My best friend lives in Arizona and for the last several years, almost any time I post a cook on a certain social media site, he pleads with me to send him some brisket. Four or five years ago, I sent him a smoked pork butt for Christmas, so this year I think I'll finally give in and ship him some brisket.
My wife and I just came back from Sam's, where we found a 15 pound prime packer for only $3.25/lb. I plan to wet age 10 days or so and then to smoke it. I will separate it before cooking and make burnt ends from the point. With that much brisket, the bonus is that we get to feast here, too, even with shipping more than my friend and his wife can eat in a couple of meals.
I know that my friend and his wife have a sous vide set-up, so my thinking is to smoke the flat to 205 or so and then chill it without resting. My vacuum sealer is only the entry-level Geryon and my rolls of bag material only have a 7 inch opening. I plan to cut the flat into chunks that will just barely slide into the bag, seal and freeze. Sealing bags of burnt ends will also be a challenge, since this sealer doesn't like moist material (it has a "wet" setting, but I feel that it doesn't seal as long, and might not be safe for immersion), but I'll just keep working at it, likely even freezing before sealing.
I plan to ship frozen, either second day air UPS or USPS Priority Mail. I'll pack in as many blue ice or soft freezer packs as will fit, along with a frozen block or two of my wife's KC-style sauce. I'll ship in a medium styrofoam chest with a cardboard box around it. I think my wife still has some Hello Fresh shippers a friend gave her for shipping her chemical samples to collaborators. For me, this size insulated shipper will always be an "enzyme box" because they were used for a lot of reagents I worked with back in my molecular biology days. With the entire inside of the styrofoam box stuffed with material frozen solid, I think the meat will arrive after 2-3 days in a safe state, but am open to input here, too. I can change to overnight shipping if that is the only safe option.
So my questions revolve around them using sous vide to finish thawing and warming the brisket for eating. First, will my Geryon bags be adequate, or should my friends transfer the meat to proper bags before they go in the bath? Second, how long should the brisket be in the bath and at what temperature? Do those instructions change if it goes in the bath on arrival when it is presumably partially or mostly thawed as opposed to refreezing for a few days first? My gut thinking, based only the little bit of sous vide techniques I've seen from posts here, is that two to three hours at 130 should be fine.
For fun, I think I'll also draw some instructions on the outside of the bags with "Slice along this side" and "DON'T slice along this side!" kind of like the way they draw on a patient before surgery.
My wife and I just came back from Sam's, where we found a 15 pound prime packer for only $3.25/lb. I plan to wet age 10 days or so and then to smoke it. I will separate it before cooking and make burnt ends from the point. With that much brisket, the bonus is that we get to feast here, too, even with shipping more than my friend and his wife can eat in a couple of meals.
I know that my friend and his wife have a sous vide set-up, so my thinking is to smoke the flat to 205 or so and then chill it without resting. My vacuum sealer is only the entry-level Geryon and my rolls of bag material only have a 7 inch opening. I plan to cut the flat into chunks that will just barely slide into the bag, seal and freeze. Sealing bags of burnt ends will also be a challenge, since this sealer doesn't like moist material (it has a "wet" setting, but I feel that it doesn't seal as long, and might not be safe for immersion), but I'll just keep working at it, likely even freezing before sealing.
I plan to ship frozen, either second day air UPS or USPS Priority Mail. I'll pack in as many blue ice or soft freezer packs as will fit, along with a frozen block or two of my wife's KC-style sauce. I'll ship in a medium styrofoam chest with a cardboard box around it. I think my wife still has some Hello Fresh shippers a friend gave her for shipping her chemical samples to collaborators. For me, this size insulated shipper will always be an "enzyme box" because they were used for a lot of reagents I worked with back in my molecular biology days. With the entire inside of the styrofoam box stuffed with material frozen solid, I think the meat will arrive after 2-3 days in a safe state, but am open to input here, too. I can change to overnight shipping if that is the only safe option.
So my questions revolve around them using sous vide to finish thawing and warming the brisket for eating. First, will my Geryon bags be adequate, or should my friends transfer the meat to proper bags before they go in the bath? Second, how long should the brisket be in the bath and at what temperature? Do those instructions change if it goes in the bath on arrival when it is presumably partially or mostly thawed as opposed to refreezing for a few days first? My gut thinking, based only the little bit of sous vide techniques I've seen from posts here, is that two to three hours at 130 should be fine.
For fun, I think I'll also draw some instructions on the outside of the bags with "Slice along this side" and "DON'T slice along this side!" kind of like the way they draw on a patient before surgery.
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