brisket question for the experts and anyone else with an opinion :-)

mad max beyond eggdome

i'm supposed to cook brisket for an event at our temple tomorrow night. .. its actually a brisket competition (jewish pot roast style). .. i've worked up a pretty good one on the egg that is still a pot roasted brisket but with just enough differenct that it will hopefully stand out (mark silvertein from food tv's "best of" is going to be the celebrity judge). .. anyway, what i do is coat the brisket with sugar the night before, wrap and refrigerate, then on the day of the cook, lightly coat with dizzy cowlick, smoke on the grid for 1 hour at 250, then into a pot of red wine with onion soup mix for 3 hours. .. .[p]so, here's the question. .. .with the snow forcast for tomorrow, the event may be postponed, but i won't know for sure till about 10 am tomorrow morning. . .if i coat a brisket with sugar tonight and find out tomorrow there is no event, can i wrap and freeze this 'sugared' brisket? . . when i defrost it will it be ok? . ..[p]thanks in advance. . .

Car Wash Mike

<p />mad max beyond eggdome,[p]Calm down, I've never seen you like this before. I have coated a brisket like this and let set for a day or a two.
Don't freeze, just keep the brisket in the fridge. It will be OKAY.[p]You Okay,[p]CWM

mad max beyond eggdome

but what if they postpone for a week? . ..can i go ahead and freeze it then? . . .your pic, is exactly what i did for my test brisket last weekend. . its amazing, the next morning the sugar is completely melted into the meat. .. .[p]btw, its been a crazy day or two. ..sydney got sick yesterday and ended up spending last night in the hospital. .she is home now and ok, but with her diabetes, when she gets a stomach ailment, we can't fool around with it. ... seems she only had a virus or something, but she was pretty miserable yesterday, and then got dehydrated. . .so i was back and forth to the hospital all afternoon and evening yesterday, and then again today, till i got her home around 5:00. . ..so i guess i may be still a little jumpy. . ..[p]oh boy, and now we are lookin at 4 - 9 inches of snow tomorrow, which will paralyze this area, and we are having my dad's 80th birthday party on sunday. . .my wyoming connection sister is due in tomorrow at 5:00. . .we'll see if she makes it or not. ..gonna be quite a weekend. . .

Car Wash Mike

mad max beyond eggdome,
Yea the sugar is gone. I would cook and save.
Food saver. I've never frozen one. I told you before that I get worried when you don't post. Sydney is at risk all the time.[p]Can you give that girl a hug from me tonight?[p]
CWM[p]

mad max beyond eggdome

Car Wash Mike,
based on latest national weather service report, i'm not gonna break the brisket out of the cryovac tonight. ..if i find out the competition is still on in the morning, then i'll got to plan B, whatever that is. . .. [p]just crawled through the debris field that is sydney's bedroom to give her a hug from you (let me tell you, i'm taking my life in my hands whenever i go in there. ..its a known fact that both jimmy hoffa and amelia earheart are burried in there. ..she said to say "thanks car wash mike". . .not to worry, she'll be ok. . .just another bump in the road of life around here. . ..

Car Wash Mike

mad max beyond eggdome,
It still scares me when you don't post.[p]Jimmy Hoffa is still alive in Siciliy and Ameila is still trying to land a plane in Kansas.[p]So glad everything turned out good.
When does someone from the Mad Max household give us pic of Sydneys performance. I'm really PO'd I did not get a pic of her in her outfit for the performance. [p]CWM

mad max beyond eggdome

Car Wash Mike,
give me about 10 minutes, i'll have a pic for you. . .

mad max beyond eggdome

Car Wash Mike,
while we weren't allowed to take pics during the performance (this was a professional theater, copyright issues, etc). ..here is a pic of sydney with some of her cast mates .. .as the witch that casts the spell, turning the prince into the beast, the way they achieved the affect was to have sydney come out on stage wrapped in this large black cloak. ..when it comes time to cast the spell, she spreads her arms wide, and the two little "imps" come out from under her cloak (you really couldn't see them at all until this point) and while sydney casts the spell, they run around the prince and put hairy gloves and mask on him, turning him into the beast . .the 'wolf' behind her is another cast member and good friend of her's. . ..[p][p]so there you have it. ..she really did a great job, and they had great crowds (the theater group is usually happy with crowds of 300 - 350 and they had two performances over 400 and two that were sellouts (over 700 people). ..so it really was great for her and the theater group. . .

Car Wash Mike

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]Thank you so much for sharing with me. I had no idea what Sydney was doing.[p]Pump your chest and be proud. Tell Sydney I'm very proud of her. [p]Those are great pics.[p]Mike

HolySmokes

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]fingers crossed for you, and do
let us know how it all comes out![p]best,
HS

mad max beyond eggdome

Car Wash Mike,
oh, i was very proud of her. . .not only did she do a great job in her roll (after beauty, her's is probably the most important female roll in the show), i heard from so many of the other kid's parents, as well as the theater staff, how great she was with the other kids. . .when the director was recognizing each kid at the cast party, sydney got probably the loudest ovation from her castmates, and as i told her later, that may have been the best thing of all, because it demonstrated how well liked and respected she was by her castmates, not necessarily because of her acting ability, but more so for the person she is, and it just doesn't get any better than that. ..[p]i'll email you a couple of more pics next week from the office where i have the high speed server access. ...[p]thx again[p]max

Citizen Q

mad max beyond eggdome,
That recipe looks like a winner! If you get cancelled tomorrow, you might try throwing it in the smoker as planned, then wrap it up tight and place it in the meat keeper with the switch to its coldest setting if the rain date would be only a week away. Or you could just continue the cook, enjoy it yourself and start a fresh one when needed.
A couple of suggestions to tweak the recipe a bit though; onions, onions, onions, and braise it, don't boil. Place it in a pan at least 1" deep with enough liquid to cover about halfway up the side of the brisket, and smother it with sliced vidalias. Baste regularly, the onions will break down, thicken and sweeten the gravy. The braised brisket will be much, much more tender than if you simmer it in a pot.[p]Good Luck,
C~Q

mad max beyond eggdome

Citizen Q,
thanks. . .actually, and to clarify. . after smoking in the egg for the 1st hour, it goes into a pot with the red wine poured about 1/2 to 3/4 up the side of the meat. .i add the onion soup mix on top of the meat, then let cook in the egg at 300 degrees uncovered for 1 more hour. ..then i add a big batch of pre-blanched pearl onions and baby carrots, cover tightly and cook for two more hours. . ..vidalias would also be good. ..the trick here is to give the crowd (basically the temple congregants) a brisket that they are familiar with, only better. . .i have been doing this now for a year or so with my relatives at big jewish holiday meals, and everyone loves it. . . .[p]thx again. .. looks like we will be postponed though. .. bummer. . .[p]max

Unknown

mad max,
Sounds like you got it all under control, I'm gonna try to get my wife to add your sugar coat and red wine to her brisket sometime soon. I love hers, but her dad always makes brisket for the Jewish holidays and it's a shame because he's forgotten how to do it right. I always tell him that nobody dries out a brisket quite the way he does, and he takes it as a compliment.
Incidently, his last name is Cook, so I always tell people that my wife used to be a good Cook, but now she's just a mediocre McCabe.[p]Cheers,
C~Q

Bobby-Q

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]All that recipe needs is some cheese!![p]Sorry, couldn't resist. I worked in a Jewish retirement center and I use to taunt the Mashgiach and the Cantor with that all the time. They always replied back with "One day we'll fix you a nice cold kaseer" It wasn't until about 3 months after I left there that I found out what that was...I went back and they got a good laugh at my new found knowledge.[p]lol

Chuck

mad max beyond eggdome,[p]I hope Spawn is feeling better this morning. Scary when you kid gets sick huh. Wish her a quick recovery for me.[p]Heading out to the meat market in a few minutes and think I might pick up a brisket and give your "jewish pot roast style" recipe a try. Cathy loves brisket and pot roast so I might kill two birds with one stone here. One question, so far, how much do you trim your brisket. I would think that you need little or no fat cap for this cook but I am not sure.[p]We are in line for 12"-15" of snow here now. I assume is won't be to nice down your way either. Be safe...you can stay in tomorrow and watch the Eagles win.[p]Oh and a little late for your question, I have frozen rubbed briskets, foodsavered, with fine results. [p]Have a great weekend.[p]Chuck [p]

mad max beyond eggdome

Chuck,
thanks, i'll pass on the well wishes to sydney. ..she seemed fine when she went to bed last night, so i really think it was just a 24 hour virus kind of thing, but yep, it is scary any time she gets sick and her body chemistry gets out of wack. . ..[p]for the brisket, i usually buy flats that are pretty well trimmed, but i leave a litte fat cap on, the juices then mix well with the wine to make great 'gravy' for the meat. . .the other key, is when you seal it up for the last two hours, make sure it is sealed really tight (i usually use a double layer of HDAF. ..you don't want to lose the wine through evaporation, you want it all in the pot steaming up the meat. . .also, right before i seal it up, i add some more wine to replace whatever did evaporate during the hour it was in the pot with no cover on it. . .[p]so, 1 hour on the grate at 250 to smoke
1 hour in pot with wine and onion soup mix uncovered
2 hours in pot (add carrots and pearl onions) w/ a little more wine and sealed tight. . ..[p]when you slice this brisket, slice it really thin (not like a texas smoked brisket), then put it in a serving dish and pour all the reserved juice/carrots/onions all over it. ..[p]good luck to the eagles tomorrow. ..as a diehard skins fan, i hate em, but i'll root for em tomorrow . ..

mad max beyond eggdome

C~Q,
LMAO. . .yep for some reason, as they get older, the meat gets tougher .. .i'm kinda glad mom is now letting me do the briskets for the various holidays. . .the torch has been passed!! . .