holding warm, butts and brisket

bigmikej

Well my "butts and brisket" cook is going well, too well! The (2) 8lb butts have been on almost 12 hrs and are already at 185-190 internal. The brisket has been on about 3.5 hrs and is at 159 internal. I have tried to get the dome temp down to slow them some, but assuming these babies are done 6-8 hrs early, what is the best way to keep them, or will I have to reheat? I have done the foil, towels, cooler thing before and it worked for 4 hrs, but how much longer could they go? Please give advice, including refidgerating/reheating instructions if necessary. Man do they ever smell good![p]Thanks![p]mike

Stogie

bigmikej,[p]Here is a tip for extending the warming times for the coolers........use SMALL coolers. Any air space in the cooler is bad. So, use either a smaller one OR fill the bottom of the cooler up with newspapers/towels/blankets, etc.[p]Then you can place the same "fillers" on top of the meat.[p]Another thing I have done with butts is to wrap in foil once they hit your temp. Then, close all the vents on your cooker and place the butt back into the cooker. I have held butts like this for 6 hours and the resulting pork was awesome.....very little fat left in the meat. Now, I use a WSM and they cool quicker than the egg, so plan accordingly.[p]I would not recommend doing this with the brisket....it sounds like that will be done much later than the butt, so wrapping in foil and storing is your best bet.[p]You may want to add some beef broth to the brisket before wrapping and foiling.[p]Stogie

bigmikej

Stogie,
Thanks for the advice! I have the dome temp down to about 225 or so and the internal temps on both haven't moved since. Hopefully I can ride this out for at least a couple of hours, then use the cooler technique until the brisket is done. At that time, I can take it off and wrap in foil, while I put the butts back on the now shut down egg. Man, I can't wait till dinner tonight!

KennyG

bigmikej,[p]Although your butts seem to be moving along quickly, I would not worry about the brisket just yet, It still has a looooooooong way to go. Plenty of good advice has appeared on holding the butts. [p]I predict that although the brisket might get into the 160s* or so, it will stall there for hours while the colagen breaks down. Might even fall back into the high 150s internal before the internal temp starts to rise again.[p]Sure wish I was a guest at your event!![p]K~G