Twice on the heat for brisket?

[WillieMac]

Good day, all! I was in central Virginia this week and spotted a pitmaster working 8 grills out behind Smoked Kitchen in Crozet - amiable fellow, so we talked while he pulled off some sweet-looking pork shoulders. He uses hickory; the cook is typically 8 hours.

He also passed on his brisket technique, which I’d never heard of and wanted to share here, He smokes (also hickory) brisket overnight, shooting for 160 internal. He then lets it cool, wraps with Saran Wrap and foil, and refrigerates it to typical fridge temp. The next day, it goes back on the grill (sans Wrap obviously) but re-covered with foil, at 140. Takes about 8 hours to get to 203.

I opted for the pork (which was real tasty) and didn’t taste the beef. But he’s doing something right; this place has been thriving for years. Thoughts?

[realdocBBQ]

Ok, I'm unclear...

First day, unwrapped to 160, then plastic wrap AND foil and into the fridge.

THEN the NEXT day - back on the pit... open? And then wraps AGAIN, but at 140 this time?

I think... it's a lot of work and fridge space, but I'm not sure it actually does a lot of good. Except he's splitting the cook over 2 days. Hear me out...

Day 1, he's just building bark. If he wrapped and continued the cook through the end, it would be a 10-12 hour cook. But he's pulling them off around 8 hours or so.

Day 2 , he's doing the complete cook, but he's set himself back by refrigerating a half-cooked brisket, so it takes 8 hours. If you wrap your brisket initially at 140ish, you probably could do the whole cook in 8 hours - BUT, you'd have no bark. Thankfully, you did that the day before.

So he's doing about 8 hours Day 1, then about 8 hours Day 2. Total - 14-16h, but he's not doing it all on Day 1. So, I'm guessing he's running this operation solo, or he doesn't want to pay someone to 'finish out' the 2nd half of the cook when he goes home.

I don't blame him - doing a 12-, 14-, or 16-hour brisket cook every single day to run your own place would get old really quick. I don't see anything WRONG with it - but from a cost standpoint... he's spending the money on wood to cook them essentially twice (or 1⅔ times) as well as the cost of his refrigeration - when you stick a half-dozen or more briskets in your cooler, you're making it work harder to cool them from ~160ish back to 36-38F all night long, then just unwrapping and rewarming them. It's a way to manage things as a one-man show, is my guess. Or for more than one, to at least keep each day down around 8-10 hours instead of a 16-hour day.

[gcdmd]

The second day cook could be done in an oven.

[WillieMac]

Correct, @DogFacedPonySoldier. Second-day foil wrap. He was working, so it was great to be able to chat a bit - but it really wasn't the time to drill down. And I'm with you. It probably won't hurt the finished product but that is a lot of time and money to get there with this process.

[jfmorris]

I don't get this technique either. My experience in reheating is that it takes the same time to get from 34F (fridge temp) back to 140 (in order to wrap) the second time as it did the first time, for a given thickness of meat and cooker temperature.

[WillieMac]

Thinking right along with you, jfmorris. But as #Steve R. notes, it works for him in a commercial setting. Ready to serve, his way, on day 2. A lot of work to get there!

[Steve R.]

Sounds like your guy has developed a way to manage the timing of getting his briskets done that works for him. The cooking to 160° stage should take care of getting a decent bark going, then it's just a matter of finishing it up the next day. If nothing else, you're a few hours closer to having brisket ready to serve on relatively short notice. I doubt anybody not running a restaurant would want or need to do this.

[captainlee]

Not something you do at home but it works for him so why not.

[barelfly]

I think his technique is built around demand of product that allows them to have brisket throughout the service? Maybe not…but just a thought.

[jecucolo]

I think it’s pretty clever. He controls his time and the quality.
The only time I can see using this method is if I were hosting a get together and did not want to be stress out during the day of the event with fatigue from being up all night cooking.

More than one way to skin a cat!

[CandySueQ]

I know this one-armed BBQ cook from down Louisiana way...he's a solo cook just like me. He cooked on a Backwoods Party. Always cooked brisket on Friday, cooled it down and finished it off on Saturday. His theory was that the smoke settled into the beef. He won brisket often when he was cooking the circuit.

[WillieMac]

Interesting, CandySueQ. I do the faux cambro thing for a few hours after hitting 203º, and the results are really fine. This is kind of an extension of the same thing, seems to me. I might try it.