this sunday, i'm having a bunch of folks over. i only have a weber 21
inch kettle. i'll be making a brisket and a butt, both for
sandwiches. obviously, both wont fit on the grill to cook at the
same time. i'll need to do one the day before i supose. so my
question is...

which should i do the day before, the brisket or the butt? when you
provide your thoughts, please tell me why you chose the order. my
main concern is keeping the quality high on the one i have to do the
day before. i want to be able to re-heat it well and not dry it out.

thanks...

scott

salchichon wrote:
this sunday, i'm having a bunch of folks over. i only have a weber 21
inch kettle. i'll be making a brisket and a butt, both for
sandwiches. obviously, both wont fit on the grill to cook at the
same time. i'll need to do one the day before i supose. so my
question is...

which should i do the day before, the brisket or the butt? when you
provide your thoughts, please tell me why you chose the order. my
main concern is keeping the quality high on the one i have to do the
day before. i want to be able to re-heat it well and not dry it out.

thanks...

scott

Doesn't matter. Which ever you cook first, store overnight (in the 'fridge) in
a Foodsaver (or similar) bag (sliced or pulled), then put the bag in boiling
water *about* an hour, until it's hot through.

Best of luck, you'll do fine.

BOB

On 23 May 2004 15:16:04 -0700, (salchichon)
wrote:

this sunday, i'm having a bunch of folks over. i only have a weber 21
inch kettle. i'll be making a brisket and a butt, both for
sandwiches. obviously, both wont fit on the grill to cook at the
same time. i'll need to do one the day before i supose. so my
question is...

which should i do the day before, the brisket or the butt? when you
provide your thoughts, please tell me why you chose the order. my
main concern is keeping the quality high on the one i have to do the
day before. i want to be able to re-heat it well and not dry it out.


If it wasn't for your concern about reheating, I would say do the
brisket first because brisket timing is a little more mysterious than
butt timing. That's been my experience, anyway. Brisket truly embodies
the maxim that "it's done when it's done." I'd be afraid of having a
bunch of hungry people waiting for the brisket.

That said, I also think the butt will reheat better than the brisket,
which might dry out on you if you're not careful. Cook the butt and
pull it. 3-4 hours before dinner, put the pulled pork in a large crock
pot or portable roaster oven. Give it some liberal squirts of North
Carolina sauce and warm it up on low. I've done this many times when
feeding the crew at work or when feeding family. You lose the drama of
hauling those big chunks of meat off the cooker and watching it fall
apart, but it's a low-stress alternative to eating at midnight because
the butt hung at 165 for hours and hours.

--
Kevin S. Wilson
Tech Writer at a university somewhere in Idaho
"Who put these fingerprints on my imagination?"

What he said.

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Louis Cohen
Living la vida loca at N37° 43' 7.9" W122° 8' 42.8"


"Kevin S. Wilson" wrote in message
...
On 23 May 2004 15:16:04 -0700, (salchichon)
wrote:

this sunday, i'm having a bunch of folks over. i only have a weber 21
inch kettle. i'll be making a brisket and a butt, both for
sandwiches. obviously, both wont fit on the grill to cook at the
same time. i'll need to do one the day before i supose. so my
question is...

which should i do the day before, the brisket or the butt? when you
provide your thoughts, please tell me why you chose the order. my
main concern is keeping the quality high on the one i have to do the
day before. i want to be able to re-heat it well and not dry it out.


If it wasn't for your concern about reheating, I would say do the
brisket first because brisket timing is a little more mysterious than
butt timing. That's been my experience, anyway. Brisket truly embodies
the maxim that "it's done when it's done." I'd be afraid of having a
bunch of hungry people waiting for the brisket.

That said, I also think the butt will reheat better than the brisket,
which might dry out on you if you're not careful. Cook the butt and
pull it. 3-4 hours before dinner, put the pulled pork in a large crock
pot or portable roaster oven. Give it some liberal squirts of North
Carolina sauce and warm it up on low. I've done this many times when
feeding the crew at work or when feeding family. You lose the drama of
hauling those big chunks of meat off the cooker and watching it fall
apart, but it's a low-stress alternative to eating at midnight because
the butt hung at 165 for hours and hours.

--
Kevin S. Wilson
Tech Writer at a university somewhere in Idaho
"Who put these fingerprints on my imagination?"

salchichon wrote:
which should i do the day before, the brisket or the butt?

Either way is ok but IMO, I'd do the brisket the day before. Like
beans or soup, brisket's always better the next day.

--
-frohe
Life is too short to be in a hurry

" BOB" wrote in message ...
salchichon wrote:
this sunday, i'm having a bunch of folks over. i only have a weber 21
inch kettle. i'll be making a brisket and a butt, both for
sandwiches. obviously, both wont fit on the grill to cook at the
same time. i'll need to do one the day before i supose. so my
question is...

which should i do the day before, the brisket or the butt? when you
provide your thoughts, please tell me why you chose the order. my
main concern is keeping the quality high on the one i have to do the
day before. i want to be able to re-heat it well and not dry it out.

thanks...

scott

Doesn't matter. Which ever you cook first, store overnight (in the 'fridge) in
a Foodsaver (or similar) bag (sliced or pulled), then put the bag in boiling
water *about* an hour, until it's hot through.

Best of luck, you'll do fine.

BOB


bob...

i think i'm going to try it your way.

slice the brisky before i put it in the foodsaver bags eh? i assume i
pour all the juices in also? should i pack in some of the fat to keep
it moist during the reheat?

thanks...

scott

"frohe" wrote in message ...
salchichon wrote:
which should i do the day before, the brisket or the butt?

Either way is ok but IMO, I'd do the brisket the day before. Like
beans or soup, brisket's always better the next day.


all...

here's what i did, and thanks for your inputs...

as i live in the midwest, spring is tornado season. the weather folks
predicted the end of the world practically for sunday here. i was
scared i wouldn't get anything done outdoors so i cooked both the
brisket and the butt on sat, the day before the party. i did the
brisket first, then the butt. and yes the weather got really crappy.
tornado sirens make lovely background sound for a party.

i cooked and sliced the brisket, then put the slices (with alot of the
drippings and much of the fat cap) in food-sealer bags over night. i
cooked the butt next and just cut it into 4 big chunks (no fat or skin
trimmed off), and put those into a bag also (along with the juice).

the next day, i put the bags into big pots of boiling water and
reheated that way. i let them go for about 45 mins. i
pulled/shredded/chopped the pork after the warm-up.

the only thing i lost was the bark around the butt. after reheating
in the bag, the bark got real soft and mushy. totally unuseable as
"brownies" in the pile of shredded pork. if i have to do this again,
i'll prepare "brownies" after taking the butrt off the bbq, then store
that seperately and mix them in when i pull the pork after the reheat.

all in all, i think i recovered well under the conditions i had to
work in. everyone was very complimentary of the brisket and butt.

i used alot of the tips i learned reading in this forum. thanks for
your inputs...

scott