Brisket-Internal Temp Rising Rapidly

ckillian

Doing a 13-14 lb brisket. Using the Maverick ET-73. Egg temp holding 251 degrees. After only about 2 hours, the internal temp is up to 125. That seems awful fast. I know that the temp will plateau at some point around 150-160ish.

I'm planning on a 16-18 hour cook. I just hope that this thing isn't cooking too quickly (even taking the plateau into effect).

I guess my question is: Is it normal for the internal temp to rise very quickly in the first couple of hours?

Canugghead

Did you placed the ET-73 pit probe on the grid or clipped to the dome thermometer or removed the dome therm and inserted the ET-73 probe in the dome hole? What's the temp reading on the dome thermometer, was it calibrated? They should register 212F when inserted in boiling water.

ckillian

I've got the Maverick grill probe clipped to the grate next to the meat. It's basically matching the dome thermometer, which I calibrated correctly AFTER a brisket disaster. This is my first time using the Maverick, though.

I've lowered the temp of the Egg down to about 230 to slow the whole thing down a little.

I'm sure it will be fine. I can only compare it to the pork butt I did last week. After about 2 hours the temp was up to 165, but then it sat at the plateau for about 4 hours before it finally slowly went up. I'm sure this brisket will do something similar. In fact, the internal temp has stopped climbing so fast. It's currently at 140.

Grandpas Grub

I am a little surprised your maverick on the grate is matching your dome thermometer.

If your dome is at 250° then you should be fine. The rapid initial meat temp isn't too surprising.

If you are doing a whole brisket I would put the probe in the flat and insert it horizontally so the reading tip is in the center vertically of the cut of meat.

Flats are somewhat thin, if your probe is low in the cut or high in the cut your food temp might be reading a bit high. Right now I wouldn't worry too much about that, but it will become more important when the brisket is closer to the done temperature.

GG

520dvx

I thought the same thing about my first brisket .... then it plateaued and even dropped about 5 degrees for a LONG time. finally got to 195 after 14+ hours and it was much smaller than yours.

ckillian

UPDATE:

It's now 11:30 am. The brisket has been cooking for about 12 hours now. Grill is holding 223 degrees. Internal temp is now 177 degrees and climbing slowly.

All is well.