colder weather cooking on a Trager

[Keeperovdeflame]

Well, friends my optimism was short lived. When my IT got to 166 I thought I was above the stall. Unfortunately, it was not to be. Cooking at 225 at 1pm I was again stuck at 166. I raised the cooking temp to 250 and after a few hours at 166 and again raised the cooking temp to 270 an hour later . As I write this it is 5:12 pm and cooking at 270 for a few hours I am still only at 171. My guests had to eat a dinner of only sides and left at 4:30 pm. I would count this Christmas dinner cook as a total fail. If I count the hours since I got the meat on at 2:45am, I have been cooking this originally 17lb Prime brisket, probably 15lbs trimmed for 14 hours now. First at 225 then at 250 and now at 270. I am still at 171In the flat. I thought maybe the Traeger probe was giving me a screwy reading but using my super accurate thermapen in the same spot on the flat as well as several other spots, I come up with the same reading or within a degree or two. The outside temp when I started was 22 f but it is only 55 outside now. I have no idea why it is taking so long. I originally planned on a 11 to 12 hour cook with an hour rest and dinner at 3 or 4. Did I do something wrong. I thought I knew how to cook. Ps. I wrapped it in two over lapped in the middle sheets of pink butcher paper when it stalled at 146 IT. It is still wrapped. Go figure. Really disappointed. At 5:30 I just hit 173. 14 1/2 hours.

 

[Timmmer]

We have a 575 and cooked a brisket overnight last night into today. It got down to -10 overnight (f) and the high today was 12 degrees. I put it in at 11pm at 185 degrees. Meat temp was 169 degrees at 5:30 this morning. I wrapped it and turned it up to 225 at that point. It was moving along but it stalled around 11am and didn't seem to want to heat above the low 190's. Around 12:30 I kicked it up to 250 and we pulled it out at 2:30 at 205 degrees.

 

[Timmy]

In my experience you started to late. Shoulda started at 9:00 or 10:00pm the night before.

 

[RemE]

Bummer!!! This happened on my first brisket, then I found Matt Pittman's Meat Church recipe, "Weekday Brisket" and changed my life. Put in at 6p day before, much more control of finish time. I shoot for two hours before meal time to have it wrapped up in the cooler. Traeger's WiFire control is perfect for these long cooks. The perfect final touch is to add a Wi-Fi thermometer like a Fireboard 2, then you can track the stall in their app and alter temps as needed to finish on time!

No more hungry friends eating sides of shame.

 

[mikeytee]

I picked up a welding blanket at Northern Tool, 4' x 6' and draped it over my 575. Put my 10# brisket on and fired it up. Got to 210 and I put a smoke tube in with it. Hit between 152 and 167 (incosistent temp across the brisket) at 3 a.m. when I woke up from my nap. It was 19 F degrees outside with about 5 mph wind, and I watched my temperature before I fell asleep in my magic recliner and the temp. was holding steady within 7 degrees or so. I pulled it off and brought it in at 3 a.m.,wrapped in foil and put it in the oven at 200 degrees until about 9 this morning. Turned off the oven and left it until about noon. It was so tender you could hardly pick it up to cut it. It was delicious. By the way, I filled the hopper plum full before I started and the pellets dropped about 2 1/2 inches between 5 p.m and 3 a.m. That was less temperature fluctuation and pellet consumption by the way than I was getting before I used the blanket on another cook when it was around 28 F. and it heated up way faster too. Bottom line I think the blanket at 39 dollars was a good investment.