Why not finish a smoke indoors?

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cripplecreek

Fire Starter
Original poster
About to smoke a brisket and was wondering; for the sake of comfort, sleep, and worry-free temp control, why not foil at 160 and finish the brisket indoors at 220 to 195 IT since all you are doing at that pt is cooking?  I realize that this may be blasphemy to some of the tru blu smokers but I'm looking at a 20 hr smoke and am looking for a way to get a little shuteye.  Thanks,  Mike
 
Once you wrap in foil you are not getting any more smoke .So why not.
 
I do this quite often according to the circumstances. There is no difference once it's foiled. I would guess your looking at 6  to 8 hours to hit 160 / 165... just guessing.
 
once your brisket has taken on all the smoke it is gonna take you could cook it in a shoebox and it would not make any difference except for maybe bark.
 
I think bark could be the biggest issue but I'd be interested in seeing if there's a difference.  I do briskets on charcoal/lump for 4 or 5 hours then put it in the MES for the rest of the time.  With the MES I've still got a water pan though.  I guess you could put the brisket on a rack above a pan or something in the oven.

On a side note, Where are you getting 20 hrs?  One of the formulas?  The last 13lber I did took about 14 to get to 195.  I've had some take longer but I don't think any longer than 16 offhand.  I do them at 220 also.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/98379/my-best-brisket-yet
 
No problem that I can see going into the oven once you get done applying smoke.. after that, heat is heat especially if it's wrapped in foil.

Ryan, you are right on the money.. the formulas are great but they are just estimations and one thing we must remember is that the time is directly related to the thickness of the meat and how long it takes for the heat to get to the center and do it's thing.

I have found that briskets do get thicker as they go up in pounds to a certain point but then there are some very heavy 17 pound briskets that are that way because they are wider and longer but no more thick than say a 10 pounder.

In this scenario I would expect the 17 pound brisket to get done in about the same amount of time as the 10 pound one.
 
I think bark could be the biggest issue but I'd be interested in seeing if there's a difference.  I do briskets on charcoal/lump for 4 or 5 hours then put it in the MES for the rest of the time.  With the MES I've still got a water pan though.  I guess you could put the brisket on a rack above a pan or something in the oven.

On a side note, Where are you getting 20 hrs?  One of the formulas?  The last 13lber I did took about 14 to get to 195.  I've had some take longer but I don't think any longer than 16 offhand.  I do them at 220 also.

http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/98379/my-best-brisket-yet
 
I had my MES quit because of bad connection of heating element when I was making pastrami out of corned beef.  I ended up finishing it in the oven in foil.  The folks I served it too were very happy with it:-}}

In fact, that event is making me lean to the idea of foiling meat -- which I have never done.
 
the last two i did i smoked them for seven hours until one in the morning then i foiled and put them in the oven at 220 till six o clock in the morning came out great and even tenderer than they have previously and with seven hours in the smoker had plenty of smoke and bark
 
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