need help fast! Please

[skpeep]

Ok, so i decided to try my hand at a tri-tip today.  got the smoker up to around 225-230 and put on a mixture of hickory and apple.  After putting the tip on, i left the thermo probe in the smoker, just to make sure i was maintaining temp.  So, about a half hour goes by and it's keeping temp, so i go ahead and put the probe in the tri-tip.  I get a reading of 120.  Now, here it is, just over an hour since I put it on the smoker, and I am getting a reading of 127.  From everything I have read, people usually pull their tri-tip at 135, and that is usually taking about 3 hours at 225.  My thermometer has to be reading wrong, right? There is no way a 2.5 lb tri-tip is already at 127 in just over an hour in the smoker, right?

 

[floridasteve]

Go to Walmart and but a cheat direct read dial meat thermometer and keep in your drawer as a backup in case you don't trust your electronic one. Probes do fail, and my $5 backup has saved my but more than once.

 

[themandlj32]

Have you checked to see if the probe is calibrated?

 

[noboundaries]

Did you take the meat right out of the refrigerator and put it on the smoker? If so, the meat was probably in the high 30s to possibly low 40s to start. If you left the meat on the counter a while before loading it in the smoker, the temp of the meat may have climbed into the low 50s before you loaded it in the smoker.

A 2.5 lb tri tip can be done in the time you mentioned though that's pretty fast.

 

[JckDanls 07]

I would have pulled the probe out and stuck it in a different spot... still would if it's still cooking...