Memphis Styled BBQ Brisket

Step 7 Vacuum Pack and Complete

Vacuum pack while they are still warm and put them into the fridge. They will last a week in the fridge and if need it stored longer, put some in the freezer for quick BBQ parties.

Comments

[desertdog]

Yum! It is 6 pm on a Monday and I am hungry. Wish I had seen that on Friday! Nice job.

[lemminggenocide]

not sure it's a good idea to put them into the fridge warm, could encourage bacterial growth. doesn't matter anyway, if anyone made these they would never make it to the fridge XD

[LarouexBBKing]

I have been doing this kind of meat prep for a long time. I was a chef for many years and so I understand the food poisoning stuff. To be clear, the vacuum sealing while the meat is warm makes it nice and tight and makes the meal seal up better, but I do cool it and place it on racks with air flow around it. This cools it properly. That said, the salt and the smoke make it even more impervious to common spoilage issues. I have had the meat under refrigeration for weeks and it is still great.

[Phyldar]

The main reason not to put very warm food into the fridge is that it will drastically raise the temp of the inside of your fridge and this can lead to the spoilage of everything you have in there. Also, don't cover/wrap warm food if you do put it in the fridge as this will hold in the warmth for a much longer time.

[NewB007]

I've always heard that putting warm food in the fridge could encourage bacterial growth, too. The reason given was than the outside will get cold relatively quickly, while the center remains warm. Since bacterial growth rates are geometrically proportional to temperature, it makes sense that higher temp = much more bacteria. Thermodynamics, however, don't seem to agree with the original assumption that the inside will be warmer than it would have been had the food been left out to reach room temperature. The higher temperature gradient will necessarily lead to faster heat transfer given an identical food item placed in the fridge versus being left out at room temperature, barring some sort of thermocline effect (a thermocline wouldn't seem to be reasonable here, anyways, as the brisket is not liquid and has no distinct layers). So, basically, I can't see how you could be growing more bacteria by cooling the food faster, even if the center is warmer than the outside for a while (the center would stay warmer on the counter, too, but would be less noticeable due to the smaller temperature gradient). Has anyone ever seen a study on this? I would love to know for sure.

[sturmey]

If you vacuum packed it before placing it in the oven and then did a "boil in bag" process for the hour+ that you did in the oven, you would kill whatever bacteria that was sealed in the bag, this could theoretically give you a few extra days at room temperature if you wanted to take it to the lake/camping. Of course you would be best served by using a pressure canner to boil it, and you would have to have bags that were food safe at high temperature. I'm not sure I could wait that long though, the brisket looks amazing!

[rvsnmms]

I believe one thing to consider is the bacteria that is, or could possibly be alive. If you have taken the temperature above the required temperature, then there is no bacteria present. Assuming there is no contamination during packaging, then the vacuum sealed container should save it for a long time. As an example canned Tuna fish survives at room temperature for a long period of time. It is heated and sealed and done, so I think the refrigeration concern most likely rests in the temperature rise and compromise of other contents. If it is still warm when you want to put it in the refrigerator, then you can compensate by providing the necessary heat energy along with the brisket. Now we can all have fun with Thermo, bear in mind that a true balance of energy is going to take quite a bit more ice than the equivalent mass of brisket, based on the higher temperature of the brisket. It's probably not necessary to provide all the heat (or cold) energy but you should provide most of it... Awesome instructible, I love me some brisket.