A Texas Brisket Goes to California

Last week my company had a Thanksgiving dinner in one of our San Diego offices. Being the BBQ geek I am I decided to smoke a brisket and take it to the party. The challenge is how do I get a brisket from Dallas to San Diego?

Challenge Accepted!

In January I was lucky enough to attend Camp BBQ at Texas A&M and one of our teachers taught us how to freeze and sous vide a brisket.  Click here for instructions how to freeze and sous vide a brisket. 

How we made the trip

On Saturday night I smoked a 20 pound brisket using my overnight brisket method. After it was smoked, I cooled, vacuum packed and froze the brisket.  Then I packed it in my roller bag with 2 Below Zero Packs, went to the airport, made it through security, was delayed for 3 hours and finally made it to San Diego.  

I was really worried that it would have defrosted but even being in my roller bag for close to 10 hours it was still frozen solid.

Once at the hotel I defrosted the still frozen brisket in the sink in a water bath and then put it back in the refrigerator overnight.

The next morning I kept it cool with the ice packs and took it to the office for the party.

Once at the office I set up the sous vide and set it to 140 degrees F / 60 degrees C and reheated the brisket for 3 hours to ensure it was heated throughout.

15 minutes before dinner was served I removed the brisket from the vacuum packing and sliced it up for serving.

It was amazing how good it turned out.  It was hard to tell it from a brisket just off the smoker.  It was still juicy and moist.  I will definitely be using the method again.