- Sep 14, 2017
- 8
- 11
My past few briskets haven't turned out the greatest. I can't get them up to the temperature and tenderness I want, no matter how long I seem to cook. I use a MES 40 and cook at 225 using an AMNPS.
Yesterday, I put the brisket in my smoker at 10:30pm the next morning at 8am it was about at 145, then around 11 or so it hit 153 and stalled as expected. I pushed through to an IT of 160. It took about 16 hours to get to an internal temp of 160 at 225. I wrapped the brisket in butcher paper and the temp dropped a few degrees. At 20 hours I was at about 163. At this point I was getting pretty frustrated and bumped the smoker up to 250. Even then, after 24.5 hours of cooking, the IT in the thickest part of the brisket was only 180. I did pull it and let it rest. It didn't turn out too bad, but some of the thicker slices weren't as tender.
Has anyone ever had these issues? Whenever I do use my AMNPS, I have to take the entire chip loader out to keep it lit. I've noticed this definitely increases the cooking time of everything, but I wouldn't think it'd make this big a difference.
Any ideas? Is it possible my MES is cooking way lower than the temperature I'm setting it at? I guess I should probably eliminate that possibility first.
Yesterday, I put the brisket in my smoker at 10:30pm the next morning at 8am it was about at 145, then around 11 or so it hit 153 and stalled as expected. I pushed through to an IT of 160. It took about 16 hours to get to an internal temp of 160 at 225. I wrapped the brisket in butcher paper and the temp dropped a few degrees. At 20 hours I was at about 163. At this point I was getting pretty frustrated and bumped the smoker up to 250. Even then, after 24.5 hours of cooking, the IT in the thickest part of the brisket was only 180. I did pull it and let it rest. It didn't turn out too bad, but some of the thicker slices weren't as tender.
Has anyone ever had these issues? Whenever I do use my AMNPS, I have to take the entire chip loader out to keep it lit. I've noticed this definitely increases the cooking time of everything, but I wouldn't think it'd make this big a difference.
Any ideas? Is it possible my MES is cooking way lower than the temperature I'm setting it at? I guess I should probably eliminate that possibility first.