Like any good piece of meat (especially large cuts) a good rest after cooking will definitely benefit the meat. If you cut into the meat right after cooking it will be way too hot to eat and you will lose a ton of the juices. A nice rest gives the meat time to cool, time to relax, and also time to cook a bit more.
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I usually like to rest my briskets 2-4 hours before eating. When I take them off the cooker I will wrap them in butcher paper if I haven’t already wrapped, wrap them in a few towels, and then put them in a cooler. A brisket can keep for 8+ hours in a cooler but I think that long of a rest starts to degrade the quality of the meat.
The 2-4 (or more) hour rest in the cooler gives you a lot of leeway while cooking. If your brisket is cooking really slow or really fast you will have a nice built in buffer. You don’t want people showing up for dinner at 6 when you are still trying to get the brisket finished. I would rather have a brisket be done 6 hours early than 10 minutes late.
If your brisket gets done late or the crowd shows up early you can just rest your brisket for about an hour wrapped in paper and sitting on the table or the counter. The goal is to have the meat in the 140-160 range when you are slicing and eating.
Don’t skip the rest! This is a very important part of smoking your brisket and too short of a rest will give you bad results. So plan on a minimum of an hour rest (wrapped in paper and on the counter) and if you need to hold it longer than that wrap it in paper then some towels and give it a few hours in the cooler.
12 Commonly Asked Questions About Brisket
- What is a brisket?
- Where can I buy a brisket?
- What should I look for when buying a brisket?
- How big of a brisket should I buy?
- How should I trim a brisket?
- How should I season my brisket?
- What type of wood should I use when smoking brisket?
- What temperature should I cook my brisket at?
- How long should I cook a brisket?
- Should I wrap my brisket?
- How long should I rest my brisket?
- How should I slice my brisket?
