# I'm smoking brisket for 60 people Sat and need some advice.



## Neck-deep (Jun 27, 2007)

I have no problem making a good brisket now that I've practiced with my new smoker a couple of times, however I've never cooked for so many people before. I bought 50lbs of brisket weighing in at about 10lbs a piece to play it safe incase a little more people show up. 

Here's the situation, my wife wants me to have the brisket sliced at 12pm Saturday (early enough so that I can get cleaned up and help out with preparing the house). People will start showing up at 4pm and we will probably start serving at 4:30pm.

My question is, how should I go on about storing the sliced brisket for those hours in between 12pm and 4:30pm?


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## fangard (Apr 18, 2008)

Ice Chest.

We did it with prime rib all the time when we catered large parties.


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## BATWING (May 9, 2008)

The only thing I can think of is you might cut it in a way that the cut meat is not exposed to air. Ex: loaf of bread, cut slices but still in loaf form.

Maybe use an electric knife, try to keep them intact and warm

Also maybe keep a bowl of water steaming to not dry the meat out while keeping warm


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## water doc (Jan 28, 2011)

Wrap the brisket in foil and store in a foil lined Igloo has been been heated with a hot water bottle.


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## fangard (Apr 18, 2008)

BATWING said:


> The only thing I can think of is you might cut it in a way that the cut meat is not exposed to air. Ex: loaf of bread, cut slices but still in loaf form.
> 
> Maybe use an electric knife, try to keep them intact and warm
> 
> Also maybe keep a bowl of water steaming to not dry the meat out while keeping warm


Agreed. Sorry didn't elaborate on the slicing aspect.

Get some aluminum hotel pans(disposable). Sam's, Costco, AceMart has good, durable ones(with lids). Place the sliced brisket in the pans cover with saran wrap, then aluminum lid. Place in warm ice chest.


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## atcNick (Apr 7, 2005)

Save All the juices and put them in the pan with the sliced brisket and cover it up


-Nick


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## Waymore (Jul 6, 2011)

Slice, then place in foil pans leaving the juice in with the meat with foil sealed around top and put it back in your smoker at about 150- 175 degrees until you're ready to serve!


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## Neck-deep (Jun 27, 2007)

Waymore said:


> Slice, then place in foil pans leaving the juice in with the meat with foil sealed around top and put it back in your smoker at about 150- 175 degrees until you're ready to serve!


That's what I was thinking. Do you mean the juices that drip from the brisket while it's smoking?

My wife mentioned using a warmer. Will this be okay? or will the warmer dry the meat out.

Thanks for the reponses everyone. Good info!


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## Neck-deep (Jun 27, 2007)

fangard said:


> Agreed. Sorry didn't elaborate on the slicing aspect.
> 
> Get some aluminum hotel pans(disposable). Sam's, Costco, AceMart has good, durable ones(with lids). Place the sliced brisket in the pans cover with saran wrap, then aluminum lid. Place in warm ice chest.


I like this method as well.

What would be the difference of doing this over placing the sliced brisket back in the smoker to stay warm? I would think that if I placed the brisket back in the smoker that the meat might dry up a little. Not sure though.

How do you exactly heat up an icechest?


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## sotexhookset (Jun 4, 2011)

*I'm smoking brisket for 60 people Sat and need some advice.*



Waymore said:


> Slice, then place in foil pans leaving the juice in with the meat with foil sealed around top and put it back in your smoker at about 150- 175 degrees until you're ready to serve!


My advice. Save the ice chest for the 2 cases of Lonies you'll need while q-ing that much brisket and care for the meat like Waymore said. :texasflag


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## Waymore (Jul 6, 2011)

Neck-deep said:


> That's what I was thinking. Do you mean the juices that drip from the brisket while it's smoking?
> 
> My wife mentioned using a warmer. Will this be okay? or will the warmer dry the meat out.
> 
> Thanks for the reponses everyone. Good info!


Most of us wrap the briskets in pans or foil for the last half of cooking. By using pans you save the drippings, therefore keeping the meat moist while you are just warming. Try it you'll like it!...Waymore

Yes, any warmer will dry the meat out without the drippings and sealing it in foil. That way it steams the meat in it's on juices.


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## mharris1 (May 29, 2010)

I do this all the time, and it would be better to wait till right before serving to slice, but if that is not an option, do this...As said above, save the juices and pour over sliced brisket in foil pan. Wrap tightly in foil and place in clean dry ice chest. Either sliced or whole, it will stay hot and juicy all day. Putting it back on the smoker will dry it out. Good luck.


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## ngrant (Jun 18, 2011)

If you have a pit that is big enough to cook 2 or 3 briskets at a time you will have plenty of heat giving off from them in an ice chest. Wrap them tight in heavy foil and I would not start carving untill your guest start lining up. Good luck.


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## fangard (Apr 18, 2008)

Neck-deep said:


> I like this method as well.
> 
> What would be the difference of doing this over placing the sliced brisket back in the smoker to stay warm? I would think that if I placed the brisket back in the smoker that the meat might dry up a little. Not sure though.
> 
> How do you exactly heat up an icechest?


You can pour hot water into it or you can use jugs of hot water. Doesn't so much need to be hot, just not a super cold ice chest- say you pulled it out of your garage in the middle of winter.


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## trout250 (Aug 24, 2005)

we do for this amt all the time at our church. Like someone said earlier most of us wrap our briskets in foil for the last part of the cooking, when you unwrap them save the juice so that you can pour it back onto the sliced meat. Slice them up put in foil pans, add juice cover with lids or foil and set back in pit away from fire to keep warm. You can drain the juice off all of them into 1 common pan and skim the grease off the top and just add the good stuff back to your meat.

Good luck


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## Neck-deep (Jun 27, 2007)

Thanks to all. 

I think I'm going to try the icechest method and place warm water inside with those foil pans. 

I'll keep you guys posted.


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## CoastalOutfitters (Aug 20, 2004)

would not slice them until you are ready to serve


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## w_r_ranch (Jan 14, 2005)

I agree with CoastalOutfitters. We host a big party every 4th of July and I slice & serve it as people come through the line.


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## Hesser (Jan 23, 2012)

a trick for the cooler, pour a gallon of boiling water into the 48-60 qt cooler before slicing the meat. keep to lid closed till ready to use, then pour the water out and add foil wrapped meat, at one time and quickly. also may want to add another brisket, if you have 50 lbs before cooking, you will loose 10 lbs. weight trimming, during cooking and slicing.


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## Neck-deep (Jun 27, 2007)

Okay, the party Sat. was a major success! Barely though, thankgod, because I was stressing due to timing issues. I received many good compliments on how well the brisket came out, and I even received a couple of comments like, "That was the best brisket I've ever tasted in my life." "It better of been," is what I was thinking because it took a really long time to get done.


The done at 12pm thing that I was talking about in my 1st post didn't pan out. So I didn't have to worry about slicing the brisket early since they weren't ready at 12pm. I was lucky that most people showed up an hour late which is sometimes normal (Who wants to be the 1st to arrive at a party anyway). My wife was stressing too, since the brisket wasn't ready at 12pm, but I managed to still set the house up and get it ready for all the guest while the brisket was still smoking, so she was happy but concerned about the brisket.

I don't know why the 5 briskets took longer than 15hrs of smoking at a consistant 200-235 degrees (My digital therm. was used with the wire hanging on the grill). They should've been done at 11am according to the 1.5hrs per lb guideline. They were all 10lbs each. I think the problem was that my digital therm. was taking a reading at one area where it hits 225 real good but on the other higher grates and lower grates read a lower temp and opening and closing the pit door too much doesn't help matters either. The 1st 3 briskets needed another 5 hours of smoking to get that perfect plump, juicy, shrinking size. I pulled the 1st three at 19 hours (about 3pm). The last two briskets that I pulled during the party (about 5pm) came out perfect. In all, the last two briskets took 21hrs. I don't think the guest could tell the difference between the two anyway. The diff. to me was the juicyness of the last two since the fat had more time to burn up.

All in all, I was satisfied and learned alot since I've never cooked for so many people. If I had to do it all again, I'd def. start earlier.

A big thanks goes out to my Brother in Law for helping me out. It's def. not a one man ordeal.


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## Neck-deep (Jun 27, 2007)

Here's a little summary of what I did.

1st: I placed the briskets in the pit at 8pm.

2nd: Waited till 11pm the next day to take an internal temp reading (It read 150 degrees).

3rd: Pulled 3 briskets at 3pm that were almost finished but had no choice since the party was getting started at 4pm (So I didn't have time to let the 1st one rest since I went staight to slicing). The other two had time since I was working on the 1st one. They were still great though but not as juicy as they should've been had they smoked for 2 more hours. Very tender though.

4th: Started slicing the 1st one at about 3:20pm and finished slicing the 3rd brisket at about 4:20pm.

5th: My BIL cranked up the heat to 250 for the last 2 briskets at about 4:20pm, and I pulled them out at about 5:30pm I think. They couldn't have been any better, and I could tell the diff. in juicyness and size than from the 1st 3. They needed heat.


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## dicky78377 (Jan 19, 2012)

fangard said:


> Agreed. Sorry didn't elaborate on the slicing aspect.
> 
> Get some aluminum hotel pans(disposable). Sam's, Costco, AceMart has good, durable ones(with lids). Place the sliced brisket in the pans cover with saran wrap, then aluminum lid. Place in warm ice chest.


X2


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