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Note: Without doing any of the fancy stuff below, brisket will take around 2 hours to rest from 200F > 160F while wrapped regardless.
Around 150-160F is when you want to slice as it’s cool enough to eat and it allows time for the juices to gelatinize.
If the Party is in a Few Hours (3-5): Create a Faux Cambro
Get some water to near boiling. Then pour this water into your cooler and close the lid for 10 minutes.
This pre-heats the cooler so the cooler doesn’t wick heat from the meat.
After 10 minutes, dump the water.
Grab 2 old towels or a bunch of dish rags. Line the bottom of the cooler with 1 towel.
Put wrapped meat on top.
NOW would be the time to probe the meat to monitor internal temperature.
Our goal is to be above 140F internal for food safety.
Top the brisket with another towel.
The towels work to insulate the meat and allow the internal temperature to come down slowly from 200F to 140-160F for slicing and serving.
This setup usually allows you to be above 140F for 6 hours but your cooler might be better than mine.
But Dylan, I Don’t Have a Cooler
Leave the brisket wrapped, grab an old towel and wrap the meat in it.
Get some water to near boiling in a large pot. Then put this pot on the bottom shelf in your oven.
Take your towel wrapped brisket and put it on a baking sheet and put this in the oven.
The water will add humidity to the oven and allow the brisket to slowly come down in temperature.
Done Several Hours Early (6+): You need to Hot Hold the Meat
From testing, I know my electric smoker set to 175F will keep food above 140F internal and max out at around 150F.
If you don’t have an electric smoker you need to test your device, you can use:
- Kitchen oven with a warming function (170F-ish)
- Kitchen oven at it’s lowest temperature setting (200F-ish)*
- Pellet grill at it’s lowest setting (200F-ish)*
- Toaster oven
*For these 2 options I’d use a wooden spoon to crack the door as both will swing in temperature and the slight crack will allow some heat to escape and keep the temperature down.
Once the brisket is tender, rest the meat down while wrapped to 160-170F internal.
Then pop into the holding device.
Use a probe thermometer to track internal temperature the entire time to ensure you’re above 140F.
If you start to dip below 145F, bump the temperature of your device by 10F.
A Day in Advance (12+ Hours): Hot Holding Safely
So you really have 2 options here:
1. When you go to tenderness check the meat and most of it is tender (~190-195F internal)
Simply drop the temperature of your holding oven to 175F and then put your brisket in without a rest.
This way, carry over cooking naturally occurs over 10-16+ hours.
The meat will continue to tenderize and then slowly come down in temperature.
2. If the whole brisket is probe tender
Rest down to 160F-ish for 2 hours while wrapped, set your holding oven to 175F and then put the wrapped brisket in to hot hold for 10-12+ hours.
Personally, I do option 1 almost every time I smoke brisket.
I find the meat is more tender and juicy and there’s less of a chance that you overcook the meat.
How Do Pitmasters and BBQ Restaurants Hold Brisket?
Pitmasters and BBQ restaurants make use of large offset smokers and in most cases are smoking 50+ briskets at one time.
Briskets go on the Pit at around 8/9 am and finish at around 10-12 pm.
Pitmasters then wrap the briskets in either foil, butcher paper, or plastic wrap. They then transfer them to something like a holding oven or warmer cabinet overnight for 10-11 hours for service at 11 am.
The next day at around 8/9 am they check for tenderness. If any feel like they need to further tenderize, they’ll bump the temperature of the warmer.
Popular warmer brands that you see in a lot of places are Alto-Shaam or Cres Cor.
