First brisket going on the TraegerNeed some advise

[Clint62]

For the first phase, Traeger says to slow cook for 6 hrs at 225 until it reaches 160 My meater probe says the brisket will be done in 3 hours at that temp. I do have the probe in the thickest part of the cut...so...makes it makes me go hmmmmmmm. Do I lower the temp to make cook time stretch out for 6 hrs??

Thanks in advance

 

[Slimpicker]

First you need to state how big is your brisket.
Probe the thick area of point and flat, make that perfect and the flat that might be overcooked is for burnt ends of chopped taco mean or chili...etc.

Second, throw away that Traeger recipe and look at several youtube vids of cooking briskets. 3rd, there is no way on this earth any brisket 10lb+ is gonna be done in 3 hours at 225°, let alone 6 hours.

DO YOU HAVE A 3rd party PIT temp probe??? The Meater might be telling you that because you are no where near only 225° pit temp.
You need to know your TRUE pit temp and keep it low. A simple search on this site will give you TONS of brisket cooks and advice.

 

[Clint62]

Brisket is a shade over 13 lbs. I have the meater probe inserted in the thickest part of the point. I have traeger dialed back so meater ambient is 200-210. The meater did add some time to estimated cook time, so maybe things will even out before I remove it for phase 2 of the cook. ETA: I didnt mean to imply the whole thing would be done in 6 hours..recipe said six hours to get to 160, then 3 more hours wrapped up to finish. I do not have any other meat probes other than an instant read one.

 

[Slimpicker]

You'll be fine for now then. You plan to "pink paper" wrap at 165°IT???
After that you can go to 245-250 on the pit temp, put that probe back in and ride to 203° Internal

REST REST REST for at least an hour or more, in the paper, in foil or in a cooler, don't matter. ENJOY, post pics or we will BAN YOU from the site!!!

 

[Clint62]

Yup...due to lack of knowledge I have to use foil instead of paper, but I have some 24" pink paper on order ETA...I will surely post pics. If all goes well

 

[RayClem]

Any time estimates are approximate. Always go by temperature measured by a thermometer known to be accurate. Even the 165 F is just an estimate. What you are looking for is when the temperature stalls and the curve reaches a plateau. This typically occurs somewhere between 160-170 F. This is the temperature at which all of the available heat is evaporating moisture from the meat, so the internal temperature ceases to rise for a while, perhaps for several hours. When it reaches the stall point, you can take one of three options:

1. Leave the ambient temperature where it is and wait out the stall. That could take quite a while.
2. Increase the cook temperature to power through the stall by providing more heat than required for evaporation.
3. Wrap the meat in foil or butcher wrap to minimize evaporation. Without the heat loss to moisture evaporation, the internal temperature will rise once again. Some people do not like wrapping as this can soften the bark you have worked so hard to perfect. However, this can also provide an opportunity to add beef tallow or other fat to the cook for added flavor.

With smaller pieces of meat like a rack of ribs, either method can be used. With larger pieces like a brisket, wrapping is common as it greatly reduces the overall time for the cook. However, either of the options can be used if you have sufficient time.

If you do decide to wrap the meat, no additional smoke flavor will be absorbed by the protein. Thus, you could move the cook to an indoor oven rather than the wood pellet grill. The outcome will be similar either way.

 

[Clint62]

Thanks for the replies..it turned out awesomely for a first go at it. Will post a pic shortly.

 

[GEON]

I have a traeger century (the costco special). The thermometer in the unit is not accurate and cannot be trusted for smoking. When you are making something like a brisket - you *NEED* to make sure you are pulling the meat out at the right temp. I use external temp probes. Also the traeger is like an oven - it does just about no help with the actual smoking (even with smoke tubes it is disappointing) the kind of pellets seems to be irrelevant past 225 degrees. (It does keep the temp even - so there is that) I am really unhappy with the traeger as a smoker - as an outdoor oven it does fine. But as a smoker it is severly lacking and as a bbq it doesn't get hot enough.

My last brisket (15lb) took over 15 hours at my usual low-and-slow default of 225. I had an electric smoker from Smoke-n-tex before and it was superior as a smoker!
Sorry to rant - I hope your brisket came out awesome!

 

[Shedd]

I have a traeger century (the costco special). The thermometer in the unit is not accurate and cannot be trusted for smoking. When you are making something like a brisket - you *NEED* to make sure you are pulling the meat out at the right temp. I use external temp probes. Also the traeger is like an oven - it does just about no help with the actual smoking (even with smoke tubes it is disappointing) the kind of pellets seems to be irrelevant past 225 degrees. (It does keep the temp even - so there is that) I am really unhappy with the traeger as a smoker - as an outdoor oven it does fine. But as a smoker it is severly lacking and as a bbq it doesn't get hot enough.

My last brisket (15lb) took over 15 hours at my usual low-and-slow default of 225. I had an electric smoker from Smoke-n-tex before and it was superior as a smoker!
Sorry to rant - I hope your brisket came out awesome!

I completely agree with you. Real smokers don’t need smoke tubes. Those are for grills. That’s not a smoker!

 

[Parrothead1809]

Although I haven't tried a smoke tube yet, I used Lumberjack pellets for the first time in the Traeger for my Super Bowl pulled pork. I will say that keeping the cooking temp (prior to wrapping) at 225° along with the Lumberjacks did give the pork a smoker flavor then the Traeger pellets I've been using so far. Still not as smokey as my old wood/charcoal vertical smoker, however, you can set-and-forget on the Traeger.
-PH

 

[Shedd]

Although I haven't tried a smoke tube yet, I used Lumberjack pellets for the first time in the Traeger for my Super Bowl pulled pork. I will say that keeping the cooking temp (prior to wrapping) at 225° along with the Lumberjacks did give the pork a smoker flavor then the Traeger pellets I've been using so far. Still not as smokey as my old wood/charcoal vertical smoker, however, you can set-and-forget on the Traeger.
-PH

You can get temperature controllers for most charcoal smokers and they work really good, definitely set and forget. My friend uses pit master controllers on both of his Webber Smokey Mountain smokers. He uses the Flame Boss on his green egg. He cooks a lot as well as works regular job and sleeps all night while they cook. I cook in turbo on my egg so I don’t have to worry about cooking when I’m sleeping but I definitely would add one if I had to. But on my Pro 780 the extended smoke tube alone with the smoke box work fairly good on ribs and chicken. I haven’t noticed any smoke flavor from one brand of pellets to the other, I’ve been sticking to the Costco brand because they work well and are better priced.

 

[Aubie1]

Late to need but here goes. I have only done a couple of briskets on my Traegar, several on a BGE. I smoke at 250 and wrap in foil at 160 internal temp. I remove when internal reaches 200-202. When wrapping with foil, the finished brisket will be very loose (extremely jiggly). I remove from foil and wrap in butcher paper to rest. By doing so it allows the brisket to firm up.

Why do I wrap in foil? I like to hold onto as much of the au jus as possible.

 

[Aubie1]

Although I haven't tried a smoke tube yet, I used Lumberjack pellets for the first time in the Traeger for my Super Bowl pulled pork. I will say that keeping the cooking temp (prior to wrapping) at 225° along with the Lumberjacks did give the pork a smoker flavor then the Traeger pellets I've been using so far. Still not as smokey as my old wood/charcoal vertical smoker, however, you can set-and-forget on the Traeger.
-PH

Smoke tube is your friend.

 

[Clint62]

I used smoke tubes and had an awesome smoke ring and smoky flavor. When I bought the 575 I didn't realize at the time it was a glorified oven, but smoke tubes DO work just fine, at least in my experience. I will try the lumberjack pellets. I also wrapped in foil. Next time I will try the paper. ETA: At what model level does traeger offer super smoke? And does super smoke do the job well, or is it still not up to par with a true "smoker"?

 

[Aubie1]

I used smoke tubes and had an awesome smoke ring and smoky flavor. When I bought the 575 I didn't realize at the time it was a glorified oven, but smoke tubes DO work just fine, at least in my experience. I will try the lumberjack pellets. I also wrapped in foil. Next time I will try the paper. ETA: At what model level does traeger offer super smoke? And does super smoke do the job well, or is it still not up to par with a true "smoker"?

I can't answer that for you and I have yet to use the super smoke feature.