Wet Aging Brisket

[BGKYSmoker]

Might as well try it.

Leave the brisket in the cryovac bag.

Note the sell by or pack date on the label. Wrap the cryovac brisket in brown paper bags or brown butcher paper. Mark the sell/pack date and the wrap date. I'm going for 40/45 days. Put the brisket in your fridge.

BBL

 

[chilerelleno]

Watching

 

[thirdeye]

I can't see the details on your label, but I've never seen one that listed the kill date (pack date), that information is typically on the cases themselves. For wet aging a brisket you need the kill date and here is why.... Beef in the walk in cooler can be held a pretty long time since they might be 31° or so. Once they move meat from the cooler to the meat case, a label is printed and the sell-by or use-by date is calculated. The store is assuming your home fridge is ~40° and beef won't hold very long at that temp, so the use-by date is 4 or 5 days out. Here is where the gray area comes into play... It's possible a case of brisket has a kill date of 14 days ago depending on how fast they are selling. You might not want to add another 45 days to that especially if your aging fridge is 35° or higher. Or, it's possible the brisket came from a newer case and only has 5 or 6 days of aging on it.

Once I tell them I'm wet aging a brisket, my Sam's Club will tell me the kill dates on the cases stored in the walk in, and then let me choose from those. Then they take them in back and print labels. One summer we were buying a case of brisket and two cases of butts. They actually wet aged the full case for us, and I picked it up with about 30 days of age on it.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Watching new to me procedure. Interesting facts going on here no injection or anything Rick.

Warren

 

[sandyut]

Im in for the ride on this one too.

 

[chilerelleno]

I can't see the details on your label, but I've never seen one that listed the kill date (pack date), that information is typically on the cases themselves. For wet aging a brisket you need the kill date and here is why.... Beef in the walk in cooler can be held a pretty long time since they might be 31° or so. Once they move meat from the cooler to the meat case, a label is printed and the sell-by or use-by date is calculated. The store is assuming your home fridge is ~40° and beef won't hold very long at that temp, so the use-by date is 4 or 5 days out. Here is where the gray area comes into play... It's possible a case of brisket has a kill date of 14 days ago depending on how fast they are selling. You might not want to add another 45 days to that especially if your aging fridge is 35° or higher. Or, it's possible the brisket came from a newer case and only has 5 or 6 days of aging on it.

Once I tell them I'm wet aging a brisket, my Sam's Club will tell me the kill dates on the cases stored in the walk in, and then let me choose from those. Then they take them in back and print labels. One summer we were buying a case of brisket and two cases of butts. They actually wet aged the full case for us, and I picked it up with about 30 days of age on it.

Very good informative, I learned something new, thanks.

 

[BGKYSmoker]

A wally brisket.
Im just going the way im going. My fridge is 35* anything colder my insulin will damage and thats more important than a hunk of meat

 

[thirdeye]

A wally brisket.
Im just going the way im going. My fridge is 35* anything colder my insulin will damage and thats more important than a hunk of meat

Time and temp are your friends, your objective is to allow the enzymes in the meat to naturally break down the protein strands. During this process you can expect to see bubbles form in the cryo, this is normal. If you happen to get into a spoiling situation you will know it immediately upon opening. I cut a small slit about 1" long and do a test sniff. I've wet aged a lot of briskets and never had one turn, but it happens. You will notice a distinct gamy smell, but it dissipates in a few minutes.