees for 3.5-4 hours, or until 165 internal.

4. Put in faux cambro for almost 3 hours. This was a church dinner, hence the long wait.

Twas the slickest most perfectly tender brisket I have ever done. Wife still mentions those briskets.

[fzxdoc]

Thanks sooooo much, Jerod Broussard ! This info is just what I needed.

Kathryn

[David C]

First, thanks for the help. Second, we pre-ordered a Franklin's brisket and re-heated it yesterday. It was really, really, good! Leftovers for lunch today were at least as good:-) I've never eaten it at the restaurant, so I can't compare, but I already want more.

One thing that may affect reheat instructions is that Franklin's briskets are listed as being 5-6 lbs. (ours was 4.3 lbs), so I expect that minimum temps for keeping the reheat time below the safe minimum would be different than for a more massive brisket.

That does lead to an obvious question about what drives the size of a full brisket. His are a full brisket (I could isolate the flat, point, deckel, etc.) although of course trimmed & cooked, but still small compared to what I wind up with when I ask my butcher for a "packer" brisket & trim & cook it. Is it the size/age/breed of the cow or something else? How does that affect quality? FWIW, the briskets they were slicing at Mueller's this week were significantly larger (USDA Prime, and _really_ good, but expensive, btw). Thanks for any thoughts!

[fzxdoc]

David C , I've read Aaron Franklin's book and he says he trims his brisket much more than most other BBQ places do. That may be one reason why the brisket you bought was smaller.

Kathryn

[Meathead]

I strongly advocate aggressive trimming.

[David C]

Kathryn -- I'm sure trimming is part of it, but the one we got was just plain small compared to the ones I get when I ask one of our local butchers for one. The ones they were slicing at Mueller's, for example, were physically at least twice as large. One resulting difference is that the Franklin's brisket has much more bark versus interior meat, which I liked slightly better (especially since the Mueller's sauce is very thin compared to Franklin's, so it's not going to help amp up flavor if it isn't there already).

[Meathead]

Pick one up and ship it to me!

[DWCowles]

Meathead it would be great if you can get to interview Aaron Franklin. I'm sure a lot of AR members will have lots of questions including me. Just a thought.

[Meathead]

I will. He's next on my list. What are your questions?