How many Briskets on a 42" SBB

[Lannoos]

Hello frequent forum posters/members. 

I may be posting this in the wrong place, so please let me know if I have.  I wanted to see if I could tease some information out of this esteemed group.  Maybe some insight into a potential project I'm being asked to do.  

A good friend of mine hosts a large holiday party for his customers and tennants each year.  He asked me if I could use my new SBB 42 to cook Brisket for this group; one of a number of items he would like to serve at a 'heavy hors d'oeurvres and cocktail' party.  There will be ~500 people in attendance and the event is two weeks away.  It would seem to me that somewhere between 15 and 20 packer briskets would be needed to provide sandwich makings, (sliced, not shredded).  

Questions:

1. How many Briskets can reasonably be cooked in one session on the 42
2. Should I cook at 225 or raise the temp to 250-275 for this amount of meat.  I think a lot of moisture will be generated
3. How long should I budget for each session?  typically a 17lb Packer took about 20 hours a 225 in my 23" KK
4. Should I wrap them at the stall or just wait it out?  would this shorten cooking time?

I'm thinking that I could comfortably cook 4 Briskets per session, (2 on top grate and 2 on Upper grate).  Was wondering if anyone has tried something like this and if so, does the cook time increase when adding More meat (assume it does) and if so, any factorial approximations?

My service plan would be to cool the briskets, then once fully refrigerated, slice and place into Vacuum sealed bags.  For service at the party, I will re-heat using Sous Vide process to about 145 degrees, then plate and serve.

this is my outline but any and all insight provided is greatly appreciated!

I will document the cooks and share notes and Photo's.

Thank you for any and all information you can provide.

Scott

[Pequod]

2 hours ago, Lannoos said:

Hello frequent forum posters/members. 

I may be posting this in the wrong place, so please let me know if I have.  I wanted to see if I could tease some information out of this esteemed group.  Maybe some insight into a potential project I'm being asked to do.  

A good friend of mine hosts a large holiday party for his customers and tennants each year.  He asked me if I could use my new SBB 42 to cook Brisket for this group; one of a number of items he would like to serve at a 'heavy hors d'oeurvres and cocktail' party.  There will be ~500 people in attendance and the event is two weeks away.  It would seem to me that somewhere between 15 and 20 packer briskets would be needed to provide sandwich makings, (sliced, not shredded).  

Questions:

1. How many Briskets can reasonably be cooked in one session on the 42
2. Should I cook at 225 or raise the temp to 250-275 for this amount of meat.  I think a lot of moisture will be generated
3. How long should I budget for each session?  typically a 17lb Packer took about 20 hours a 225 in my 23" KK
4. Should I wrap them at the stall or just wait it out?  would this shorten cooking time?

I'm thinking that I could comfortably cook 4 Briskets per session, (2 on top grate and 2 on Upper grate).  Was wondering if anyone has tried something like this and if so, does the cook time increase when adding More meat (assume it does) and if so, any factorial approximations?

My service plan would be to cool the briskets, then once fully refrigerated, slice and place into Vacuum sealed bags.  For service at the party, I will re-heat using Sous Vide process to about 145 degrees, then plate and serve.

this is my outline but any and all insight provided is greatly appreciated!

I will document the cooks and share notes and Photo's.

Thank you for any and all information you can provide.

Scott

 

Just my opinion:

1. I'd think at least 6 at a time on a 42. I've done two on the main grate of my 23 and pretty sure my 32 could handle at least 4. To size it up, just lay them all out in their cryovac on the grates until it's as full as you'd be willing to go. 

2. Matter of personal preference and what you're comfortable with. My advice would be to stay with what you know and not mess around. Personally, I like 275 for brisket, but that's just me.

3. Same temp will give you the same result. At 275 I think you'd be looking at around 10'ish hours.

4. I wrap in pink butcher paper just after the stall and this does shorten cooking time. My 10'ish hours estimate above is based on wrapping. But, again, I'd stay with what you know. Or you could try doing just one at 275 with butcher paper wrap and see how it goes. 

[5698k]

I like the pre cook layout suggestion, I’d put as many on as you can without touching each other.

 

I wouldn’t wrap, it’s enough work to do one...

 

I like 275°, the timing is more consistent because the stall is way less pronounced.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Lannoos]

OK

Layout with adequate space, 275 degrees to overcome stall more quickly. To wrap or not to wrap...

very Kanye Mets Shakespeare don’t you think!

[tekobo]

I've been wondering about the service end of your story @Lannoos.  Will you be anywhere near your KKs when it comes to serving and how much capacity do you have for sous vide on site on the day?  I was thinking that brisket is great when sliced fresh and wondered whether you could time it so you had the briskets from your final cook resting in a cooler warm and ready to cut up at the party venue.  Meanwhile, the briskets you cooked earlier could potentially be heated up at low temp in your KK and transported over to the venue for a second and third round of service?  Just a thought...

[Lannoos]

Tekobo

The KK and the venue are about 60 miles apart so I cannot rely on anything other than advanced preparation, although you bring up a good point about the final cook timing, as that meat could be transported in a cooler resting and ready to slice while the earlier couple of cooks can be chilled, sliced, bagged and then heated through gently via sous vide.  I have a number of Joule Immersion circulators so capacity should not be an issue, but Fresh off the KK is always the best way to go.

I think I will try and wrap my head around the timing to see if that final cook can be accomplished so that it ends about 6 - 8 hours prior to service and with all that meat resting together in a large Yeti, I should have no trouble holding safe temps.  Thank you for the suggestion!

 

Scott

[Lannoos]

I have another question regarding rendered fat management.  I would imagine that 4-6 briskets will generate about 4-6 times the rendered fat.  I have some reasonably large HD Foil roasting pans, but I was wondering if anyone has a more elegant suggestion for capturing the fat before it saturates my cooker!  

 

Thoughts?

[tony b]

Those aluminum drip pans will be fine. 

Assume that you are accustomed to prepping a full brisket and know to trim the excess fat off before cooking.

[Lannoos]

I normally trim ~3.5 to 4lbs of fat when prepping a full (USDA PRIME) packer, so I do remove a good deal of the slabbed fat.

I still get significant rendering during the cook of a single brisket (another 2-3 lbs of liquified fat).  I figure that I'll need to multiply that figure by the number of Briskets cooked simultaneously, so basically 12-18lbs of rendered fat or the equivalent of a whole untrimmed packer brisket.  Do you have any experience in partially separating the Point prior to the cook so that more surface area receives direct contact with the smoke?

[tony b]

I do burnt ends whenever I do a full packer cut. But, I separate the point and flat after the flat is done. I've never tried to separate them before the cook. I seem to recall seeing Rachlen doing it on one of the Project Smoke episodes. 

[Lannoos]

OK,

So the first cook went off effortlessly on 4 packers, I did a heavy trim to reduce the rendering, as 4 packers un-trimmed could create a lake in my charcoal basket.

seasoned and cooled in the fridge.

Next was to get the cook set up, so I used about 15 lbs of coco charcoal in the center of the charcoal basket, installed two heat deflectors over the heat source, then two large disposable aluminum roasting pans to catch drippings.  I lit the charcoal and installed the main grate, temp probes and DigiQ wifi.  heat soaked to 240 degrees then added the meat directly over the roasting pans with good spacing for air flow.

things progressed, but very wet and cool all day.

and then, the stall..... decided not to wrap as with all the rain, humidity was 100%

 

I feel that the results (about 11 hours later) were acceptable.  I am working on a job for a large group, so i have a few more of these cooks to do over the coming days so as I learn more, I will post those findings as well.  Here is one of the briskets from this cook prior to wrapping and resting.  A 'Huge Thank You' to all who contributed via comment and encouragement to this thread.  I'm pretty sure I could cook six briskets at once, but I think 4 is optimal.

 

 

 

 

[tekobo]

Wow that looks really good @Lannoos.  Will you do a test of the slice, vac and reheat with sous vide plan? I would be very interested to know how well the brisket comes through that process.  It would be really cool if it is possible to preserve and serve brisket that way. Whatever happens - have fun!!

[Lannoos]

I will update this thread with my experiences on the sous vide re-heat.

Here is one of the sliced packages.  I've done this on a much smaller scale with good results to date.  Going big does pose some challenges that will need to be overcome, but I'm confident this will work out.

[Shuley]

Wow.  You are brave. 

[Tucker]

Looks good, stay focused on the details don't sweat the scale of it

[Lannoos]

Sage advice for sure. 

[tony b]

Looks like you're off to a great start on this one. Keep us posted. 

[Lannoos]

OK, here is the epilogue to this story.

Can it be done? Absolutely!  After many hours of experimentation and managing challenges during the 4 cooks of 4 Briskets each, I can offer the following advice:

1 - Fill your charcoal basket with double the charcoal you thought you would need.  Brisket is not predictable from cook to cook and more meat means more mass.  More mass means more time.  More time means more charcoal.  I came very close to running out during cook 3 and it really messed with my sanity in the middle of Sunday night.  Trust that the cook will shut down in an orderly when you close the vents, even if you have 20 extra lbs of fuel in the basket

2- cooking more than 4 brisket would require a very robust rendered fat capture strategy.  I used two foil covered heat deflectors of a centered load of charcoal with 2 large HD Foil roasting pans (2 liters of water in each) to catch fat.  The briskets were aligned with the pans on the main and grates.  This worked very well, but note that after two consecutive cooks, I filled almost 4 750ml wine bottles with the rendered fat.  Had I stacked 3 over 3, I'm pretty sure at least 1L of fat would have landed in the firebox below.  That would not be good!

3- I cooked the briskets at 240 degrees.  I think that preserved the low and slow technique but did help with move me through the stall.  i never did wrap a brisket for the cooks and the bark was AWESOME.  Rub was Aaron Franklin's secret recipe (1 part coarse ground pepper and 1 part Himalayan salt)

4- I did use my CyberQ wifi to manage temp.  That provided some very much needed confidence in the overnight hours except when I ran low on fuel.  See item 1

5 - the jiggle at 190 to 200, which was the range I pulled off all meat, was very much what you would see on YouTube. Give'em a push and what them Hula dance.  I pulled all meat at once since I knew my slices would be 1/4" and toughness would not be a problem

6 - Rested for 4 hours, then refrigerated overnight, in the morning I sliced it cold, vacuum-sealed and returned to the fridge.  2 hours before service I dropped them in a 140 degree water bath, held them for 2 hours, then plated and served.  You would never have known that this brisket was cooked days earlier.  Each vacuum-sealed bag had the same Jiggle as the freshly cooked brisket and if you pushed too hard on the bag, you could leave a divot.  The moisture content and all else were perfect.  we served 95lb's of Brisket to 500 people in less than 2 hours (along with Salmon, Chicken and many other items) and everyone enjoyed the meal.  Nobody knew we were cooking Brisket in ice-chests.  It took longer to empty the water from those Ice chests than to clean up the mess from Service!

In closing I would like to thank all who commented and encouraged me on this forum.  I have a new arrow in my quiver and would highly recommend that anyone who wants to have a predictable smoked brisket dinner service for a large group use this outline and add your own knowledge and special touches.  You will not be disappointed!

 

A few photos:

the room before service with the basic structure for the main courses and desserts laid out:

the line up end:
 

 

unfortunately I did not have time to get any photos of the final product, you'll just have to trust me, it was loved by all!

Merry Christmas Forum, I'm going to take a long nap!

[tony b]

Excellent job! And good lessons learned, too. Now relax with a nice adult beverage - you've earned it! 

[Bruce Pearson]

Wow what a cook! I’m glad it turned out well for you and the guests had some delicious KKed food. Thanks for posting everything looks yummy