Question About Doing an Overnight Smoke

[Daba's BBQ]

I narrowed it down to these three:

Inkbird IRF-4S Wireless
Inkbird Bluetooth Grill BBQ Meat Thermometer
ThermoPro TP20 Wireless Remote Digital

 

[whistlepig]

The Inkbird IRF-4s is waterproof. If it comes a rain or snowstorm overnight the Inkbird will be OK. We have very poor cell reception here because of being rural. I didn't try bluetooth. I have ThermoPro Therma pens and highly recommend them. Their remote thermometers do not have any range and are garbage after a rain storm. Both the Smoke and Smoke ll. I have owned both.

 

[eaglewing]

The Inkbird IRF-4s is waterproof. If it comes a rain or snowstorm overnight the Inkbird will be OK. We have very poor cell reception here because of being rural. I didn't try bluetooth. I have ThermoPro Therma pens and highly recommend them. Their remote thermometers do not have any range and are garbage after a rain storm. Both the Smoke and Smoke ll. I have owned both.

I agree, do not get Thermopro, I have 2 sitting headed for the trash, first one sent to me during covid, it didn't work, detected room temp to be 99°, instead of sending it back they said keep it and sent a new one... it was horrible. neither work.

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

I narrowed it down to these three:

Inkbird IRF-4S Wireless
Inkbird Bluetooth Grill BBQ Meat Thermometer
ThermoPro TP20 Wireless Remote Digital

Get the IRF-4S.
You'll be glad you did.

 

[smokerjim]

I have the inkbird IRS 4 probe and am happy with it. Accurate and has good range

 

[cinnamonkc]

Having never done an overnight cook before, how safe is it?

If I set the Trager at say 160-170, will 18 pounds of pellets last through the night?

I smoke overnight all the time. Even in the dead of winter my pellets last all night. I got a bigger water pan, but I typically get up once on the night to check on things. I have a hi-low thermometer and I keep the receiver by my bed.
One time my smoker experienced an error, and it shut off in the middle of the night, so I woke up in the morning to raw meat that I had to throw out. We had pizza for that night. Lol
But typically, it works really well.

 

[gray ghost]

I’d personally be concerned about 160-180 on a brisket. Your meats going to stay in the danger zone for too long. I’ve cooked super low overnight on my Southern Pride and my RecTec 700. 200 degrees overnight then bumped to 250 for the finish.

 

[smokerjim]

I’d personally be concerned about 160-180 on a brisket. Your meats going to stay in the danger zone for too long. I’ve cooked super low overnight on my Southern Pride and my RecTec 700. 200 degrees overnight then bumped to 250 for the finish.

Being that a a brisket is a whole muscle unless its injected heavily the bad stuff is on the surface so he will be fine since the surface will probably hit 145 in an hour or less. The inside is basically sterile unless its sliced or heavily injected.

 

[tallbm]

BTW - my plan is to serve around 6:30 pm

As others have mentioned, I also would not bother running at 160-170F smoker temp. That is simply too low to get a brisket cooked in time, they take forever. Also there are food safety concerns. Cranking up the heat resolves both situations.

So at 275F, unwrapped the whole time, I would put that 14 pounds of brisket on at 10-10:30pm the night before.

****IMPORTANT: The number 1 failure of people doing briskets is that they pull the brisket off before it is tender (done) and that is usually caused by :
1. Running out of time or improper time estimation (Not enough time planned)
2. Going by temp of the meat or going by time cooked rather than tenderness of the meat to indicate when the meat is done

It is never a problem to finish early. Even if you finish 6-8 hours early. You can always hold the meat keeping it hot until time to eat.
However there is nothing you can do to correct having to finish late. The meat tells you when it's done and if you don't listen well you get dry tough meat because the collagen hasn't broken down.

How do you check to know a brisket is done????
Put your thermometer probe in the thickest yet center most portion of the FLAT muscle. Not the Point muscle.
When the thermometer reads 198-200F for the Internal Temp (IT) of the meat then you check for tenderness.
To check for tenderness stab all over with a kabob skewer and when it goes in ALL OVER with no resistance well it is tender. If you find a spot with resistance then wait for the IT of the meat to go up 1-2F degrees and then check for tenderness again. Do this until it is tender. When tender it is done!

Let me know if this makes sense and please ask if you have any questions. You are attempting what may be the most difficult meat you can smoke. It is only difficult if you aren't well educated and prepared to take it on. Once you succeed you get better with each attempt and then you perfect it to your liking in no time!! :)

 

[Daba's BBQ]

As others have mentioned, I also would not bother running at 160-170F smoker temp. That is simply too low to get a brisket cooked in time, they take forever. Also there are food safety concerns. Cranking up the heat resolves both situations.

So at 275F, unwrapped the whole time, I would put that 14 pounds of brisket on at 10-10:30pm the night before.

****IMPORTANT: The number 1 failure of people doing briskets is that they pull the brisket off before it is tender (done) and that is usually caused by :
1. Running out of time or improper time estimation (Not enough time planned)
2. Going by temp of the meat or going by time cooked rather than tenderness of the meat to indicate when the meat is done

It is never a problem to finish early. Even if you finish 6-8 hours early. You can always hold the meat keeping it hot until time to eat.
However there is nothing you can do to correct having to finish late. The meat tells you when it's done and if you don't listen well you get dry tough meat because the collagen hasn't broken down.

How do you check to know a brisket is done????
Put your thermometer probe in the thickest yet center most portion of the FLAT muscle. Not the Point muscle.
When the thermometer reads 198-200F for the Internal Temp (IT) of the meat then you check for tenderness.
To check for tenderness stab all over with a kabob skewer and when it goes in ALL OVER with no resistance well it is tender. If you find a spot with resistance then wait for the IT of the meat to go up 1-2F degrees and then check for tenderness again. Do this until it is tender. When tender it is done!

Let me know if this makes sense and please ask if you have any questions. You are attempting what may be the most difficult meat you can smoke. It is only difficult if you aren't well educated and prepared to take it on. Once you succeed you get better with each attempt and then you perfect it to your liking in no time!! :)

Yep, I will be cranking it up to 275 and start my cook around 10 pm the night before. I just bought an Inkbird IRF-4S so I can set a high/low alarm while I'm asleep, in case anything goes wrong. If I remove, wrap and blanket it for 4 hours or so, I can serve it by 6:30 pm

I appreciate EVERYONE'S help. As I said, this is my very first brisket. I wasn't going to do this for the 4th, but my family kept asking and asking.

 

[tallbm]

Yep, I will be cranking it up to 275 and start my cook around 10 pm the night before. I just bought an Inkbird IRF-4S so I can set a high/low alarm while I'm asleep, in case anything goes wrong. If I remove, wrap and blanket it for 4 hours or so, I can serve it by 6:30 pm

I appreciate EVERYONE'S help. As I said, this is my very first brisket. I wasn't going to do this for the 4th, but my family kept asking and asking.

Nice! That thermometer wont let you down.
You can never trust the onboard smoker thermometers so it is a best practice to use 1 probe at rack level between the meat and the heat source so you catch the heat temp as it flows to the meat.

Yeah you will be able to finish before time to eat and hold it. If it finishes WAY early you can do the normal 4-5 hour foil and towel/blanket hold and then transfer the foil wrapped brisket to an oven set to like 160-170F and that will do the trick to hold it for the rest of the time.

Here is a detailed thread I have on trimming the brisket. It is mostly focused on how to cut off the thin portion of the FLAT meat so the rest of the brisket comes out amazing and you don't burn up and throw out that thin portion of the flat. Also it covers how to repurpose that good trimmed away flat meat into BBQ or something else so it's not wasted.
Hopefully it helps some:

My Brisket Flat Trimming Approach Explained - QView

Well I have had a number of private messages where people ask for more info about what I do when I trim away the thin Flat portion of a brisket I smoke. So today I figured I would just post about it with plenty of pics so it becomes easier to understand vs when I just go "blah blah blah trim...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[gray ghost]

Being that a a brisket is a whole muscle unless its injected heavily the bad stuff is on the surface so he will be fine since the surface will probably hit 145 in an hour or less. The inside is basically sterile unless its sliced or heavily injected.

Up until 10 years ago I’d 100% agree with that statement. However as packers have become more greedy, they have started “enhancing” with meat proteins and also jacarding cheap cuts to make it more palatable. JBS/Smithfield is even needle injecting pork ribs to add weight (didn’t think that was possible) You’re likely still correct, however I work for a meat distributor and I’ve seen some things that make me more personally cautious.

 

[Daba's BBQ]

Up until 10 years ago I’d 100% agree with that statement. However as packers have become more greedy, they have started “enhancing” with meat proteins and also jacarding cheap cuts to make it more palatable. JBS/Smithfield is even needle injecting pork ribs to add weight (didn’t think that was possible) You’re likely still correct, however I work for a meat distributor and I’ve seen some things that make me more personally cautious.

I bought mine Wild Fork. I have no desire to inject or marinade it at all. I'm using a rub consisting of salt, pepper and coffee.