I was home alone barbequing a brisket the other day and after six hours, I got a call regarding a family emergency in another city. I took the brisket off and wrapped in foil and left in the oven to cool (the oven wasn’t on). When I got home, I wrapped the whole package up in plastic wrap and stashed it in the fridge. What I want to know is if I can pick up where I left off on the barbecue? Should I just finish it off in the oven and call it done?
My thought would be that especially with brisket, you want the fat nicely rendered and coating the meat. Since it has cooled, your will need to bring the fat up to rendering temperature to be at the point you left off.
It seems to me either the BBQ or the oven should work. Brisket becomes tender when its collagen turns to gelatin, which takes a long time. The long cooking time necessitates low temperatures. I doubt it would make much difference whether this happens all in one shot, or in two shots. In other words, it’s not like cooking a steak, where the timing is critical. You just need to leave extra time for the meat to come back up to temperature. If you do it in the BBQ you will probably get a little more flavor, although it probably already has plenty of flavor after six hours.
Works fine- I did that exact same thing a few months ago. Just heat it back up slowly- like at 225 degrees and use one of those leave-in probe thermometers, and just cook it until it’s at 190 internal temp.
It may already be cooked. Oven can keep their heat for a surprisingly long time.
I weird with brisket. I love it when it’s fresh out of the oven or smoker. But left over brisket is just nasty to me. Can’t figure out how to keep it moist past the first day.