The day my brisket stalled for 9 hours and I almost gave up

I was doing a cook for a friend's party in Memphis last month, and I put a 16 pound packer on my offset at 5 AM. Everything was going fine, the bark looked great, then it hit 165 degrees and just stopped. I mean, it sat there for what felt like forever. I checked the fire, wrapped it in butcher paper, nothing. My buddy called at 2 PM asking when the food would be ready, and I had to tell him the meat hadn't moved in hours. I was so close to pulling it off and calling it a loss. But I just let it ride, kept the temp steady, and finally around 6 PM it started climbing again. It finished at 10 PM, rested, and was honestly the best one I've ever made. Has anyone else had a stall that long where it actually turned out okay?

3 comments

3 Comments

ninar6815d ago

Trust the process, it always pushes through eventually.

max71615d ago

My buddy had a pork shoulder stall for almost eleven hours once. He was ready to throw the whole smoker in the trash, he was so mad. We kept telling him to just leave it alone, but he was pacing around his yard. It finally pushed through around midnight, and he said it was the juiciest pork he ever made. He almost ruined it because he couldn't just wait it out.

jamiesullivan15d ago

Oh man, nine hours is a serious test of patience! I have to say though, calling it a "stall" feels like an understatement, that's more like the brisket went into a full coma. But isn't that the worst feeling, when everyone is waiting and the thermometer just won't budge? It's wild that pushing through the panic gave you your best result ever. Makes you wonder how many great briskets get pulled early, right?