52 hours in refrigerator: too much for brisket?

November 23, 2015 7:58 PM

Removed brisket from vacuum pack this AM, put it in roasting pan with dry rub, onions, and marinadey type ingredients, left in refrigerator, intended Spouse to start roasting it midday. Due to a mixup, that didn't happen.

So I said fine, we'll make it tomorrow. But tomorrow only half the family will be home for dinner. OK to hold it in the fridge another day, i.e., 2 full days plus a few hours from the time of unsealing? Right now it's in a foil-covered pan...maybe better to decant into a big ziploc until roasting time? I can also just roast it tomorrow and feed it to the rest of the family as leftovers.

posted by lakeroon to Food & Drink (4 answers total)

Best answer: Raw non-ground beef is generally fine for four or five days, so you should be OK (ground meat is only good for a couple of days, but whole pieces of meat are generally fine for way longer). That being said, depending on the recipe you might want to make it tomorrow and serve it the day after anyway - I always find that cooked brisket tastes better after it's spent a day in the fridge, though that might depend on the recipe.
posted by Itaxpica at 8:01 PM on November 23, 2015

Best answer: Another thing to consider would be whether spending that long in contact with dry rub + onions + etc will have an adverse affect on the flavour. I'd vote for roasting now; like Itaxpica says, brisket is better a day after cooking.
posted by quaking fajita at 8:53 PM on November 23, 2015

Best answer: It would be fine to roast the day after tomorrow, but I agree with the Mefites above, the flavor will continue to improve if you cook it tomorrow, making Wednesday's serving ideal.
posted by quince at 8:57 PM on November 23, 2015

Response by poster: Thank you all! The consensus is clear. In it goes.
posted by lakeroon at 3:33 AM on November 24, 2015