Brisket Temp Rising Fast?

[Stone]

I put an 8lb brisket flat on the smoker an hour ago. The temp probe said 45* out of the fridge (which seemed a little warm). But an hour later, it’s saying 130*. The smoker has been around 240-250*.

That seems like a pretty quick temp rise. Should I assume I’ve got the probe too close to the edge of the meat?

 

[RLittle]

Either that or a bad probe. Do you have another probe to try? I had that happen to me one time and I chased temp issues for a while before trying a spare probe.

 

[Mark_E]

Yeah, sometimes the probes go bad out of the blue. I hate that. Are you sure your probe is in the center? The temp does rise pretty fast though in the beginning, then it slows down big time. Then it hits the stall. Then it creeps up and seems to take forever. Check it with an instant read if you got one. Good luck.

 

[BFletcher]

I've seen them climb very quickly during the first hour or so; the greater the temperature delta between your food and your pit temp the quicker the rise. But if you do question the integrity of your meat probe you should also verify your pit temp with an external thermometer, too (i.e. is it truly running at 240-250f, or is it running 260-270f or something different?)

Good luck!

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Just be patient, do the suggestions above and be ready to give it a nice long rest in a cooler wrapped and swaddled in towels.
I would not get too concerned…yet.

 

[Bob Bass]

Do a quick boiling water test....

 

[Brett-EDH]

Flats climb very quickly. I’ve posted my probe temp pics when smoking briskets. I’ll see if I can dig up a pic for you to see how flats cook over time.

Here’s a pic. The blue line is the Flat section.



I’d say you’re doing fine and don’t change anything. Just wrap the flat at 170° and you’ll get a tender brisket.

 

[Stone]

Everything turned out great, it just went very fast. I wrapped at 165* and pulled it off at 205*. It could have used another 1b2 hour or so, but no complaints.