Salt-and-pepper smoked brisket on a reverse flow offset smoker

Season the trimmed brisket with salt and pepper only.

Place it in the smoker with the point toward the firebox end, where the reverse-flow smoke returns, to take the brunt of the heat; leave two or three hours before checking.

Check colour and fat rendering; spray with apple cider vinegar where the edges are drying, to keep them from crusting and burning.

Cook at about 265F on a plain fire, ranging 250 to 275; at 155 internal, continue to about 170 before wrapping.

Keep the fire no higher than the bottom of the opening into the cook chamber so the flames draw under the baffle; set the firebox door as a heat shield, cracked for oxygen, and rearrange the logs with a shovel every 10 to 15 minutes.

Probe: 178 at one end, 177 in the middle of the flat, 168 elsewhere -- pull and wrap, then finish cooking.

The cook took about 11 hours in total; rest (cut short here), then slice the flat and the point.