Brisket - How am I doing

Egghead Willie

My third cook is an 8.Brisket. SO at 11PM I go light the Large BGE got it going and closed the cover. Took a while to get up to 300 with all vents open. Is that because of how much Lump I had? Anyhow by 12:30am it was right where I wanted it. Off to bed I go. Well my internal alarm clock had me up every 2hrs checking the temp. I guess I was worried about leaving it on. Well needless to say its 8 hrs later. Internal Temp is 98 and it looks and smells fantastic. Do I need to do anything else? Do you think my Lump will last the entire cook? As I said I filled to the top of fire box. Combination of ONO and Wicked Good. THanks for listening, any suggestions you have would be appreciated. Now time to get Baked Beans going.

Edit - I have the temp of the dome at 260 and maintained that. i did calibrate the dome thermometer.

Fornia

Going to defer to others...as I've only done a few briskets. But have don't a bunch of butts.

I'm wondering about your internal...to me, 98 seems low for 8hrs. at 300.

I'm thinking it wasn't fully 'lit', which is why it took so long to get to 300. I normally fill to top of fire ring for low&slows, after reading the forum.

Again, I'm not passing any judegement...as there are others who can better help this morning.

civil eggineer

Did you check your thermometer calibration before the cook? Your meat temp seems low for 8 hrs of cooking. Most cook brisket indirect at 250 dome but some have gone with higher temp cooks. Once the meat temp nears 180, start sticking a fork into it every 10 minutes. When it slides in and out of the meat easily...the brisket is done. Remove from heat, foil and rest for 1/2 hr minimum.

Shiff

I agree with the others that 98 internal is much lower than I would expect after 8 hours. What did you use to measure it?

As to your slow starting time, you may have some plugged holes in your fire grate. You can make a wiggle rod out of a metal coat hanger. Insert it through the bottom vent and poke it up through the holes to clear them. You can buy a really nice wiggle rod from thirdeye's web site:

http://thirdeyebbq.com/WiggleRods.aspx

There is some great brisket info at:

http://bubbatim.com/Bubba_s_Brisket.php
and
http://playingwithfireandsmoke.blogspot.com/1996/03/brisket.html

Egghead Willie

Thanks All - SO after reading your advise I went and took a regular meat thermometer ( that I used with my tin can smoker) and and after 12 hrs at 260degrees cooking temp I am at 170degrees. Lesson learned for me is to buy a very good Thermometer.

Shiff

Get a thermapen. It is well worth the money. Talk to Mollyshark here on the forum.

Fidel

never mind - i should read the other posts and check the time of the top post before opening my yap.