Smokemeister

I have had an 8 pound brisket in my smoker for nearly 10 hours with the temperature at @ 225 degrees F. The internal; temperature is still only 125 degrees! This doesn't seem possible though it is only my second attempt. Should I just leave it as is? Turn up the heat? wrap in foil?

I've been holding off on giving you advice because I'm not quite sure what to tell you Smokemeister.
I've not had one stall at a temperature so low after 10 hours.
My first reaction was to say "bump the heat up" .... But I'm just not sure about having meat under 140 degrees for that period of time.

I'm probably overthinking this so I'll be quiet and let someone else chime in. lol

Welcome to the forum btw!! Good to have you aboard.

I went ahead and wrapped it in foil and turned up the heat a little. It is pretty cool outside so maybe that is keeping the temperature from rising. We,ll see what happens!

I'm probably overthinking it Smokemeister. Your idea sounds like a good one!
I've had briskets stall at 160 for hours but have not had one stall that low. Good luck with it and take pics for us if you get the chance please.

Are you sure that your temps are accurate? My first concern would be that the smoker is actually 225*. What kind of thermometer are you using? Have you checked to see that it is accurate?

I have never had one stall that low either, but I don't cook a lot of brisket.

Bear said:

Are you sure that your temps are accurate? My first concern would be that the smoker is actually 225*. What kind of thermometer are you using? Have you checked to see that it is accurate?

I have never had one stall that low either, but I don't cook a lot of brisket.

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Thanks for your reply.

I think that you are correct that the temp was a little low. I had it set on 185 on my traeger digital controller as the temp on the hood thermometer was registering 225-250 Deg on that setting. I an relatively new to smoking and just installed the digital thermometer on my grille. I was leaning to the cool side as mistakes I made have made have been burning/overcooking. About 1.5 hrs ago I raised the temp to 225 Deg on the controller, wrapped the brisket in foil and put an oven thermometer on the grille which is registering @ 240 Deg. The internal temperature has gone up to 160.

I think that you are correct, the problem was too low of a temp. Also, my digital controller is more accurate than I had thought. At least I learned that I can trust the new controller.

I am pretty sure that the problem is solved and the brisket will be awesome. Smoking meat is not as easy as it looks, at least when you are learning!

Bear said:

Are you sure that your temps are accurate? My first concern would be that the smoker is actually 225*. What kind of thermometer are you using? Have you checked to see that it is accurate?

I have never had one stall that low either, but I don't cook a lot of brisket.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply.

I think that you are correct that the temp was a little low. I had it set on 185 on my traeger digital controller as the temp on the hood thermometer was registering 225-250 Deg on that setting. I an relatively new to smoking and just installed the digital thermometer on my grille. I was leaning to the cool side as mistakes I made have made have been burning/overcooking. About 1.5 hrs ago I raised the temp to 225 Deg on the controller, wrapped the brisket in foil and put an oven thermometer on the grille which is registering @ 240 Deg. The internal temperature has gone up to 160.

I think that you are correct, the problem was too low of a temp. Also, my digital controller is more accurate than I had thought. At least I learned that I can trust the new controller.

I am pretty sure that the problem is solved and the brisket will be awesome. Smoking meat is not as easy as it looks, at least when you are learning!

I think you were wise to wrap in foil after that amount of time. I've never had a brisket stall at that low temp either.

Smokemeister said:

...I am pretty sure that the problem is solved and the brisket will be awesome. Smoking meat is not as easy as it looks, at least when you are learning!

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Ahhh, I love that last sentence; you are learning and that's what's important ! There's no such thing as a failed cook because even if something didn't go right, you still learn from it. And, it looks like you've learned a valuable lesson about your pit temps. I think most folks here (including me) will tell you we are still learning too!

Do NOT trust your hood thermometer to accurately show what's happening at the grate. Get some kind of a thermometer down closer to the grate where the food is cooking and find out what the temps are there. Then you can better gauge what the grate temp is compared to your hood temp.

Don't forget to post some pics of your brisket!

Thanks for the reply.

The temp is close to 170 now. I assumed that the hood thermometer was a little hotter than the grille temp since the probe is probably 8 to 10 inches above the grate which proved to be true.

OK,I need to know....how did it turn out?