For Thanksgiving, I was planning on slow-cooking a brisket in a smoker. However, I have learned somewhat last minute that instead of my family coming to my place for dinner, I will be going to their place. The issue is that we live roughly 6-7 hours apart by car.
So my question is this: can I do a partial cook in the smoker, then chill the brisket back down and put it in a cooler for transport, then finish the cooking there in a Crock Pot? Most places I've looked at on Google talks about cold-smoking the brisket, but I don't have time to go through that whole process (I leave early Wednesday morning and smoking there isn't an option).
My concerns:
- Partially cooking the meat then cooling it back down will cause it to go dry and/or chewy.
- I'd rather not fully refreeze the meat during transport (and I doubt I have time to anyway), but bringing it to fridge temps might result in it sweating during refrigeration and/or transport, damaging the crust and reducing or eliminating the flavor of the smoke.
- Bringing the meat back and forth through the danger zone a minimum of three times may result in the meat being unsafe to eat.
Is there a way to do this in a way that is safe and retains the flavor (within reason), or should I just forget about it and settle for liquid smoke or something?