How to keep brisket moist overnight

brisketfood-safety

I will be smoking a brisket on Christmas Eve for 6 to 8 hours, and then completing the cooking of in the oven on Christmas day. I want to keep it moist, avoiding the risk of congealing from overnight refrigeration (releasing liquid then not reabsorbing it).

A friend of mine who is a gourmet cook recommended that it simply be doubled wrapped in foil and left at room temperature overnight, instead of refrigerating. While it would sure solve the problem of keeping the brisket moist, I have concerns about the safety in doing this.

Would that be safe? If not, how can I keep the brisket how I want it?

Best Answer

Smoking a brisket until it hits around 160F and then finishing it in the oven is a common way to cook brisket. Meat doesn't benefit much from further smoking after it hits 160F or so, and the oven is much less finicky than a grill or meat smoker. For reference, here is a good description of smoking brisket in a charcoal smoker and then finishing in the oven.

When it's time to take the meat out of the smoker, normal practice is to wrap it thoroughly in foil and then move it to the oven right away. Once the meat hits the final temperature (205F or so), you can hold it for hours before serving it, as long as you keep it warm. So, what you want to do is to stretch out the oven portion of the process so that you can go to sleep.

I'd do something like this:

  1. Smoke the brisket to an internal temperature of 160F or so.
  2. Wrap it thoroughly in heavy-duty foil. You want to prevent any liquid from being able to leak out.
  3. Transfer the roast to an oven set to 225F or even 210F-215F if the oven will go that low.
  4. Go to sleep.

With the oven set so low, the meat will take a long time to reach its final temperature. This is a good thing because brisket benefits from being cooked low & slow. And in the worst case, the meat won't be able to get any hotter than the oven temperature.

The next morning, you can check the meat temperature and make any final adjustments. If the meat isn't cooking fast enough, you can turn up the oven. Once the meat reaches temperature, you have a couple of options:

  • Remove the roast from the oven, and (leaving it in foil) wrap it in towels and put it into a small insulated cooler. It will lose very little heat this way, and it'll have even more time for collagen to melt.
  • Turn the oven down to its "keep warm setting" (hopefully 170F-180F) and hold the meat that way.

However you keep it warm, pull it out at some point to let the meat get proper resting period. When you finally open that foil, you'll probably find the meat is resting in a pool of wonderful smokey beefy smelling liquid. You can pour that back over the sliced meat, or incorporate it into a finishing sauce of some kind.

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