As a decent sized cut of meat, you may often find yourself with a lot of leftovers after cooking Brisket and are a little uncertain about what to do with it. I mean, it’s a shame to waste it, and it can always come in handy as an accompaniment to meals in the days that follow.
Of course, when it comes to reheating meat, it is important to ensure that this is done correctly as there can be some safety risks involved if the meat isn’t cooked to the correct temperature. The meat should reach 160°F, as this makes it safe to eat.
Aside from this, you also want to ensure that the method you use for reheating the brisket creates just as much flavor and taste as the way in which it was originally cooked. Reheating meat can sometimes pose the risk of it being a little dry and tasteless, and even if you enjoyed it on the first meal, you still want it to be just as tasty with any other meals you eat it with.
Also, remember that before reheating, your frozen brisket needs to have defrosted properly first.
Below, we have pinpointed some of the best methods to use for reheating brisket. Following one of these methods will ensure that your brisket is full of taste and flavor but not dry due to reheating. It is likely that you may develop a preference for reheating your meat using one of these methods in particular.
Reheating brisket in the oven
Reheating brisket in the oven is one of the best methods to use. This is because it isn’t likely to cause your meat to dry out or become tasteless, which is the case with many types of meat when it comes to reheating. We have identified a few steps below that we would recommend you follow to ensure that your brisket is reheated to the best standard.
- First, your oven will need to be preheated to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Then you will need to take your brisket out of the fridge or freezer before giving it approximately 20-30 minutes to come back to room temperature.
- Place your brisket onto a cooking tray and before putting it in the oven, wrap your cooking tray with two layers of foil (two layers ensure that there is an additional layer covering the meat if the first shall break, and this will trap the taste and moisture to prevent the meat from drying out). Ensure that the foil is tightly sealed around the edges too. Meat that is insufficiently covered is prone to drying out quicker.
- Now you can put the brisket into the oven to reheat, and then it is time to wait. The amount of time that it will take depends on the size of the meat you are reheating. A full brisket will take around an hour or until your meat’s internal temperature is 160 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas a pre-sliced brisket will only take around 20 minutes.
- Add moisture to your brisket; this may be cooking juices or a sauce of your choice as this will ensure that it isn’t going to dry out as it reheats.
Reheating brisket in the slow cooker
You may want to use a slow cooker to reheat your brisket, and the preparation that is needed beforehand is fairly similar to the steps you take before cooking your meat in the oven. The brisket will need around 20 minutes to rest before putting it into the slow cooker.
When it comes to putting your brisket into the slow cooker, you may choose to put it in whole or sliced. For those with a smaller slow cooker, slicing the meat is likely to be the best option.
The slow cooker will need to be in the lowest setting, and you are ready to go. Place the brisket inside the slow cooker, and after four hours, it should be ready for you to enjoy.
There is a possibility of your meat drying out regardless of the method you use to reheat it, so it is necessary to add moisture to your brisket beforehand. Again this may be the cooking juice or a sauce of your choice.
Reheating brisket using the Sous Vide Method
Now you may have got to this section in the guide only to find yourself questioning what the Sous Vide method is. We agree. It does sound particularly fancy. In reality, the equipment needed isn’t that fancy or expensive at all and simply refers to a water bath; yes, you heard correctly, there is a way of reheating your meat in a water bath, and it’s a pretty great way of ensuring that it is never overcooked.
We’ve broken the Sous Vide method down into some easy to follow steps below.
- So first off, your meat will need to be sealed inside an airtight bag, and you will need to ensure that the water temperature is around 110-175 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The concept then relies on the meat reaching the same temperature as the water inside the water bath.
- For a larger whole brisket, this can take around 4 hours in total; for a smaller pre-sliced brisket, this will only take approximately 2.
Methods that work but we wouldn’t recommend for reheating brisket
Now, it is commonly advised to avoid cooking your brisket inside a microwave as this method often tends to dry out the meat. Of course, it is a convenient method if you only have a couple of minutes to spare, but we would recommend you choose one of the options above if you have time available and you want to achieve the tastiest results.
The way that a microwave reheats meat often involves cooking from the inside out and does this by turning the water molecules into steam.
If you aren’t keen on the thought of digging into some slightly rubbery, dry meat, we would recommend you avoiding this option and sticking to one that we have mentioned previously.