Letters to Dutch · A reader confesses · Write in and yours may be next →
A brisket needs an hour of rest at the very least, and two to four is where most of them land. Held right, it is better at hour four than hour one.
Letters to Dutch · a packer on an offset
How long do you rest a brisket?
A brisket needs at least one hour of rest, and two to four hours is typical. To hold it longer, vent it until the middle reads about 170°F, wrap it, and keep it at 150 to 160°F for up to eight hours. Never let it fall below 140°F and then reheat it.
Dear Dutch,
I never thought I would be writing to you about this. I am sixty-two, retired off the railroad, and I have cooked one brisket a year for my daughter’s birthday since 2011. She turned thirty-eight this year.
This year she moved the party to noon, so I started the brisket at eight the night before and planned on eleven hours with it. I have never once had a brisket finish early on me.
It finished at three in the morning.
The probe went in at 201 like it was going into a jar of peanut butter, no resistance anywhere, and I stood there in the dark with nine hours to fill and no idea on earth what to do with it. I thought about putting it in the refrigerator. I thought about waking my wife.
I am still not sure why I did not just call somebody.
What I did was leave it in the oven turned off with the door cracked open, and by seven it had gone cold enough that I panicked and ran the oven back up and put it back in there. It came to the table dry on the flat and I could taste that I had had it twice. Nobody said anything. My daughter said it was good.
I have a cook in November and I would rather not do that again.
— Walt, Moline
Letters may be edited for length and clarity. Names and towns have been changed.
A brisket needs an hour of rest at the very least, two to four is where most of them land, and it will lie there happily for eight or more if you hold it right. You had all the time in the world with that brisket.
What you did instead was cool it down in a warm oven with the door hanging open, which is the one thing never to do. A finished brisket wants to be held hot. It does not want to be let go cold and then worked back up.
Vent it on the counter until the middle reads about 170, then wrap it and put it in an oven set to its lowest setting. 150 to 160 is the window. A cooler packed with towels buys you four or five hours if your oven will not go that low. Just never let it coast down through 140 and then climb back.
Dutch
How long do you rest a brisket?
One hour is the minimum. Two to four hours is where most briskets land. Held properly, a brisket is better at eight hours than it is at two, which is why every barbecue joint in Texas finishes overnight and holds until the doors open.
The rest is not idle time. The muscle fibers relax and reabsorb the juice that the cook pushed out of them, and the rendered fat redistributes through the flat. Cut too early and that liquid ends up on the board.
To hold longer than a couple of hours, vent the brisket on the counter until the internal temperature falls to about 170°F, then wrap it and hold it at 150 to 160°F in an oven, a warming drawer or a holding cabinet. A dry cooler lined with towels holds a wrapped brisket above 140°F for four to five hours.
The thing to avoid is the middle: letting it fall through 140°F and then reheating. That is a food safety problem and it cooks the flat a second time.
| Rest | What you get |
|---|---|
| 1 hour | The minimum before slicing |
| 2–4 hours | Where most cooks land |
| 4–8 hours at 150–160°F | Better than at two hours |
| Cooler with towels | 4–5 hours above 140°F |
Vent to 170°F before you wrap for a long hold, or the brisket keeps cooking.
Stay a While Longer
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