I got my Anova Nano back at Christmas to merge sous vide and barbecue. Someone here in a barbecue thread (sorry, I forget whom) mentioned a medium rare brisket; sous vide at 135 for a long time (48 hours or more) then finish in the smoker.
My local place didn’t have a full packer brisket (again), so I got what they had - a flat.
I basically followed this recipe:
It has two approaches: the first is that 135 for a long time - up to 72 hours. They say that gives a more “steak like” texture. 155 for 24-36 hours is more like the traditional Texas barbecue texture, which is what I was after. So I did a sous vide cook @ 155 for 36 hours, then rubbed it again and smoked for 4 hours in my electric smoker. (Masterbuilt - these are just called ‘Masterbuilt Electric Smoker’ or MES in some of the barbecue forums) I used about 3/4 pecan wood and 1/4 hickory, but that was because I was lower on hickory than I thought. I would have gone half of each if I had more hickory.
The second rub (after pulling the bags from the hot water and soaking in ice water) looks granular in the picture, rather than a nice bark. I need to figure out how to make the bark come out better.
As for the brisket itself, awesome results! Falls apart easily, excellent texture.
