Brisket Not Reaching Temp

[Jliz2803]

Hi,
I have a 4.5 lbs brisket that Im cooking on a Pro 780 unit. I am following the Smoked Midnight Brisket recipe on the Traeger app. It says to cook the brisket at 180 for 5-7 hours until the probe reaches a temp of 160. I have been cooking my brisket for 9+ hours at 180 and my probe still only reads 152. Im a newbie at this, what am I doing wrong?

 

[JPSBBQ]

Hi,
I have a 4.5 lbs brisket that Im cooking on a Pro 780 unit. I am following the Smoked Midnight Brisket recipe on the Traeger app. It says to cook the brisket at 180 for 5-7 hours until the probe reaches a temp of 160. I have been cooking my brisket for 9+ hours at 180 and my probe still only reads 152. Im a newbie at this, what am I doing wrong?

Temp too low. Bump to 225-250.

 

[Murphy's Law]

I’d bump the temp to 275+

There is a very high likelihood that your
temps are wrong. Traeger probes are notoriously inaccurate.

I have a P780 too and I have to set my pit temp to 250 or so to get an actual pit temp of 225. They are off that much. I have no idea about my meat
Probe. I have never used it.

Do you have a good external thermometer you can check against?

 

[Jliz2803]

Thank You @JPSBBQAND @Murphy's Law, Ill adjust accordingly and check with a different thermometer

 

[RayClem]

If your grill temp is 180 degrees, it may take a very long time for the internal meat temperature to reach 160 degrees. Somewhere between 150-160 F, you reach a point called the "stall". That point occurs when all of the heat available is going into evaporation of moisture from the surface of the meat. Thus, the internal temperature no longer increases until some of the moisture has evaporated.

Once you reach the stall point, there are two possible solutions. One is to adjust the grill temp higher so more heat will be available to heat the protein. The other method is to wrap the meat in either aluminum foil or butcher paper. That is often called the "Texas Crutch". The wrapping traps the moisture so it cannot evaporate. This allows the meat to continue cooking. Some people like using the wrapping method, others think it destroys the bark they worked so hard to develop.

 

[BobbyQ]

Same thing happened to me. I started my cook on a 10lb brisket at 190. It sat at 150-155 for 10 hours. Finally decided to wrap it and cranked up to 260. It was done 5 hours later. No figuring sometimes. Next time it goes on at 225 to start.

 

[GrillMeister]

I will start out my briskets at 180 with super smoke, but only for about 3 hours, then I up the temp to 225 for the rest of the cook.

It takes about 15 hours for a full packer (fat trimmed) with this method.

 

[JPSBBQ]

I go 250-275 and I’m done in 9 hrs. Might do a low temp during the first couple hours but not usually. Only cook below 250 to add smoke or in the interest of timing the finish to match my event.

 

[Jr12]

Hi,
I have a 4.5 lbs brisket that Im cooking on a Pro 780 unit. I am following the Smoked Midnight Brisket recipe on the Traeger app. It says to cook the brisket at 180 for 5-7 hours until the probe reaches a temp of 160. I have been cooking my brisket for 9+ hours at 180 and my probe still only reads 152. Im a newbie at this, what am I doing wrong?

I have a 620 and had the same issue with pork bellies. I ran an test using an oven thermometer. I set the 620 to 250 and the oven thermometer read 200. I moved it all around and the only place it reached 250 was just in front of the inside vent. I worked this through with tech support and although helpful, I didn’t come away with any real answer. If the grill is set for 250 and the built in sensor reads the temp as 250, Traeger says everything is fine with the smoker. I understand the “stall” but to finish, I had to raise the temp to 285. Out if curiosity. I know I have the Costco version, but is this pretty consistent among smokers of any brand?

 

[RayClem]

There are two potential issues.

One is whether the Traeger thermocouple is accurately corresponding to temperatures at the grate level upon which you protein is being cooked. In many cases, that might not be the case. Some grills have hot and cold spots. Sometimes the thermocouple is not accurate. I generally use an digital thermometer at grate level. I also added an analog grill thermometer through the hood of my grill. My analog and digital thermometers usually agree, but the thermocouple usually reads significantly higher. If your thyermocouple reads 180, but the actual temperature to which your protein is exposed is 155, you will never reach an internal temperature of 160.

The second issue is that the internal meat thermometer might not be properly calibrated. I did calibrate mine in ice water, but I still do not trust it to be accurate. I always check my temperatures with a digital thermometer and a hand held probe. I do use the Traeger probe when doing as long cook, but I never rely on that for the final temperature reading.

When cooking meat, just a few degrees difference in internal temperature can make a big difference to the results of your cook. Thus, obtaining an accurate thermometer will make a big difference to your performance as a grillmaster.

 

[Jr12]

There are two potential issues.

One is whether the Traeger thermocouple is accurately corresponding to temperatures at the grate level upon which you protein is being cooked. In many cases, that might not be the case. Some grills have hot and cold spots. Sometimes the thermocouple is not accurate. I generally use an digital thermometer at grate level. I also added an analog grill thermometer through the hood of my grill. My analog and digital thermometers usually agree, but the thermocouple usually reads significantly higher. If your thyermocouple reads 180, but the actual temperature to which your protein is exposed is 155, you will never reach an internal temperature of 160.

The second issue is that the internal meat thermometer might not be properly calibrated. I did calibrate mine in ice water, but I still do not trust it to be accurate. I always check my temperatures with a digital thermometer and a hand held probe. I do use the Traeger probe when doing as long cook, but I never rely on that for the final temperature reading.

When cooking meat, just a few degrees difference in internal temperature can make a big difference to the results of your cook. Thus, obtaining an accurate thermometer will make a big difference to your performance as a grillmaster.

Thanks RayClem. The end run is that that there is really nothing I can do about the mechanics of the grill it sounds like. I just have to adjust my cooking to those irregularities or buy a new thermocoupler and see if that is the issue.

 

[JPSBBQ]

There will also be hotter and cooler spots throughout the cook chamber of most cookers. The edges around the shield is always very hot. The upper rack will almost always run hotter as the heat rises and is forced around the heat shield under the main rack. Use these things to your advantage. Embrace them. It’s just some extra cards to play while cooking things.

 

[imjustabill1970]

Hope it turned out well for you OP.