8 Pound Brisket: 225@ 17.5 hours, 190 not passing the fork test

[VGQ]

Hi all,

First off, wonderful forum and community, I've been lurking for years!

I'm in the midst of the first real head-scratcher of my smoking career. To this point I've been very fortunate with brisket, I've done about a dozen or so over the years and been happy with how they've all turned out.

Today's is a little odd.

I'm doing an 8 pound flat (trimmed) in a Masterbuilt MES 130B with the cold smoker attachment. Been a consistent 225 (I'm confident in my temps, two thermometer check system) and I had the smoke going for the first 8 hours or so, no issue with drippings/water in the pan drying out or anything.

Right now it's been 17.5 hours and I'm only at 190, and it's not really passing the fork test yet. Been raining all night and most of this morning at around 50 degrees outside temp (not going into the smoker though, covered).

I've never had a smoke go this long before, though I usually smoke closer to 250. No foil, no brining, no injection, just a rub with kosher salt/turbinado sugar/coarse pepper/paprika/cayenne.

Is this just one of those anomoly briskets, or does it sound like I've done something weird here? The only thing I did today that I don't normally do is turn the actual chip smoker part off after 8 hours so it's not getting smoke after the first 8 hours. (It's a separate box attachment on this model).

Thanks for any thoughts!

 

[pineywoods]

Guess I'm late with a reply hopefully you kept going until you got the probe tender stage. Pretty much every piece of meat cooks differently and is why we usually say cook to the proper internal temp and not by time. I've had briskets finish/probe tender anywhere from 190-208 or so. Wait till you get that odd one that has a short stall or no stall and finishes so fast you start scratching your head trying t figure out what you did wrong cause it cooked so fast lol
Let us know what you did and how it turned out

 

[Chasdev]

The delay is due to the moisture content of the meat and the humidity in the cooker combined with the low cook temp.
I've gone 26 hours before reaching correct internal temp cooking at 225 so your experience is normal.
As long as the meat's internal moisture continues to slowly evaporate due to the external humidity the internal temp can't rise due the the evaporation using up heat energy which of course keeps the meat cooler.
You would need to raise the cook temp or cook it longer.
I've also seen a version of this on hotter brisket cooks when running a water pan and have mostly reverted back to not using one.

 

[VGQ]

Thanks guys, turned out okay, a little dry in the end (I pulled at 195, wrapped in a cooler for 3 hour rest), but I think that had more to do with the meat itself. The ends of the flat that had some fat were perfect, it was just a really lean cut I think.

Not bad by any stretch, I've got the point I'll throw on in next little while, I think I'll do that at more like 240 range.

 

[Chasdev]

Try hot and fast with no water pan and see what happens.
Say 325 wrapped in paper after the stall.