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
what's the deal 7 degrees in 10 minutes?
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.