Just thinking? The next time you are cooking a brisket or pork shoulder for yourself try a higher temperature: 275º to 325º. You may very well be pleasantly surprised
how well it turns out. If not you will have tried & can blame me.
For years in the low & slow camp. Nice enjoyable long cooks a slow moving column of smoke emerging from the pit. Very relaxing to me. Then I was confronted with a
similar situation as you describe here.
I took a chance, on the next cook raising the cook temperature as I had miscalculated the cook time that I had planned on. The choices were either eat much later or
gamble using a higher cook temperature that could end up with an inferior result.. The result was = to low & slow. It was relaxing to have the cook done with time to spare.
I prepped the day before, cooked & ate the next day. No all night or very early morning cooks.
What drove this higher cook temperature cook method was meeting with an Atlanta Ga restaurateur serving very juicy & tender brisket. I had to ask how he cooked it..
The response was 325º on his komadoes.. He gambled on the temp switch & found the only difference was time. He could now get a good night's sleep. It was a game
changer.
A word on DONE TEMPERATURES. I have been mislead several times by my thermometers, leave-in or probe. They tell the truth temperature wise, not done wise. My first
experience; I was reading a good 5º short of the target temp on the leave-in when for some reason I decided to check using the probe thermometer..Surprise; everywhere I
probed the feel was that of probing apple sauce.. It was done. Never looked @ the probe thermometer.. Probing tells the truth.