Impromptu QVQ. - need some advice.

[rickgregory]

OK, so I ran across a guy at the farmer's market that was selling brisket points so I bought one. Full packers are a lot of meat for me, but a point? That's perfect. Thawed it, dry brined overnight, sprinkled pepper on it the next morning and tossed it on the kettle.

Now, the kettle was running a bit hot (that's another post) but after I adjusted the wood chunks about 2 hours in, it shot up from 280 or so to 315 and looked to keep going. The meat was 160F (yes, after just 2 hours). I had to. do work and didn't have the time to fiddle with the kettle and really didn't want to do brisket at 350 or whatever so... I pulled the meat, shocked it in ice and refrigerated.

Fast forward to, well, now. I figured I'd SV this puppy, then smoke to finish. Since it's already 160 so there's no point in SVing it at a lower temp to preserve a medium rare finish and that's where I would like some advice:

Hw long would you all go? At 135 or so, I remember 48-72 hours... but I'm going 160 since the meat has already seen that temp. I'm starting this now (3pm) so I could do it until late tomorrow night (11pm or so) which would be about 30 hours. Or I could let it go to Thursday AM which would be about 40.

Thoughts? Potkettleblack?

[jfmorris]

When I do pastrami I smoke the brisket until its 160-170, then vacuum seal and put it in the fridge. Prior to serving, I sous vide it at 195F for 4 hours, in lieu of the steaming step. It comes out great, and I think that ought to work for what you are doing. It takes you up into the "done" range for brisket if you had smoked it all the way, and holds it there long enough to reach the center of the meat and break things down.

[rickgregory]

So if 195 at 4 hours, at 160F maybe add some time? like do 8 hours?

[Huskee]

Clint's advice in his (granted, not QVQ) SVQ brisket recipe says 30hrs at 150. Never dunnit myself.

[Polarbear777]

SVQ or QVQ, the tenderization almost all happens in the V step so the same amount of time applies. 160 probably needs 18-24 hrs. Check tenderness by feel after 18. Going longer doesn’t hurt anything except maybe your schedule.

[Huskee]

Polarbear777 Yep, just wanted to acknowledge the fact before someone said "you can't use that it's for SVQ not QVQ."

[shify]

When I did a QVQ brisket point, I did the SV at 155 for about 25-30 hrs. I then cubed/sauced and braised for a burnt end type product.

[willxfmr]

For a point, at 160°, shoot for 18-24 hours and I think you'll be fine.

[Polarbear777]

Still don’t have an empirically derived tenderization curve that tells you the amount of time required to reach the same tenderness level at any temp from 131.5F out to 250f.

I know you can tenderize beef at 250F in a pressure cooker to make chili quickly in about an hour or less and I know I use 72 hours at 135F. I’m guessing it’s a log curve that time stretches at lower temps similar to the pasteurization curves. To do this right you’d need to SV a lot of similar beef pieces. It wouldn’t apply to other cuts of meat but I suppose the relative translation between temperatures and times would allow recipe conversion. Would be handy.

[Huskee]

It's probably too open-ended to get a definitive curve, perhaps like asking should I smoke my brisket at 225, 230, 240, 245, 250, 260... then answer is a resounding yes.

[rickgregory]

well, we won't know how this turns out. The Anova started shutting itself off every little while, so there was no way I was doing a long cook with it. Off to buy a Monopirce SV unit (not feeling like dropping lots of $ on one right now) but I'm just going to finish this in the smoker.

[Huskee]

Bum deal. I have an Anova and while SV is not my first choice most times, it would be frustrating for it to just not work when I do choose to use it.

[Troutman]

Although I've posted numerous QVQ medium rare brisket cooks here, I have only done a 155-160* brisket cook once. I am a proponent of the Chef Steps timing for SV cooking. They are very thorough and have experimented enough with time and temperature to give you options. This is not an issue of pasteurization but tenderness. That comes with time. If you are looking for a sliceable product at that temperature, I think the 18-20 hour time in the bath (especially since the brisket was smoked rather long) is more than enough. For increased tenderness, you can certainly go longer but beyond say 30 hours your proteins will begin to loosen and breakdown. The result will be pot roasted like meat. Either way, it depends on the finish you are looking for.

It sounds like its a mute point with you rickgregory. I would encourage everyone to sign up for the Chef Steps website and see how they've experimented with various cuts. I particularly like the beef short rib recipe, they break it down to various times and temps but show you the result as well. Sometimes seeing the results is more convincing then trying to interpolate a chart.

https://www.chefsteps.com/

[rickgregory]

Although I've posted numerous QVQ medium rare brisket cooks here, I have only done a 155-160* brisket cook once. I am a proponent of the Chef Steps timing for SV cooking. They are very thorough and have experimented enough with time and temperature to give you options. This is not an issue of pasteurization but tenderness. That comes with time. If you are looking for a sliceable product at that temperature, I think the 18-20 hour time in the bath (especially since the brisket was smoked rather long) is more than enough. For increased tenderness, you can certainly go longer but beyond say 30 hours your proteins will begin to loosen and breakdown. The result will be pot roasted like meat. Either way, it depends on the finish you are looking for.

It sounds like its a mute point with you rickgregory. I would encourage everyone to sign up for the Chef Steps website and see how they've experimented with various cuts. I particularly like the beef short rib recipe, they break it down to various times and temps but show you the result as well. Sometimes seeing the results is more convincing then trying to interpolate a chart.

https://www.chefsteps.com/

Yeah Chefsteps is a good resource. I should have checked it out but felt lazy. So far I've got ~2 hours in smoke and another 6 or so at 160 in SV. I'm going to toss it on the smoker tomorrow AM and let it run to ~200 or so.