Brisket won't cook

StubbyQ

Hey!! What's going on. I have been cooking this 9.5 lb brisket for 14 hours now and the darnest thing has happen. The temp on the Polder got up to 152° but has started to fall. It fell to 149°. I'm thinking it should go up not down. The BGE temp gauge has read 230°-250° all day. I have now raised the egg to 350° to see if I can get the Polder temp up. It has come back to 152° since then. Am I doing something wrong? The family is looking at me like I'm crazy and they are all starving. Do you think the BGE temp gauge is reading wrong? I calibrated it before I started to 212° with boiling water. You know they shipped my BBQ Guru today but it won't here until Friday. Now I'm frantic. NEED HELP IN TEXAS!

Nature Boy

StubbyQ,
Well, I sure like to be at 152 way before 14 hours. It usually does start to stall in the 150s, but from what I have noticed, you should be at 150 after 5 or 6 hours. I wonder if your cooking level is much much lower than your dome is reading. Water in the drip pan or a lot of ceramic mass can keep your cooking level up to 100 degrees colder than your dome, so you could have been cooking in the 150-180 range, which would explain your delay. Even with a dry aluminum drip pan and a big piece of meat, your cooking level can be more than 50 degrees colder than your dome. [p]Well, you are at 350 now, and your meat temp will surely start to rise. Might not be the most tender piece of brisket ever, but if you spent enough time in the 150s it should be good![p]A good thing to try for next time might be putting a polder probe in the egg to measure the cooking level temp. I usually stick it through the edge of the brisket so it hangs out a few inches, and monitor the cookingtemp that way. Takes away a lot o guesswork.[p]Hope dinner is good, and that the family gets their fill!
Chris

StubbyQ

Thanks Nature Boy. Only thing I can figure is BGE gauge bad. BBQ Guru will be here Friday and we can stop guessing. Have you ever heard of a bad BGE gauge? The temp is now 156° so it's coming up.

StubbyQ

Oh, BTW using dry 14 " steel pan no water.

Mike in MN

StubbyQ,
I'm not the brisket expert...but if it was a butt, I'd say you were stalled in the plateau, and you had hours to go. Bumping the temp would get the temp to the "magic number," but there's more to it than just reaching that temp you are shooting for. Raising the dome temp will get you there, but it won't necessarily get the desired results.[p]Hey, you're ahead of me...I didn't do anything for dinner tonight..everyone was busy working....so it's leftovers....ummm. After work, I mowed 2.5 acres and weed wacked around 70 trees. My 17 year old son mowed 8 yards after school, and the wife brought home a red Corvette......geez, go figure.[p]When your household can't stand it anymore and they are borderline violent or whining to the point you can't take it anymore, pull it off and serve it. Shrug your shoulders, take notes, and move on. You know as well as I do that it's gonna taste great the way it is....it just may not be quite as tender as you had hoped for.[p]Mike in MN

Nature Boy

StubbyQ,
I still think that the first 10 hours of your cook you were cooking below 200 at your cooking level. Last time I had to run the cooker at 275 for the first few hours to get 200-210 at the cooking level. [p]Let us know what happens!
Chris

StubbyQ

Thanks Mike. It's coming up now. It's reading 159° on th epolder. Maybe it just stalled out. But why did it start going down. I now 15 hours into this cook. Maybe this one is just stubborn. I may reduce the dome temp to 300° and see if it will coast up a little. Then lower it back to 250° and finish it off. Wow what an experience.

Mike in MN

StubbyQ,
IMHO they are junk. I'd replace it.[p]A lot of the members have had good luck with them, mine failed me right away and I got rid of it. I wish they would provide a little higher quality unit with the BGE when they sold them. It would make the customers a lot happier and it wouldn't cost them that much more to install a quality unit.[p]Look at it this way..we are buying the top of the line cooker, I expected a quality thermometer....mine was junk, and I spent an additional $40 after the fact and bought a good one....now I don't worry about that aspect of my cooks anymore.[p]Mike in MN

Nature Boy

StubbyQ,
Howdy! Me again. The temp went down because the brisket did not have enough heat to continue the process of breaking down the collagen. [p]Keep us posted!
Chris

Mike in MN

StubbyQ,
When you watch the temp like you are now, you will see it move around....when the group is staring at you with the knife in one hand and the fork in the other...it's gonna make you squirm all the more and that temp moving around sure ain't gonna help matters. [p]Smile.....it's gonna be just fine![p]Mike in MN

StubbyQ

What kind did you get? I was thinking about a Tel-Tru.

Mike in MN

StubbyQ,
Tel Tru BQ 300 3" face, 4" probe, 150-500 or something like that. Only good for lower/mid range cooking. You don't need a thermometer for the high temp stuff....when it's shooting flames out the top of the dome, you know it's hot and you don't need a thermometer to tell you that.[p]Mike in MN

StubbyQ

Sounds like that's the one for me. How much are they? Well guess I can look them up on the NET. They are reported to be pretty accurate. I'll check one out.

Mike in MN

StubbyQ,
Here's the one I have for $38 + shipping. I bought mine on sale, and the sale price plus shipping was about $38. I've seen them go on sale "regular." But the price difference is maybe $5-$7, no big deal. [p]Another note...when I ordered mine it took about 3 weeks to get to me. Odd for internet shopping, but who knows?[p]Mike in MN
[ul][li]Tel Tru Manufacturing[/ul]

BeerMike

Mike in MN,
I wish my wife would bring home a Corvette or at least agree to let me purchase one. Have any pictures of that car you can share?[p]I've got Corvette fever.[p]BeerMike