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Big Brisket cooking too fast-help appreciated

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hagfish
hagfish Posts: 8
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Hey all - apparently my brisket skills have got a little rusty. Just started a 13.5 pounder (actually so big I had to cut off about two inches of the thin part to fit in into the large egg).

Anyways- I'm struggling to keep the dome temp below 250 (which I didn't think was that high for a brisket anyways). If I shut the vents any more than they are, the fire would go out I would think (i just calibrated thermometer to 212 last night). Anyways, I'm only about 2 hrs into the cook, and the meat temp is already showing 128!! I was expecting this bad boy to be done hopefully around 7-8 am tomorrow morning but this rate it will be done at like 2-3 in the morning it seems like. Am I panicking too soon? Should I get the fire to totally burn out for a while?? Thanks!
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  • thirdeye
    thirdeye Posts: 7,428
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    Yeah, your panicking too early. Hey!!! WELCOME to the Forum.

    128° could be high for only 2 hours into a 15 hour cook, and I'm hoping you have a calibrated pit thermometer, and are taking a couple of readings with your meat therm to make sure. (if you are in a pocket of fat, you will get a false high)

    Anyways, for brisket, a constant temp is more important than a particular temp. So if the Egg settles in at 260°, go for that. If it likes 245°, that's cool too.

    Now, after 12 hours or so if the flat is approaching 185°-190° you can certainly ramp the pit temp down if you need to buy some time.
    Happy Trails
    ~thirdeye~

    Barbecue is not rocket surgery
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  • hagfish
    hagfish Posts: 8
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    Thanks for the warm welcome and fast reply. Been about an hour or so since my last post and since then the egg has settled at more around 240 dome (vents still barely open). The meat temp is now at 150. I still just can't imagine it taking 10 or more hours to raise a mere 40-50 degrees even with the 170 plateau, but I will take your advice and stop panicking. I guess worst case scenario is I have to wake up in the middle of the night and throw it in a cooler, then slice it up and refrigerate.

    I just really wanted to be able to haul it in the cooler to our friends party tomorrow and cut it up after it had rested 4-5 hours.. Hopefully that's still a possibility.
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  • Grandpas Grub
    Grandpas Grub Posts: 14,226
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    Sometimes the meat is in the plateau for a long, long time.

    GG
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  • hagfish
    hagfish Posts: 8
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    I ended up taking it off at about 6 am at 200-205, so it ended up making it about 13 hrs in the egg. Now I have it triple foil wrapped, double towels, and in the cooler. I'd like to be slicing the brisket at around 1 pm today- from what others have said around here 6 hrs in the cooler should be just about on the edge of too long, but probably safe, is that correct?
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