Christmas gift this year. It's actually surprised me with how good it is- I was sceptical. Sturdy little unit. I'm still trying to work out how to get the app to properly estimate time for a long smoke- but for grilling it is spot on. I mainly use it for temp monitoring, and the graph is pretty cool.

But just figured out I put it in the wrong spot. On the side, it sort of angled down and was close to the grates. Gave me a higher ambient reading. Moved it to the top, and it's rolling along nicely now.

Great tip to keep in the back pocket!

Holding steady at 275-280 so far. Had to adjust the probe, was too close to the grate- that's the high temp and then drop.

Gotta say, though, this brisket seems to be rising in temp faster than any I can remember doing. I've backed off the heat some more, seeing if I can ease up on the climb a little.

jealous

Yep, there are days I really do miss TX weather.

This week has been glorious, getting up to 38-40 in the day, blue skies and sunshine. Had 2 solid weeks of snow before that. I went to the grocery store yesterday in shorts and a t-shirt... had several people (native CO's) stop me and ask where my jacket was. It was chilly, but I was enjoying the sun.

Supposed to dump 6-8" tonight, so I'll be up at 5am blowing & shoveling before church. That's not so much fun... But I only cut my grass about 2-3 times a year, so it's a trade off.

drummer0415 said:

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The most amazing part of this whole post is that you actually have a Meater.

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That was my thought as well.

Lower humidity and elevation no doubt play a part in that.

drummer0415 said:

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The most amazing part of this whole post is that you actually have a Meater.

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Had to do a forum search to understand this post. WOW- I had no idea people had so many issues! Guess I got luck and found it at the right time. I just saw it around thanksgiving, sent my MIL an amazon link for Christmas. No issues at all. Have really enjoyed it so far

AgLA06 said:

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Lower humidity and elevation no doubt play a part in that.

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Absolutely. It has been a learning curve moving up here. My temps were too high early this am, I think I was overcompensating thinking the cold would have more impact that it did. I keep the water pan full, and I think that helps for sure. I think I can chalk the stall changes up to elevation/pressure

Coldest I've ever barbecued a brisket was +11 a few years back. If I recall, we finished it in the oven. After living through-15 or so the last few days it feels balmy enough to cook a few racks or briskets today at 35.

My 3mile hike started with 50#, dropping 15# then another 15# along the way... at 66 degrees. I'm sweatin over here! I needs some brisket power.

What happened? Did you cook it past your target temp? Or you think it got too hot too fast?

STX Ag said:

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What happened? Did you cook it past your target temp? Or you think it got too hot too fast?

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Well - #1 I think it was simply low quality meat. I only had 3 selects to choose from, none of which had even decent marbling. This may have contributed to some of the oddities, and I'm sure played a part in the dryness.

I also think it ran too hot at the beginning. I'm learning this grill might run better cooler than I'm used to. It hit what looked like a second stall at 193, and I ended up pulling it at 199 as it was apparent at that point things weren't improving.

Still tasty, for dry brisket... I whipped up a pretty good sauce after I figured it would be dry, that helped things along. We'll make some sandwiches, nachos, and pho with it.

There is a good XKCD "what if?" post that answers a question similar to this. Something about toaster vs freezer.

Long and short of it is that things that cook food are heating things up much more than freezers cool things down.

There is little effect on the toaster's ability to toast when it is placed in the freezer. To the toaster at 600 degrees or so, room temperature at 70 degrees is just a little less cold than 32 degrees or in your case 8 degrees.

No adjustment is really needed, but reading your posts, I see you know that now. The altitude and humidity are having much more effect than the ambient temperatures...

Thanks for this. Makes a lot of sense.

One thing I was thinking about, is I flipped the brisket, and cooked fat down. My rational was that the cold was going to keep the temps on the perimeter down (which it did, to a point), and there would be more heat used to compensate. Tberefore, more heat coming from below, I put the fat down to protect it. This may have been an unnecessary compensation in hind sight.

I think I'm just going to try going lower and slower next time. If that doesn't work, maybe I need to crank up the heat and use a crutch to power through stalls at altitude. Sounds like I have at least 2 more excuses to put fire to meat in my near future...

marcel ledbetter said:

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I smoke year round out here in Oregon. My smoker is a big commercial refrigerator with a wood burning stove plugged into it. That thing is so well insulated it doesn't know the difference between 95 in the summer or 10 in the winter. The only difference between summer and winter smoking is the amount of wood the stove consumes. This thread reminds me that it's time to fire it up and smoke up a year's supply of brisket and pulled pork.

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Do you have any pics of your smoker. It would be interesting to see.

You deserve this for giving Serious Texas BBQ a hard time! I like having an option to buy a brisket sandwich when I don't want to cook a brisket. I make Mighty fine brisket but always stop in for STBBQ!

I found that using the Texas crutch (for part of the cook) when living in New Mexico (10% humidity) helped. Finding good meat was really hard.

LRHF said:

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I found that using the Texas crutch (for part of the cook) when living in New Mexico (10% humidity) helped.

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Probably necessary for any low humidity environment. Probably better to go foil instead of butcher paper as well in that situation.

STX Ag said:

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3 selects? That's rough.

Now I won't feel so bad for myself next time I have to go to heb and spend a half hour sorting thru the endless supply of choice and prime briskets searching for that just right cut.

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No crap. Went to HEB this morning to see if they had anything to grill today and they had baby back, spare ribs, and prime and choice brisket on sale. Picked up 8 racks of ribs to fill the freezer and didn't look at the briskets because my fingers were cold from sorting through the ribs. At least 15 of each in the cooler.

Almost as amazing...it works!

OP, what part of the state are you located? I'm in Arvada and found a decent bbq place over in Broomfield.