Brisket help!

[Jhoussock]

Smoking my first thing today.  I have a 5 pound brisket flat and it's been smoking for 55 minutes and it's already at 133 degrees thermometer is set to 225. The Auber i bought I received broken so I'm using a maverick thermometer right now. Is this normal seems  like it's cooking to fast. Probe was place in from the side

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[Jhoussock]

Now it's at 140  what's the deal 7 degrees in 10 minutes?

[Jhoussock]

So it's stalled for the last hour @150 temperatures are averaging  225  why did it cook so fast to 140? Is that normal? Was my wood on fire? I can't imagine it averaging 225 if the wood caught fire but I wasn't monitoring cabinet temp during this period. Any input would be appreciated. Hopefully I'm just a paranoid newbie.

[DivotMaker]

Breathe!!    Perfectly normal smoke, sounds like to me!  Large cuts, like brisket and pork butts, will climb pretty fast at first, but will stall and take a lot longer than it seems like it should (based on the initial climb in temp).  It can stall for several hours; don't try to rush it by turning the temp up, just let it do its thing.  During the stall, the fat and connective tissue is rendering, and the meat is actually experiencing evaporative cooling (like when we perspire in the wind).  There's some good cooking going on during the stall!  This is what helps to make it moist and tender.

Remember to double-wrap in HD foil when it hits 195-199, and let it rest in the cooler for an hour.  This step is very important.  Let us know if you have any other questions!

[Jhoussock]

I'm perfectly fine with the stall my concern was that it reached 150 in an hour that seems fast to me. However the fact that it's been 152 for 3 hours seems like a good sign right?

[DivotMaker]

Yes - good sign.  What was the temp of the meat when you started?  Fridge cold or room temp? 

[Jhoussock]

Meat was 50 degrees

[DivotMaker]

One thing you might try, next time, is to keep the meat in the fridge until it goes in.  I find starting with meat around 35 degrees works best.  The smoker warming up gives the meat time to warm up, too.  Works well for me, and gets the best smoke penetration.  15 degrees doesn't seem like much, but explains why your increased in temp so fast.  Just my 2-cents!

[es1025]

Jh
Read my posting in the beef section on brisket. Its normal for the meat to move fast. I wrapped at 150 and my total cook time was 6 hours.  Was my best performance to date.