2nd Brisket Keeping it Warm Question

  • Some of the links on this forum allow SMF, at no cost to you, to earn a small commission when you click through and make a purchase. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
SMF is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

austintxeric

Newbie
Original poster
May 19, 2011
26
10
Round Rock, TX
I am in the process of smoking my second brisket on the MES 40.  My last brisket was very stubborn and took 19+ hours with the IT sticking around 180ish.  Well, my 2nd brisket I wanted to make sure I planned with plenty of time, so I put it on last night around 9:30 and by 11:00 AM this morning it had reached an IT of 194.  The only problem with this is that my guests won't arrive until 5 or 6 when we plan to eat it.  I pulled it off, let it stay wrapped in the foil it cooked in (after it had reached 165), and added another layer or 2 of foil.  I then but some towels inside a cooler and placed the brisket in there. I left the Maverick probe in the brisket and noticed that the IT dropped from 194 to 192 pretty quickly.  It has been 2 hours since I pulled it out and the IT is sitting at 174.  Is this normal?  Should I just keep watching it and if it nears the 140 danger zone, put it in a low oven?  Or should I do something different all together?  Thanks in advance for the help!

Eric
 
Thanks!  its now sitting at 169 in the cooler.  I have a rack of ribs in the smoker, otherwise I'd consider using the smoker to keep it warm at a low setting.  As it is now, would I be OK to wait to put it in the oven only when it gets close to the 140 mark?  Or should I do it sooner?
 
Ok, now I'm seeing very strange behavior!  For the last 3 hours the Internal temperature has steadily dropped on the brisket in the cooler down to 169, but about 30 minutes ago it spiked to 345 degrees!  This happened without having opened the cooler or even touching it.  It has dropped down from the high to 334 now.  Is this usual behavior as the fat or connective tissue further breaks down?  
 
Um.... unless that cooler cought fire I would think your temp. probe might have an issue.

Also when you put the brisket in the cooler did you fill all the dead space ontop of the brisket with more towels? That make a big differance on keeping the brisket hot for hours and hours - that and not opening the cooler.
 
I did place towels on top of the brisket, not quite to the top.  It is weird that the probe would spike all of a sudden with the lid never having been opened or the cooler moved in any way.  It just went from one minute showing 169 degrees to the next showing over 340.  I'm hesitant to go open up the cooler, pull the foil off and try another thermometer, given that I still have another 3 hours before we are ready to eat.  
 
Hmmm.... that is an odd one... and yeah I would leave it wrapped up unless you plan on tossing it into a 200° oven. As soon as you open it you will loose a ton of heat.
 
I have two ET732 therms and have used and checked both.  Last weekend I put a brisket on the MES 30 and when I inserted the probe in the meat it went right to 300+ degrees, I don't remember the exact temp.  I checked it with the other ET732 and it stayed the same.  Luckily I have two of these so I switched probes and it was fine, sounds like that is the problem.  You need to be very careful when cleaning probes not to get water down between where the wire enters the probe, I have always been careful but it still happened.

Gary
 
Might also be steam from the brisket getting into the joint between the wire and probe. If it is just steam it stands a good chance of drying out, but when they get submerged in liquid they die..... I know.... I killed my first two probes that way.... lol.
 
It's definitely a probe issue.

With 3 hrs to go, it will be close.

 You might throw it in the 200º oven when you get 1 hr from serving.
 
You have a probe issue.  That may not be a problem for today, though.  If that cooler is left closed, the meat will stay hot for a long time.  Even if it hits 140, you have a couple of hours of safety at that temp.

Tomorrow, I am pretty sure you will need a new probe.  LOL

Good luck and good smoking.
 
Well, the brisket turned out really well.  I ended up throwing it into a 170 oven for the final 2 hours, just in case.  It was very tender and juicy.  Here are a few pics of the results:

2347fa8a_IMAG0234.jpg


deea5984_IMAG0235.jpg
 
SmokingMeatForums.com is reader supported and as an Amazon Associate, we may earn commissions from qualifying purchases.

Latest posts

Hot Threads

Clicky