Brisket - Smoke one day and oven the next?

I always smoke the briskets and pork butts the day before. Usually I will smoke 6-10 hours then double wrap in foil and add apple juice or another liquid and refrigerate overnight.Then 4-6 hours before I want to eat, I will put in oven at 225-300 degrees to get internal temperature to 203 degrees, then let cool still double wrapped and put in a ice chest wrapped in towels from 1-2 hours. Usually I put in the oven at 7:00 AM then take out of oven at 11:00 AM, put in ice chest and eat at 1:00. This to me makes the brisket and pork butts taste better, like how spaghetti sauce is better the next day. No need to stay up all night to smoke.

David

just cut a corner off before smoking in the direction that is against the grain

Do Just like Shulong6 said.just cut a corner off before smoking in the direction that is against the grain.

Works all the time for me.

Dan

Huge success this past weekend.   I smoked the brisket @ 225 to 165 degrees and wrapped it with a little butter and caught the fat in a drip pan for the duration.  I did let the brisket go all the way to 200 degrees (intended to only go 195).  Took the double wrapped brisket out and let it sit for 1.5 hours then placed it in the fridge with an ice pack to help cool it quicker.  next day, I unwrapped the brisket and sliced while cold as I thought I could get thinner cleaner slices.   I placed the sliced brisket in an aluminum pan with the fat I caught the day before and added about 1/2 cup  of beef broth and 1/2 cup of my favorite mop sauce with some thick sliced onion on top.   Then placed it on the grill @ about 250-300 for 1.5 hours just till it was warm.  Wow, the brisket was so tender I could cut it with a plastic fork on a paper plate that I was holding.  It was still smokey, but did soak up a lot of the mop sauce taste. 

I'll always be cooking my briskets the day before from now on vs enduring the 12+ hour smoke the same day.  Doing this allowed my room to smoke my ribs that only take 6 hours and a lot less stress the day of. 

jd0110, I had a bit of a tough brisket, a select as opposed to choice or prime. i was rushing a little too, a request later in the day for bbq. (i understand that craving!) Though it was done properly, pulled at the stall, around 160, then butcher paper wrapped and brought up to 203 in the oven, rested for an hour. The flavor was good, but it was just a bit tough. I had seasoned with an HEB brisket rub(grocery store in Texas). In my haste I had sliced it all. As an experiment, I put the remainders, about 2 lbs, into a crock pot. In my mind the collagen had not had enough time to break down and get juicy. I was right. The meat which I had feared was just tough slowly became tender. Very tender. I had put some drippings from the catch pan in with it. The only problem was that the meat being sliced allowed the rub (more than just salt and pepper) to wick up in between the cuts. The result was quite tender, and smoky, but tasted more akin to chopped beef sandwich meat and lacked the wonderful flavor of the beef itself. I am smoking a 6 pounder right now. I was keen to read this discussion to see whether I could smoke today, and heat tomorrow for company. I think I will try it.