Brisket Cooking Too Fast. Why?

davef

This has happened 3 times now, so I know it's not a fluke piece of brisket.  I get my egg stabilized at 225-250, with plate setter & drip pan in place. I put the brisket on (whole packer brisket, around 13 lbs.)  Within 2-3 hours, my internal temp is already 170.  How is that even possible?  I have replaced temp probes and my dome thermometer after the first one did that, so I know temps are accurate. The only thing I can think it might be is that I have the brisket on the cast iron grill grate instead of the standard grate, because it got lost when I moved. Could the heat retention of the cast iron be causing the meat to cook super fast?  Sounds like a bit of a stretch to me, but I'm at a loss for other explanations.  Anybody got any ideas or experienced anything similar?

JohnInCarolina

That's way too fast.  Your temps have got to be closer to 350 somehow.  I wonder what a probe placed right on the grate would read.

lousubcap

Just because you replaced the dome thermo doesn't mean it is accurate.  Give it the boiling water check and see what it reads.  If not close to 212*F/100*C adjust out the off-set (nut on the back) and check again.  Something clearly doesn't make sense here.  FWIW-
BTW-welcome aboard and enjoy the challenges of a brisket cook.

davef

It's the dome thermometer AND the grate and food probes from my DigiQ that I changed. They can't all be that far off. I've cooked plenty of briskets on the egg before, and they have gone 12-15 hours on average. This all started after we moved cross country, so we're wondering something happened to the egg in transit (nothing visible), or if it's the switch to the iron grate (seems highly unlikely).  Anyway, I'll figure it out eventually, but any other thoughts you have will certainly be appreciated.

onedbguru

Depending on where you moved from and to where you moved, it could be a function of humidity.???  

Is it "stalled" or is it continuing to climb?

DoubleEgger

I've had them run up like that pretty quickly and then they stall forever. 

davef

onedbguru said:

Depending on where you moved from and to where you moved, it could be a function of humidity.???  

Is it "stalled" or is it continuing to climb?

We moved from 100% humidity (or thereabouts) in Louisiana to "not quite as humid" in the Lake Norman area in NC.  

It stalled out at about 170, so I have it wrapped in butcher paper. It's climbing more slowly now.  The last couple times this happened, the brisket was probe tender at 200, and was good enough for chopped beef sandwiches with sauce, but by no means up to my standards for good brisket (I am a Texas style, salt n pepper, no sauce purist). 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

very interesting. You may be on to something with the cast iron but I've never heard of this. Following with interest. Good luck and let us know what you figure out.

You seem like you've done this many times but I'll just ask for the sake of being thorough- where are your probes in the brisket? if you are in a thin part of the flat or in the fat pocket in the thickest part between the point and flat, you can read high like that. also, if your probe is pushed through too far, it could be reading the heat from the cast iron grid.

are the briskets finishing this much faster as well? If they are finishing faster, then it's definitely running hot. If not, we have a thermo issue.

davef

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

where are your probes in the brisket? if you are in a thin part of the flat or in the fat pocket in the thickest part between the point and flat, you can read high like that. also, if your probe is pushed through too far, it could be reading the heat from the cast iron grid.

are the briskets finishing this much faster as well? If they are finishing faster, then it's definitely running hot. If not, we have a thermo issue.

I've got the DigiQ food probe in the flat just under the point (i.e. where you'd start cutting point meat along with your flat slices if you kept slicing) I'm also temping it periodically with a handheld digital probe and it's reading within a couple of degrees of what the DigiQ probe says, so I'm thinking that's not the issue.

The briskets do end up done 3 or 4 hours faster than I would expect them to. They do climb much slower once stalled and wrapped.  This is kind of what makes me wonder if it's the cast iron causing the heat to run up when they're not wrapped. Since it's sitting on the flat side of the cast iron grate, and cast iron retains so much heat, do I essentially have my brisket sitting on a hot cast iron skillet, rather than a smoker?  I'm going to get a standard grate for the next cook and see if this still happens. I'll definitely report back, so if that's the case, hopefully I can keep someone else from having this problem.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

davef said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

where are your probes in the brisket? if you are in a thin part of the flat or in the fat pocket in the thickest part between the point and flat, you can read high like that. also, if your probe is pushed through too far, it could be reading the heat from the cast iron grid.

are the briskets finishing this much faster as well? If they are finishing faster, then it's definitely running hot. If not, we have a thermo issue.

I've got the DigiQ food probe in the flat just under the point (i.e. where you'd start cutting point meat along with your flat slices if you kept slicing) I'm also temping it periodically with a handheld digital probe and it's reading within a couple of degrees of what the DigiQ probe says, so I'm thinking that's not the issue.

The briskets do end up 3 or 4 hours faster than I would expect them to. They do climb much slower once stalled an wrapped.  This is kind of what makes me wonder if it's the cast iron causing the hit to run up when they're not wrapped. Since it's on the flat side of the cast iron grate, and cast iron retains so much heat, do I essentially have my brisket sitting on a hot cast iron skillet, rather than a smoker?  I'm going to get a standard grate for the next cook and see if this still happens. I'll definitely report back, so if that's the case, hopefully I can keep someone else from having this problem.

please do. I'm interested. There is no doubt that the thermal mass of that cast iron grid is way more than the standard. I think you are on to it.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

and I have found when you find yourself saying "the only thing that has changed is X", start there. In this case, it's the cast iron grid. I bet you found your issue.

MaskedMarvel

What's the starting weight of that brisket?

nevermind I see it...


im typing as I reread the thread, but--

i use a cast iron grate exclusively in all my cooks and never have anything close to this happen

 You have a heat deflector in there like the plate setter?

nevermind I see that too now...

ok. Hmmm...  

as mentioned, test all the probes in boiling water. They should read 212*. 

Final edit/idea---->


im going to guess you're buying different meat up here in NC then you got down in LA. 

Different marbling? Different quality? Different grade? 

The fat content can certainly affect how the cut heats up and definitely affects the stall. If you've gone prime versus select, more fat can mean faster warm ups with longer stalls. 

This is all just me guessing....

onedbguru

davef said:

onedbguru said:

Depending on where you moved from and to where you moved, it could be a function of humidity.???  

Is it "stalled" or is it continuing to climb?

We moved from 100% humidity (or thereabouts) in Louisiana to "not quite as humid" in the Lake Norman area in NC.  

It stalled out at about 170, so I have it wrapped in butcher paper. It's climbing more slowly now.  The last couple times this happened, the brisket was probe tender at 200, and was good enough for chopped beef sandwiches with sauce, but by no means up to my standards for good brisket (I am a Texas style, salt n pepper, no sauce purist). 

Interesting.  I used to live in Winfield at exit 23.  It sounds like a few more "test" cooks are in order to help dial it in.