Expert: John Langenfelder - 12/12/2010

Question
I've seen lotsa brisket recipes where you smoke the meat first for 6-8 hours outdoors (we use a Brinkman Gourmet), then finish it in the indoor oven at 210° for 2-4 more hours.
My question is this:  Can you reverse that process?  That is, put the rub on the meat, wrap or cover it, and oven-bake the brisket for several hours first (how long?), and THEN put the mostly-cooked meat on the smoker (or over coals) to finish it?  This would allow for a much more controlled method.  Possibly even oven-cooking & refrigerating overnight, then hickory-smoke it outdoors for a few hours the next day to put on the smoke-ring, smoke-flavor, & finish the brisket in last few hours.
Your opinion will be much appreciated.

Answer
Pete,

Once the meat has cooked, you won't get smoke into it.  So by reversing the process, you won't get a smoke ring or much of a smoke taste.  If you want to cut down the time, try smoking for 4 hours and finishing in the oven.  Generally meat will only accept so much smoke and then anymore is just a waste, so 4 hours should do it.  You can also try increasing the temp to 250-275 to speed things up.