Brisket

[Dr ROK]

Looking for advice on sous vide brisket. Searched the forum and there seems to be different ways to approach this. Smoke, then sous vide or sous vide then smoke. What's your favorite method and what times and temps are you using?

[MBMorgan]

Disclaimer: I've not tried this yet. That said, since smoke adheres best to cold meat, I'd probably go with smoke then sous vide.

​Edit: I'd go with Breadhead 's advice below instead of this guestimate (more of a WAG than a SWAG, really) from me.

[Breadhead]

For me... It's DEFINITELY Sous Vide and then into the smoker. When I tried smoke first and then SV, all of the nice bark and the smoke flavor was damaged by the moisture in the bag.

I SV at 165° thinking the remaining temperature increased needed to get to 200°/203° will leave me long enough in the smoker to get a really good bark.

I would suggest you separate the point from the flat and cook them as 2 pieces of meat. I would SV first and then cold shock them in ice water in the bags. Then I would put them in the fridge over night. I want them cold when they go in the smoker to help smoke adhesion and I run my smoker at 200° for the first hour and then turn the heat up to 225°. I place the point at the hotter spot in my cooker and the flat in the lower temp spot to get them to finish about the same time.

Time in the smoker... About 5/6 hours.

Time in the bathtub... I could take them out of the bathtub in 4 hours but I don't. I usually cook them overnight. You can't over cook them in the bathtub and there is no carryover cooking in SV.

That's the way I do it and have no clue if I'm correct. All I know is when I serve brisket done that way people love it.👍

[Dr ROK]

Thanks guys!