What is the best way to freeze leftover brisket?

[Sfdrew28]

I want to save some of my brisket that I cooked today. Am I better off vacuum sealing each portion hot and freezing, letting cool down in fridge and then vacuum seal and freeze, or vacuum seal and refrigerate then freeze?

[EdF]

What I'd do is not slice it, just cut it into reasonable meal-sized pieces. Vac seal, douse in icewater, then freeze. That should be your best ticket to keeping it moist when you reheat it. Part of the idea is to not mess up the temps in your fridge or freezer; the other part is to get it through the danger zone as fast as possible.

[Sfdrew28]

Thanks Ed. I did slice and cube(going to try burnt ends in the future) and just vac sealed. While I have a huge freezer chest I actually have no ice so in it went warm.

[EdF]

As they say, "next time is another time"! Enjoy!

[fuzzydaddy]

I got tired of buying ice to chill food so I have several gallon ziplock bags in the freezer. They're 1/2 to 3/4 full of water and some are frozen laying flat. I sit pans on top of the flat ones when I want to chill them down some from the bottom (pulled pork for example).

[EdF]

fuzzydaddy - very smart! Thanks!

[fzxdoc]

I do the same as you, fuzzydaddy . I keep a few of those gel-filled frozen bags (that come with Hello Fresh deliveries) in the freezer. When I put a hot container into the fridge, I put one below and one above the container. That way it gets cooled quickly without warming up the fridge. After a few hours, back into the freezer they go.

Kathryn

[fuzzydaddy]

It’s good to reuse when possible. I also put one or two in my large cooler when shopping for refrigerated or frozen foods on warm or hot days.

[Sfdrew28]

great idea fuzzydaddy fzxdoc. The one area I have lots of room is in my chest freezeer. I purposely bought way bigger than I needed as it will slowly fill to capacity.

[Frozen Smoke]

I stopped slicing the whole brisket. Yeah it looks pretty all sliced up and fanned out but I slice only what i'm going to serve and then tent foil the rest and leave the knife on the cutting board. We normally have guests over for brisket. I then let people slice whatever they want for seconds or thirds!

I let sit covered until room temp or thereabouts and then will vacuum seal what's left whole and into the freezer. I have like EdF does and cut what's left into more reasonable sized serving portions. Depending on how much is left. I

​​​​​​​I generally only will freeze things once. Pulled pork is the exception I have gone around the freezer twice with pulled pork without it suffering too bad.

[ecowper]

Wait a second ..... what are these "brisket leftovers" you speak of?

[Sfdrew28]

Haha....an eighteen pounder to start for me, the wife, and my two girls ages 2 and 1. We had leftovers.

[Ricardo]

Sfdrew28
To answer your original question, we are 2 at home and I just slice the entire thing and vacuum pack it in single portions warm, lable it with a date - point or flat, then freeze it. When we want to eat some brisket, we run the sous vide to 140F, let the bags come to temp and serve.

If it’s packed as lunch, then I let the bag thaw in the lunchbox, microwave the bag on low turning it often, then eat.

This practice works for us. Hope this helps.
Ricardo

[Sfdrew28]

I haven’t entered the sous vide zone yet. It’s my last frontier and I’m not ready to go there. 😬. I like your idea on storage though.