Yesterday, after finishing our briskets, we put on a "brisket" for one of Jan's friends. Brisket is in quotes because this was from the friend's home made cow or whatever. It had a funny cut and a funny color, but we cranked the still warm CS to 225 and gave it our best shot.
At 190 internal, it flunked the fork test so badly it was demoted back to third grade. At 197 it easily flunked again. At 205 it was starting to shrink but passed the test in about half the spots we tried. At 207 it passed the test in most of the spots, but not all. We took it off at 209 without further checking. Some things are better not to know.
Think we had this small sucker on for 8 or 10 hours or whatever. The moral is twofold: Cooking by time limit and/or cooking by internal temp are both ok, and might usually get it right or come very close. But, not always.
There is no substitute for checking a brisket with a fork; for checking a pork butt by twisting the bone; for lightly tearing the ribs for doneness. These methods are pretty much foolproof and very easy to master.
Jan's friend just left. We cut a couple of slices of our cold brisket for her and her husband, heated them as described in other posts, and ~made~ them eat them in order that they wouldn't blame that thing they called a brisket on us.
Moral: Just because you cook it "right", guarantees nothing. Start with the best meat you can afford. Saving dimes often doesn't work out. Remember this: no matter how much mayonnaise you use, you still can't make chicken salad out of chicken sh!t.
Regards, Mike