Dang Brisket

[Louie]

For you folks that offer brisket on your menu's, how do you hold it for service? It's beautiful when it come's out of the smoker but dries very fast..
_________________
From vending to Brick & Mortar

[qfanatic01]

Holding or managing food in a restaurant and having a consistent product without waste are the keys to success. I wish I could serve fresh out of the smoker brisket all day long, but managing that task is not reality in most situations. I work enough hours as it is. Holding them hot at health department temps even wrapped would dry them out and turn them to shredded beef. We serve sliced brisket. Cooling to health dept specs is also impossible without a blast chiller or cutting the brisket apart. The brisket is actually preserved by smoking but to use that as part of your handling you would need to have an approved HACCP plan. Ask Harry about that. We go through 5 to 10 briskets a day without catering. So, here's what I do. We smoke fresh whole choice or better briskets. We do remove the cap after we slice half the brisket, starting at the point of the flat. We do our smoking during our business day, for several reasons. We start the new brisket and re-smoke the caps every morning, times vary on our inventory. I sometimes start as early as 3 AM if we sell out everything the day before. We usually have enough caps to double smoke (burnt ends) and slice those and any remaining flats to start the day. The caps cook at a different rate than the flat and need the extra time to break down the extra connective tissues and render the higher amounts of fat in the marbling, making it the best part of the brisket along with it's extra bark. We cook the caps 4 hours more the next day. You could save them up and run as a special once a week like many do, We just slice the caps and use the scraps in our beans. We also have a Philly Q with burnt ends. We cook our brisket in foil hotel pans for 2 reasons, first to control the mess in my smokers, second to save the drippings to us as au jus for reheating. We slice our brisket and dip in hot au jus to order making sure our brisket is consistent hot and moist. Our brisket is cooked to temp and usually starts coming out of the smoker at 4:30 or 5 and trickles out every half hour or so for the next couple hours. My wood supplier, who knows BBQ, said ours was the best he's had. Has he been to Texas, I didn't ask. I've had brisket at restaurants throughout the south and ours stands up to all. I do not cut my left over whole briskets up to cool them. I am confident nature has done it's job and my briskets are wholesome after 7-9 hours of smoke. We turn nearly all our prep over every 24 hours and refrigerate at 33 degrees. Hope this helps.
_________________
The lessons are in the customer's criticism. They aren't always right. The rewards are their satisfaction.

[Harry Nutczak]

I also had problems hot-holding brisket, heck I had problems hot-holding everything right up until I got a pair of CVAP's from Winston industries.

What worked for me before that was to cook brisket the day before needing it.
By cooking to about 170 degrees, then lay it out on pans and rapidly chilling it in our walk-in freezer until proper internal temps were low enough within the allowed time frame, then wrap it tightly and store in the cooler.
Then, on the day it was needed, I would put foil under it, (not wrap it) and finish it in the pit to the correct texture and verify that internal temps exceeded 165F. The foil retained liquids which would be transferred into the holding pans.

Then I learned of CVAP's, and I got a pair of those, and now we hot-hold our brisket directly out of the pit.
I still keep a couple partially cooked roasts on hand in the cooler for those unexpected runs on brisket because with them, I can have brisket from cooler to plate in about 2 hours if an emergency arises.

I do not offer burnt ends, but what I do offer is a few specialty sandwiches made with chopped brisket. I never have brisket that is too dry because I can control the humidity separately from the heat in our CVAP's. There are days when our chopped specialty sandwiches outsell our sliced products and that causes me to chop some flats. So I use the edges where it is starting to fall apart to fill those needs.

One other thing I tried, and really like the results was to pull the brisket out of the pit before it was done, and had an extended holding time in the CVAP's. I realized an increased yield, more moisture retention, and a texture that was unbelievable scrumptious.

Also, I will not use anything less than "USDA Choice" grade, I only use choice & prime graded brisket, the difference from grade to grade is major IMO.

Argh! thanks for bringing up my bacon HACCP nightmare. Lets hope this regulatory push for formal HACCP plans for every product produced in house gets nipped soon. Before it starts pushing people out of business.
_________________
Just remember that the toes you may step on during your climb to the top will also be attached to the a$$es you'll be forced to kiss on your way back down!

[Paul L.]

Ditto Harry! We hold and slice to order all day long using our two CVAP cabinets. It can be done with other holding cabinets, but not as well, or as easy.
_________________
Changing lives, one sandwich at a time!

[Bbq Bubba]

Are you cooking and serving fresh everyday?
_________________
2013 BBQ Person of the Year
Pitmaster at Lockharts BBQ in Royal Oak Mi.
I cook the best brisket north of Dallas.
Northern midwest director for Operation BBQ Relief

[Mr.T]

Thanks for all that info fellas. You all just saved me hours of trial and error. Never find any of that in a cookbook. I haven't had much experience with brisket yet. Mostly because of the difficulty finding the correct cut here in Taiwan. But it's time to hone that skill. Harry, do you only Q your briskets to and int. temp of 170? It just seems a little low.

[Harry Nutczak]

[Louie]

Thanks folks for the information, it's very helpful..
_________________
From vending to Brick & Mortar

[ole'e]

Harry
What are your settings on your cvap.
Eric
_________________
Eric
ChickHoovenSwine BBQ Catering
WWW.bbqrules.com
ChickHoovenSwine BBQTeam
Backwoods competitor
Ole Hickory SSL

[Harry Nutczak]