Brisket Cooking Temperature.

Unknown

I am an egg newbie. I've cooked many items on it over the last six weeks. We've had great meals and no problems. So I thought I'd give a real low and slow entree a try. I took a 6.6 lb. fresh brisket out of the refrigerator at 5:30 am this morning to come to room temperature. At 6:15 am I put a coating of yellow mustard on it and coated it with a dry rub.I put in on my large egg at 6:45 am this morning. It is now 8:00 pm and the polder is reading 170.I think my mistake was not knowing how to interpret the temperatures in the many recipes I researched. My question is this: What is the difference in dome temperature and the temperature at the cooking surface? I read somewhere that it could be 30 degrees difference? Another issue I have is that the dome temp moves up during cooking without changing either vent. I barley have the air vent and the daisy wheel open and the dome temp is 300 degrees. How do I get the temperature lower without closing off one or both vents?

The Naked Whiz

E. Michael Tann,
A brisket cooked low and slow will take a very long time. You are right, the dome and grid temps can vary up to 30 or more degrees depending on the setup inside the egg. But most recipes refer to dome temps unless they say otherwise. [p]When you started your fire, did you bring it up to 300 degrees or did you let it get hotter and then are trying to cool things down? Also, have you calibrated your thermometer lately? If your vents openings are as small as you describe, it is surprising that you havd a 300 degree temperature.[p]TNW

Mike in MN

E. Michael Tann,
The brand of lump has an effect on the width of your vent openings. Wicked Good burns slow and hot, but I find it needs more air, thus the vents are opened a bit more than regular lump. For 225, I just had my bottom vent open about 1/2"-3/4". The top was about half on the wheel.[p]A lot of lump requires only cracking the bottom vent about a credit card thickness to 1/8". The top vents at maybe a bit under half on the daisey wheel. [p]The only way to get the temp to drop is shut down the top and bottom vents and wait for the temp to drop. As it gets down towards the target temp, start opening the vents slowly to get the fire going again. Don'yt wait too long, as it seems when you first open them up again, the temp wants to drop faster than it had been because you allow cool fresh air in.[p]I just did a 6# brisket. Mine was on about 16 hours, and the results were OK. I have never done one, because I can't normally find them where I shop. I prefer pork. It had good flavor, was reasonably tender, maybe a little dry. I did not monitor the temp as close as I should have to watch it's progress. I may have overcooked it....But it was a learning experience. My dome temp ran from 215-240, and I pulled it at 193 and let it sit in a cooler for several hours while I went to a birthday party. It was cooked indirect with a drip pan and water on an inverted plate setter.[p]Mike in MN

The Naked Whiz

Mike in MN,
Sounds like you did everything right on the brisket, from what I've read.[p]As for the original poster, I guess the real mystery is why the fire was able to chug along at 250 for 3 hours and then only later went out. I've had one fire go out on me, and I was screwing around with vent settings right up to the point where I went to bed, so I deserved for it to go out. I've not had a fire go out when it has been steady for 3 hours, though.[p]TNW

Mike in MN

The Naked Whiz,
yep, if it's been steady for 3 hours, it's found it's mark, and it shouldn't be touched. And if you are going to touch it, you can't go to bed. Everyone has to learn that the hard way.[p]Another thing, you can't stare at the temp, because there are times it may have a slight swing to it....and that'll get ya nervous, and then you start making adjustments, which only make things worse. Up and down, back and forth.[p]I paid particular attention to fire building this time. I normally just dump and fire...but this time I actually built it from the bottom up using a combo of Wicked Good on the bottom, and Maple Leaf on the top. I filled in all the holes with smaller stuff, and really got my hands dirty doing it. Should be interesting to see how much lump is left. My temp remained fairly rock steady all night, and for whatever reason, I was up about every 1-2 hours checking it. All in all, I believe I had better temperature stability by really filling in the cracks and crevices with lump. So, I learned a good lesson.[p]Next lesson, I think I personally would have had better brisket results if I would have done it with the fat cap up. Next time.[p]Mike in MN

Unknown

The Naked Whiz,
In answer to you ?s. I bring my temps up to target point as opposed to cooling down. I checked my BGE themometer when it was brand new. It seemed to read 210 degrees in actively boiling water. I've cooked on my egg for about six weeks. I've cooked steaks to a copper river salmon filet. I checked it today and had to make an adjustment to the calibration. Is this normal to have to recalibrate the thermometer so soon?