the_sam•15h agoProlific Poster

I finally fixed a brisket stall that took me 5 hours longer than it should have

I was cooking a prime packer last Saturday for a family thing and hit a stall at 160 degrees that just wouldn't budge. I kept wrapping it in butcher paper and cranking the heat but the internal temp barely moved for like 3 hours. Turned out my firebox thermometer was reading 50 degrees too low - the actual pit temp was barely 200 instead of 250. I lost almost half the day just chasing a bad reading. Has anyone else had a thermometer lie to them for that long without realizing it?

2 comments

2 Comments

terry_thomas11h ago

Oh man that's brutal lol. I once spent 4 hours wondering why my pork butt wasn't moving and my crappy oven thermometer was stuck at 300. Turns out it was actually 400 in there and I basically cremated the whole thing. At least you caught yours before the brisket turned into a brick.

piper_reed10h ago

Wait, so your firebox thermometer was off by 50 degrees the whole time? That makes me wonder, how do you even check if a thermometer is accurate mid-cook without having another one handy? I've got three thermometers now, one stuck in the meat, one clipped to the grate, and even a cheap instant read I keep in my pocket just to spot-check the ambient temp. You think you'd notice a big gap but when you're rushing and it's hot out, it's easy to just trust the numbers.