Wet aging brisket?

[jjdbike]

Hello Pitmasters,

I was watching a Meat Church video about making the best out of a cheap low grade brisket. In my mind, with all of the time and effort it takes to smoke a good, juicy, tender brisket, it doesn't make sense to skimp on a quality product to start with. On the other hand I do see the law of diminishing returns. With Wild Fork Foods Prime at $4.98 and pour and SKF Wagyu Black at $11+ a pound...It gives one pause, is it THAT much better?

To my question, in this video Matt said that wet aging cryovaced brisket 30 days in the fridge is an easy and safe way to improve the quality. Do you all agree? What are the pros and cons of doing this? Is it work repacking, double packing it, or should one simply leave the original packaging alone?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Thanks in advance!

Respectfully,
JD

[Donw]

I remember Troutman addressing this quality issue a few years back in a post about dry aging. If I remember correctly, the better the grade, the better the end result. So you are off to a good start by limiting your choices to prime or Wagyu. So my advice is to try the cheaper prime first. It may hit all the notes you are looking for much cheaper than the Wagyu. If it doesn’t try again with the more expensive one. As to repacking, if the original packing is intact go with it. It will be cleaner inside than what you can do repackaging.

[jjdbike]

Thanks Donw!

[realdocBBQ]

I wet age all the time.

In cryovac, I've wet aged brisket over 120 days. And cooked it. And ATE IT. And it was fine.

I've done 90 days numerous times.

Lemme see if I can find my last post on it...

[realdocBBQ]

Here ya go:

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/the-pit-mastery-program/beef-steak-brisket-roasts-prime-rib-etc/1586277-one-hundred-twenty-seven-day-wet-aged-brisket

One hundred twenty-seven days.

Came out perfect.

Got one in the fridge now that is prolly in the 30-45 day range, not sure. THAT one was the floppiest brisket I'd ever seen even BEFORE I aged it, so I'm pretty interested in how that one'll turn out.



But yeah, short answer, age that sucker!

[STEbbq]

Yes, leave in the original vacuum-sealed package and you should be good. You can also do dry aging with cheap Umai bags. https://umaidry.com/

[Troutman]

This is what I recommend, dry age in Umai bags.

[Mosca]

Yeah, I got a prime packer a couple weeks ago, and weather and other plans have gotten in the way of smoking it and now it looks like Memorial Day. It’s hard to ignore the date on the packaging, but I’m going to.

[Oak Smoke]

I’ve been wet aging for years. I routinely age select briskets to 75 days. As long as the original cryo packaging is completely sealed there shouldn’t be any problems. I’m sold on the changes that occur with aging. There will be an off putting odor when you first open the package but it will go away when you rinse the meat. To be honest I’ve never smoked a prime brisket. I go dig through the choice ones to get a brisket that’s well marbled and limp in the package. When our local market puts select briskets on sale they’re usually $1.99 a pound. I’ll usually buy 3 while they’re on sale and start them to aging. It’s perfectly acceptable to freeze them when they’ve gone as far as you want them to. Freezing may even tenderize them a bit more. I read an article by Harry Soo once where he claimed the leaner the brisket the hotter and faster it should be smoked. That has served me well so far smoking in a kamado. At about 185 F IT I will wrap a select brisket in foil. By then there’s good bark and still enough time left in the cook to get just a bit of brazing to help with tenderness. I don't inject like Matt did, but I don’t think it would hurt either. Don’t skip the rest after the cook, it’s critical with a select brisket. There are so many ways to get a select brisket to be a meal you can be proud of, this is my way.

[tstalafuse]

Just want to emphasis the cryovac bag must be completely sealed. I was wet aging one, jostled it while getting something out of the fridge, it started to drip where the person who opened the box at Costco cut the bag, and I didn't notice it.

[Huskee]

I agree. I go 60ish usually. I went 80 once and my brisket went bad but 60 has always lent me wonderful results. I also do it with beef loins (rib or strip) for steaks or roasts. Make sure it's only in the store's original cryovac, and not leaking the entire time.

Pros: It only gets more and more tender.

Cons: Fridge space used up for 1 to 2 months. Must keep fridge below 40F to minimize risk of spoilage.

To your point about diminishing returns, I personally feel a Wagyu brisket is most certainly NOT worth it. I have made slap-your-grandma good Choice briskets and the one and only Wagyu from SRF I made was meh. Decent, but not even as good as my best Choice. Luck of the draw there, and your mileage may vary and all that, but to me I swore I'd never drop top coin on a Wagyu brisket ever again.

Wet age your Select, Choice, or even Prime; trim, salt, cook, and hold it properly, and you will be a believer.

[realdocBBQ]

Absolutely!

[mrteddyprincess]

Agree with all that has been said above. Two years ago I bought a brisket in November and cooked it the following April. Turned out great.

Brian

[mrteddyprincess]

Huskee yes, I sorta forgot about it. I was fully convinced it would be no good, but I opened it, trimmed it, rubbed it, and cooked it. I won't make any claims that I noticed some kind of wonderful flavor because I wet-aged it that long. It wasn't any different than briskets I have wet-aged for 30-60 days.

[Huskee]

WOW! That's clearly a record.

[Jerod Broussard]

Chemistry teacher "forgot" OK....I did all alright in Chemistry as long as it didn't start with "bio" and have been experimenting with food my whole life

[Jerod Broussard]

I have two Choice trimmed and brining that have been wet-aging almost 30 days. One Prime that was delivered yesterday is brining and will be smoked with the others Friday night.

I don't see wet-aging making any major gains on an absolute crap Select (not all Selects are absolute crap).

I would however prefer to wet-age every Choice I pick up about 45 days, but it isn't always possible and really isn't a deal breaker.

[Troutman]

Gotta agree with Broussard on this one. Wet aging a select brisket for infinity days is still going to be a tough select brisket. Go for the highest grade you can afford, preferably prime but high choice will work.

[Huskee]

Troutman Leave a generous 1/2" fat cap on tough, dry briskets and they'll be far more delectable, that'll likely do more than wet aging a Select. I leave 1/2" on all my briskets, that soft smokey salty 'butter' layer, yuuummm....

[Michael_in_TX]

I did this this past January. I had a select brisket that I realized I wouldn't be able to get to by its "expiration" date. Do I freeze or try this wet-aging thing?

I thought to myself, a $35 select brisket would be the cut to try this on, but still....keeping a large and arguably expensive piece of meat in the fridge for over a month past its expiration? Am I crazy?

After doing a check to make sure the cryovac was quite intact, I let it go. The hardest part was doing without an entire shelf of my fridge for a month.

I did 40 days for my first go-around. The brisket was fine after cryovac removal. The wet-aging certainly did not hurt, and I do believe it helped. I've done select-grade briskets before and this was certainly one of the better ones. As others have pointed out, the difference still does not make up for a true prime brisket.

One confounding variable is that the USDA grade is the grade of the animal and not the cut of meat. It is not out of the question to find a select grade brisket that has marbling close to prime. What would be cool is to quantify two briskets with the same marbling and do one regular and one wet-aged. (Sounds like something Jeremy Yoder / Mad Scientist BBQ would do....as he has more brisket videos than anyone I think lol.)