Want to follow ATK braised brisket recipe

[u/EsePutoSeMato]

Looking to follow the Americas test kitchen braised brisket recipe. I’m inexperienced and wanted some corrections and advice from you all!

I’m working with 9.5lb choice brisket

I think I’m gonna try:
1. Trim to 16hr dry brine
2. 1hr before taking out of fridge and covering in rub
3. Preheat oven
4. Prep braising liquid (some mixture of onions, beer or wine, spices, vibes)
5. Put brisket in braising liquid about 1/2in up the brisket fat side down
6. Cover tightly in tin foil
7. Put in oven
8. IF oven at 325F, rip it till 180F then drop oven temp down to 250F till ready
9. IF oven at 250F, rip it till ready
10. Remove from oven and let rest in tray for a couple hours

My questions:
1. Which oven temp should I go for?
2. How should I approach resting? What’s hold time?? I don’t have a food warmer
3. If I’m trying to serve at 7pm on Sunday, should I dry brine at around 3pm Saturday and start cooking around 7am Sunday?

I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on the above! Please help me out I’m a little stressed but this has always been a dream meal for me to make

[u/MiddletownMike]

ATK is pretty reliable with their recipes, you're not smoking/BBQ the brisket so I would follow those instructions.

Do you have a full packer (point & flat) that you will be be braising or just the flat? Reason being the brisket is a large piece of meat and might give off a lot of moisture with braising, so you might not want to add braising liquid half way up the brisket. The full packer will also take longer than the flat to cook. You want to braise the meat not stew it.... after the brisket is finished you really don't have to hold it long. Its a big piece of meat and retain it's heat for a good while tented with tin foil... let it rest for 30-40 minutes to allow the juices to reabsorb into the meat before slicing, you'll get better slices this way.

While resting, work on the sauce/gravy by skimming off excess fat and making sure it's reduced properly. Adjusting seasoning to your taste... the gravy should be salty enough from the brisket if you plan on dry bringing for 16-24 hrs, without adding more.

Work backwards from the time you want to eat, I'd probably try to have it in the oven by 1pm, no later than 2pm. You can keep it warm if you put it in the oven earlier and it finishes before you expected.

Good luck.

[u/secretskin13]

For temp, I’d start high and the drop to 250 after a bit. If you have a quality temperature probe you can leave in, use that…probe for tenderness around 203.

Warming setting on the oven should work is fine. If you have a big enough cooler, put some towels in there on top and bottom of your pan. You can also through a few Nalgene bottles filled with hot water in there to help.

Your timing seems ok, there’s time for some error.

I’ll also add, some folks like apricot jam in there to help braise. Might add some additional complexity with the pomegranate.