How long does the stall typically last?

blind99

I put a 5 pound brisket flat on the egg around 9:30 this morning.  by about 10:30 I had hit around 165.  I was prepared for the stall, but not the length of the stall.  7 hours later it started to creep up but still slow.  So I wrapped it in foil and cranked the heat to 300-325, and an hour later it was done. Pulled it off at 200 and it's nice and tender and moist with a decent bark.  Only used salt and pepper, not enough smoke, flavor is bland - will work on that on the next brisket.   

Is a 6 hour stall on a 5 pound brisket typical?  (Yes, I seriously geeked out and plotted the temperatures...)

flexfusion

Your scenario as explained is exactly what I have experienced every time I cook a brisket.  I think if you had kept it unwrapped and temperature remained constant it would have taken about 10 hours to reach 195.  By the way your graph is very impressive.  

blind99

Thanks! I plugged in the times/temps into a google docs spreadsheet, and google even made the graph.

I'm hoping to keep better notes about cooks. I'm so impressed with the experienced cooks on these forums. it's a lot harder in practice than it sounds in a post!

I watched the bbq with franklin videos the other day. Wow that guy looks like he really understands brisket.

Botch

This was fairly accurate for me:

 

Stall Time = (dinner time - current time) x 1.6

 

:-B  

blind99

man i think you nailed it!

ribs and pork butt didn't cause me this kind of grief.  why is brisket such a pain?  maybe it has a large surface area to weight ratio and relatively more water since it's leaner so there's a lot of evaporative cooling going on?

in the end i guess it doesn't matter.  if it's not done, have another beer and relax.

SGH

Your question is very straight forward but the answer is both complex and ambiguous. There really is no correct way of saying how long a given cut of meat will stall. There is a overwhelming number of factors that come into play. For the sake of time I will list a few but will not delve into detail unless requested to do so. Here is a short list of things that can and will affect the stall time.
Temperature.
Size and weight.
Thermal mass.
Adipose and connective tissue.
Adipose in the muscular structure
Humidity or the lack there off.
Type of cooking source. Convection, radiant, induced or forced draft. Draft or flue speed. Draft velocity in the chamber.
This short list is just a few of the many things that come into play with the stall.
You said it best above my friend. Just relax and enjoy the ride.

NPHuskerFL

SGH is correct. I've had flats stall 6-8 hrs and I've had Jackrabbit stalls that only lasted 2 hours. Each cut is going to be completely different. Best advice.... Enjoy the ride :-)

blind99

thanks for the advice sgh... a lot to think about!  nice profile pic, @nphuskerfl - that guy was way ahead of his time

here's the end result of last night's cook.  tender but bland, not enough smoke.  passable with some bbq sauce.  i'd give it a C- because at least it wasn't shoe leather!

jerryb78

The answer is "about an hour longer than you possibly think that it could."

Ladeback69

The other night, my 13 pounder was stalking at 161 after being on for about 4 hours then the rain came and dropped my temp to 150 so I had to open up the vents more to get the temperature up and keep it cooking. I will be buying the SS Cap soon.

jerryb78

Sounds a lot like my brisket cook, except the rain held off until I was about 15 hours in and the fire had a pretty hard time getting the egg back up to temp.  That made things interesting.

NervousDad

sometimes an eternity for me :(