reheating brisket

[squirtthecat]

I broke out the brisket I smoked last weekend for dinner last night...   Nuked in the microwave for a quick sandwich.

Kinda Dry...

It was super moist when I vacuum sealed it - did the microwave 'cook' it further and chase the juices away??
I heated up some more later for the Mrs, and backed the power waaaaay down.   Hers turned out much better.

Is that the trick?  Low and slow, even when reheating?  Should I add some of the original juices when reheating?

Anyone have other favorite ways to 'wake up' your leftover brisket out of the chill chest?

Cheers,
STC.

[Wildcat]

I simply re-heat by placing the sealed bag in hot water on the stove. Try not let it boil. If it boils for long the bags will lose their seal. If you are re-heating a lot of meat, then I would recommend the crockpot with apple juice.

[squirtthecat]

Do you slice it all at once, and seal the slices?

[mikecorn.1]

I like to reheat in a zip lock bag. slowly in small increments until i get it warm. (leave a small opening in the bag)

[OU812]

I do like Wildcat and as he states dont let it boil just a nice bubbling simmer

[squirtthecat]

Cool, thanks guys!

I've got just a small chunk left, so I put it in the crockpot with some of the awesome juices from the pan.  After a few days in the fridge, the fat floated up and popped out like a big bar of soap.

I think I'll freeze the rest.  Perhaps in an ice cube tray?? (I think I saw A.B. do that on the Food network)

[Smokin Soon]

Ok, I'm the strange one here, but I sauce everything I Vac Seal. Your choice of a sweet, spicy or North Carolina style is up to you. I do all of them.  Lasts for months in the freezer in small portions. We just nuke it, and if the bag blows up, put a pinhole to vent. I like to get the max time out of the nuker before I vent, so I watch it pretty good. Last Brisket I cooked was bagged up with some Cattleman Sauce and everyone says it's better after the Vac Seal. Go figure! Works for everything, but I have found that the smaller portion's are much more tasty than trying to do a bulk seal. Pulled pork, for an example gets Vac Sealed 1 pound at a time for a future event. I think that the Vac process may be correcting some of my mistakes. I like that alot!!!

[squirtthecat]

Now that sounds like a good plan...   Slice it all up while hot, and vac seal in dinner-for-two sized portions.

I put the whole shebang in the bag and vac sealed it, but then I trashed that bag when I cut it open, and then had a bit of a difficult time slicing through that cold hunk o' beef.   Individual packages would have been much better.


I'm doing 12+ pounds of pork butt & brisket tonight (into tomorrow), and will probably do the same.

[Wildcat]

With just the wife and I small portions is the only way we do it. If we have company then we simply take more portions out of the freezer. Also, when we are on the road in the RV, this system makes for easier storage and we do not need to carry the smoker on the road.

[squirtthecat]

Same here.  Just the two of us, and the Mrs gets tired of the same thing more than 2 or 3 nights in a row.

[FLBentRider]

We have 2 teenagers.

leftovers are an endangered species.

[OU812]

I always seem to cook way more than we can eat, well now that the boys have moved on anyways. Then seal every thing in meal sized bags, it makes great lunchs for the wife and i and after school snacks for the daughter

[classicrockgriller]

I know this may sound crazy, but it works. If you want to nuke to reheat....wet a paper towel and squeeze out the water...put what you want to nuke in the wet towel, or
if you have a steamer (rice cooker/steamer $32 at walmart) let it come to near room temp and put in steamer for cple minutes.

[ArnieM]

I was wondering about how to reheat so I'm glad this topic came up.  I'll be smoking brisket this Saturday and going to my daughter's house on Sunday.  Naturally, I have to bring some leftovers (as well as having some for myself).  Throwing it in the nuker just didn't sound right - well maybe with the wet paper towel.  In any case, now I have a few ideas.  Thanks to all for answering my question before I asked it.

[JGW]

I usually just wrap it up in foil and heat it up in the oven at a low temp.