Freezing whole smoked brisket

WannaBePitMaster · Joined: 01 Jul 2014 Posts: 8

A guy that my wife works with wants me to smoke him a brisket for Thanksgiving. The issue is that with my wife's travel schedule, this weekend is the best time to smoke it and deliver it to him in time. The obvious wrinkle is that Thanksgiving is still a couple weeks away. So, I'm trying to figure out if he can freeze it whole and defrost/reheat on Thanksgiving. So, how would y'all handle this?

Ken in Maine · Newbie Joined: 18 Jan 2014 Posts: 40

We smoke several thousand pounds of brisket each year. I don't think you'd get a good result by freezing it whole. My suggestion would be to slice it, add some liquid and freeze it that way. It thaws well and reheats nicely. I don't even purchase whole brisket that has been frozen... it just doesn't process well.

Snowsmoke · Posted: Nov 14 2019 Post subject:

The only way I have had any luck doing this is by not smoking it up to the proper temp. Take it to roughly 170 and let is cool to room temp, wrap in plastic, then zip lock it into the freezer.

To reheat, pan it with some low sodium beef stock and put it in around 300 degrees to "finish" smoking. Far from right off the smoker but gets the job done in a pinch.
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