How does this sound (writing it will be the easy part)?
-Starting with a trimmed beef brisket
-Fire up smoker, get to 250° with oak Excellent choice for smoke for brisket...heavy, with a strong background flavor...250* chamber temp should do it justice as well.
-Take brisket out of refrigerator (1 hour before putting it on to get to room temp) Not sure of your reason for tempering the brisket, but increases your risk of food safety issues...I don't temper my meats. The lon it's in the smoker the more smoke flavor you get...warm meats take less time to reach finished temps, so gets less time in the smoke. Brisket is large, so is quite difficult to over-smoke, and, cold meats take on more smoke than warm meats. Without tempering, the meat will take slightly longer to smoke/cook to finished temps, but the overall time out of the fridge until finished cooking will be less.
-Salt and Pepper rub Simple seasoned...I like your style!!! Brisket has a strong flavor and doesn't need mush enhancement to make good eating smoked beef...good job!!!
-Meat on smoker, fat cap up-point toward firebox, push Maverick 733 probe into the side of the flat toward center. Do not open lid for first 4 to 5 hours or until 165° IT. Leave probe out for at least the first couple of hours...by puncturing with the probe too early you risk forcing surface bacteria into the meat with the probe before the surface has been pasteurized by the heat in the smoke chamber. In other words, by probing too early, you are taking an intact whole muscle meat and turning it into a compromised muscle, which is then recommended to be treated according to the 40-140*/4hr rule (found
HERE).
-Wrap brisket in butcher paper or foil. Push probe through wrap, side/center of flat.
-Place in 275° oven until 200°-203° IT. You could stay @ 250* with the "O" as well. For slicing, 200+ will be too hot (too tender), for pulling, it will be nearly perfect. If you want sliced flat and and sliced point, you will likely need to separate the point and flat muscles, preferably just prior to wrapping, as the flat will take less time to reach finished temp than the point. The point is the best candidate for pulling between the two muscles due to it's higher percentage of interior fat. For slicing either muscle, probe for tenderness around 190*...if it probes with little resistance when you poke around, it's tender enough for slicing. For pulling, round 200* is usually hot enough to easily pull by hand without shredding with forks or other tools...hand-pulled giving the best texture and size for eating, IMHO.
any suggestions and changes will be welcomed and greatly appreciated