A reader asked about how I reheat meat. I’m no fan of the microwave for anything. In fact, the first thing we did when we moved in here was remove it from over the stove, put in a regular vent hood and stuck a small microwave on a shelf in the laundry room. Vince uses it some but I can’t tell you the last time I used the microwave.
As far as reheating meat, I struggle with that too. I do not like meat to taste like “reheated meat”.
For reheating brisket, mostly I put about 1/4 cup of water or apple juice in a pot, add the meat, cover and simmer til hot, then remove the lid and cook out the liquid. Also, if the meat seems to be drying out from being in the fridge or freezer, I will add about half a tablespoon of butter. At this point, I will usually add just a tiny little bit of BBQ sauce if desired. More BBQ sauce will be served at the table. The amount of butter or BBQ sauce depends on how much meat I’m reheating but if it’s 5 or 6 slices .. enough for the two of us for a meal, I’ll add maybe 1 tablespoon of BBQ sauce.
Also, I have an electric steamer and it works great for reheating meat.
Depending on what I’m making, I may simply reheat the brisket with whatever I’m cooking. If I’m making a hash like dish, I’ll cook the potatoes and when they’re almost done, throw in the brisket. If I’m serving it over baked potatoes, right before the potatoes are done, I’ll wrap some of the brisket in foil and stick it in the oven with the potatoes. A lot of times, if I’m reheating it in foil in the oven, I’ll add some sliced onions. The onions won’t get tender but the liquid from them will add flavor to the meat.
Another thing I do is this: Once the brisket is done, as I slice it to serve it, I will remove almost all the fat and portions of the meat that is too fatty to serve. I put that in small zipper bags, then put those bags into a larger zipper bag and stick it in the freezer. When I’m cooking beans, whether dry beans or beans from the garden – any beans that I want to have a bit of a smoky flavor, I’ll grab a little bag or two of the fatty meat, depending on how much beans I’m cooking, toss it in with the beans for flavor.
Brisket Fat
You can see the pile of fat I’ve pulled off. Just a little of that goes a long way towards seasoning beans so that little pile in the photo would be divided up into 5 or 6 small bags for seasoning. As I get into the section that has more meat but still more fat than I want to serve, I’ll put bigger chunks of that into the beans.
montanaclarks says
Michael’s son will not eat leftovers–his dear departed wife did not train him correctly–and they throw away an embarrassing amount of food at that house. He will cook 6 huge tenderloin filet steaks for 5 people, Mike and I split one, someone else only eats half–if I’m not watching, he will throw all that expensive meat away at the end of a meal. His daughter learned this awful habit from her dad–I asked her once why they did this and her answer, “I don’t like meat reheated in the microwave.” I replied, “neither do I!!! Heat it in a pot or wrap it in foil and heat it in the oven. Kids!!!
Linda in NE says
I’d rather eat most meat cold rather than reheated.
It took me years and years to get my husband to accept that pizza is food. Had to train him that onion makes food more flavorful….his mother only used a tiny bit of salt for seasoning….she was positive that anything else caused ulcers and there was no convincing her otherwise.
Libby in TN says
I slice, wrap in foil, sometimes with added gravy or broth, and put in the toaster oven @ 300 for about 1 hour — well heated, not overdone.
Tee says
I reheat meat in my instant pot. If it is already kind of wet, like sloppy joes, I just put it in without the steamer. If it is not wet, I put it on the steamer and put just a bit of water or broth (if I have it handy), on the bottom. For both, I just pressure cook for 5 minutes and let it naturally pressure release.
Diane in CA says
I LOVE my microwave. Bless the people who invented it.. !
patti says
the thing that really jumped out at me… “Also, if the meat seems to be drying out from being in the fridge or freezer, I will add about half a tablespoon of butter.” this tip will really help me out a lot, especially during the summer when reheating in the oven is often out of the question. i’m definitely going to have to try this the next time i add a bit of water (or juice) to a pan for reheating! thank you so much also for the brisket fat use, it’s just become smoking weather in our neck of the woods.