The best ways to reheat your brisket

We can assure you, or anyone at this point, that brisket is one of the most challenging pieces of beef. To cook it right needs a lot of patience, so perhaps most cooks avoid this piece more often than not.

 

But when it is cooked to perfection using a very long and slow cooking process, the tenderness and juiciness of the meat are unmatched. Considered to be a very tender and juicy heaven by most meat lovers, all the hard work is blessed with mouthwatering delight and will leave you satisfied.

 

However, when purchasing and cooking a very large portion of brisket, you might be left with a considerable amount of leftovers that you don't even want to think of throwing away. That's where our handy guide comes in.

 

We ensure that non of the special mouthwatering delight you cook goes to waste. This article explains the best ways to reheat your brisket the right way, leaving you no chance of drying it out or turning it into jerky.

 

The best ways to reheat your brisket

An important thing to note here is that there are many ways to perfectly reheat your brisket and leave you with a good, tender, mouth-melting, and full-of-flavor piece of meat, retaining its original form. 

 

Here are the best ways to reheat your brisket: 

•  Slow cooker- This is an excellent method to reheat your brisket. The only fault is that the meat takes a long time to reheat thoroughly. Cooking it this way generally takes around four hours since it requires you to cook in a low setting.
• Oven- An ideal choice for most cooks with a large piece of leftover brisket. The quality of the meat retains its original form when reheated in an oven.
• Air fryer- One of the fastest methods to reheat your brisket compared to the rest. The only drawback to this is that it can very quickly dry out your meat, so adding gravy might do the job in this case.
• Sous Vide machine- An ideal technique for pre-sliced brisket that requires reheating without letting it turn into jerky.

 

These are some of the best ways to reheat your brisket. However, an ideal piece of advice from one meat lover to another would be never to reheat your brisket in a microwave.

 

Your leftover brisket would effortlessly turn rubbery, dry, and unappetizing since the microwave is built to turn water molecules into steam and, in the process, suck out all the moisture from your meat.

 

So, here are the step-by-step instructions on the best ways to reheat your brisket mentioned above.

 

Reheating your brisket in a slow cooker

As we've mentioned, reheating your brisket in a slow cooker might not be as ideal as the other methods since this takes way more time, but patience is vital. This process delivers excellent results like making your brisket generously juicy and tender. 

 

1. Prepping the meat- Before sending your brisket into the slow cooker, the ideal way is to let it rest for about 30 minutes, ensuring that the meat reaches room temperature. Your meat is ready for slow-cooking once it does.
2. Slap it inside the Crockpot- After your meat has attained the perfect room temperature; the only step is to place it inside the slow cooker hastily. If it doesn't fit, slice it into thick chunky pieces of meat.
3. Adding moisture is ideal- The ideal way to save your meat from being chewy is to add moisture. You can add all the leftover juices and drippings into the Crockpot or add beef stock or apple juice. 
4. Cooking and waiting- Slow cooking at around 185-200 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal for getting that perfect reheating. Once you're done cooking at approximately four complete hours, for extra flavor and juiciness, you can shift the meat to a sheet of tinfoil, splash some dripping onto it and wrap it up for 10 minutes and voila, a whole extra juicy and tender meat just waiting to be demolished.

 

Reheating your brisket in an oven

 

1. Preheating the oven before the fight- the ideal temperature to set to reheat your brisket is 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Not more, not less, since the meat will lose its moisture if you crank the heat up anymore. 
2. Prepping the meat- Before letting your meat go to war, you need to place it somewhere for 30 minutes to attain room temperature. This helps the meat to reheat evenly after popping it in the oven. 
3. Adding your ideal moisture- After successfully preheating the oven and bringing the meat down to room temperature, place the meat in the tray and make sure to add some moisture to it by adding leftover juices or beef stock if there isn't any.
4. Wrapping your meat- A double-layered foil wrapping is essential. You need to wrap the tray tightly and check for zero holes. Then pop it into the oven once you're done with everything.
5. The result is worth the wait- Reheating once it is popped inside the oven takes approximately an hour and 20 minutes. Once your brisket is reheated to perfection, take it out and feast on the deliciousness. 

 

Reheating your brisket in an air fryer

A fast way to reheat your brisket is in an air fryer. Since air fryers use high-powered fans that help them quickly circulate heat directly onto the meat or food, it makes the process faster. It allows it to cook evenly as long as your brisket fits comfortably inside the fryer's basket. 

This is a great way to reheat your brisket if you are completely famished. The only drawback to an air fryer is that your meat may get dried out a bit, so it is better to take precautions and have some warm gravy ready to pour onto it once it's out of the basket.

 

1. Prepping the meat while preheating- The key is to preheat your air fryer to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, all the while making sure that your place the meat somewhere to attain room temperature for even cooking. This usually takes around 30 minutes, as mentioned above.
2. Adding your ideal moisture- Once the meat is placed in an aluminum foil, you can add your leftover juices or the perfect gravy onto the meat and wrap it up. 
3. Put the ready-to-go meat into the air fryer- Place the brisket in the basket and cook it for about 30-40 minutes until the meat is evenly heated. 

 

Reheating your brisket with a Sous Vide machine

Not a simple machine to cook with for your everyday home chefs, but if you have a Sous Vide machine, this is one of the best ways to reheat your brisket. A favorite among professional chefs, this machine makes it easy to reheat meat like brisket without extra cooking.

1. Prep the meat- Let it rest on your counter for 30 minutes until it reaches room temperature.
2. Seal the brisket up- For this method, you need to seal the brisket in a vacuum bag. 
3. Soaking and warming the meat- After you've sealed the brisket, fill the basin of the Sous Vide machine with water and set it to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure the water completely covers the sealed bag.
4. Set the time- This process takes around 5 hours to get completely reheated, but as we mentioned before, good things take time, and patience is worth it. You can also slice the brisket before you start the process if you want to speed up the time.

What is the proper way to store a brisket?

While it takes more space in the freezer and even longer to reheat briskets that are whole and not sliced up, it certainly does an excellent job of retaining all its moisture and juices inside.

 

Using a vacuum-sealed bag is an ideal way of storing your brisket.