Vacuum sealing fresh brisket.

[Dr._Pat]

I have several questions about what technique to use if you are going to vacuum wrap and freeze a freshly smoked brisket.
1. What temperature should it be before you put it into the vacuum sealer? Piping hot? Warm? Room temp?
2. Should it be "flash frozen" or just popped into the freezer? I have used the technique of putting several blocks of dry ice into a Yeti with regular ice. I used this based upon Meathead's article on "Cook Today, Serve Tomorrow, The Wozniak Way". It will suck the heat outta a large hunk o' meat. I left my temp probe in to monitor it, just to see how fast it cooled. Very fast.

My goal is to preserve the volatiles that make a fresh brisket so delightful to the senses. Any advice is welcome. Throw in some science, and it's even better.

[Spinaker]

1) I like to seal right after the hold in the cambro. Make sure the seal is complete!
2) You will absolutely want to shock it before putting it in the freezer. If you have dry ice, all the better. The faster you freeze it, the smaller the ice crystals will be, this helps to prevent the crystals from destroying the muscle fibers. This will make your reheated product much better.

I do this when I send brisket out to my brothers on each coast. They reheat it in water. One has an SV circulator, so that makes it easy.

[HorseDoctor]

What the man said! ^^^ Flash freeze if you have the ability and inclination. Otherwise just freeze it! Enjoy!

[EdF]

Indeedy - listen to Spinaker

[Senator Pig]

1) I like to seal right after the hold in the cambro. Make sure the seal is complete!
2) You will absolutely want to shock it before putting it in the freezer. If you have dry ice, all the better. The faster you freeze it, the smaller the ice crystals will be, this helps to prevent the crystals from destroying the muscle fibers. This will make your reheated product much better.

I do this when I send brisket out to my brothers on each coast. They reheat it in water. One has an SV circulator, so that makes it easy.

Few questions:

Do you overnight the brisket that you mail? Do you use USPS or UPS/FedEx? Do you only ship when its cold out or do you also ship during summer? Would like to mail some of my briskets to friends/family but unsure the best and safest method.

[Spinaker]

Few questions:

Do you overnight the brisket that you mail? Do you use USPS or UPS/FedEx? Do you only ship when its cold out or do you also ship during summer? Would like to mail some of my briskets to friends/family but unsure the best and safest method.

Senator,
I do overnight it after freezing via FED EX. We have a discount at work, so I can get a pretty good deal on sending stuff. (We are constantly sending out chemical samples to customers form our office, so I throw brisket in there too, then they just charge me for it.)
As mentioned before, I freeze the vac sealed bags, then I wrap them in a lot of newspaper, if I can find it, I re-use a small styrofoam shipping cooler, but it is not totally crucial, but I would recommend it. Pack the box with more news paper and packing peanuts. As much as you can fit in the box. Adding gel ice packs is a very good idea too. (My brother sends them back to me when he sends me Carne Asada from California.) One time I sent pulled pork down to my brother when he was in Key West. Even from Minnesota, it arrived totally frozen. They actually had to defrost the bags in water.
Let me know if you have any other questions. It is not exactly cheap to do, but it is fun and the recipients really appreciate it.

[HouseHomey]

Definitely freeze quickly to below 90° ASAP. and what the rest said.

[Dr._Pat]

Spinnaker, is there known science behind letting it cool before vacuum sealing and flash freezing?

[EdF]

Basically, it's about keeping the meat out of the unsafe zone. The problem with throwing it into the freezer right away is that it's going to warm it up too much and threaten what's already in there.

[Dr._Pat]

EdF, the last time I "flash froze" an entire packer, it went from 180° to under 40° in about 30 or 40 minutes. I used a large Yeti. Two chunks of dry ice and a couple of bags of regular ice. Then, I put it in the regular freezer. The volatile compounds will be at the highest levels right off the pit. I want to preserve those as much as is possible.

[EdF]

Yabbut you didn't throw the thing directly into the freezer without those fortifiers. Which is what I was talking about. I think.

[OneEyedJack]

I've tried vacuum packing a just off the grill turkey breast and found that the steam outgassing screwed up the vacuum, as in there wasn't any. Next time, I will cool the meat before vacuum packing.