I recently grabbed the Masterbuilt dual fuel smoker from Home Depot and did some of the universally recommended upgrades - added a door seal, replaced the chip pan with a cast iron skillet on carriage bolt legs, added a cable gland to run temp probes through - and I've had pretty good luck with the handful of things I've smoked so far. Pork butt, couple brisket flats, St. Louis ribs, salmon, tri-tip, and an assortment of chicken. We rather quickly went from "Are you going to be babysitting that thing all day?" to "I want brisket." from my wife, so by and large, this has been a success.
That said, I can't seem to convince a brisket flat to get to 200-205 degrees. Last time around, I cut a flat in half so it would fit into the smoker, stuck an iGrill probe in each piece, and got things started. At the stall, I wrapped both in butcher paper and folded the edges underneath. One piece half eventually (14-15 hours later, probably 5 lbs of brisket) hit 199 and I pulled it out to avoid starving to death. The second half was only around 181 at that point. Since it was getting late and I needed to work the next morning, I took the temp from 225 to around 320 for another 2 hours, which pushed it all the way to 183. Tasted great and was absolutely edible, so no concerns there.
Question I have, though, is should I be factoring altitude into my target temps? I'm at 7900', give or take, in the foothills west of Denver, so water boils around 197. I've dug around on Google a bit as well as here in the forum, and didn't really see a clear cut Yes/No consensus. And if I don't need an altitude adjustment, should I adjust my thinking and just pull the meat when it seems to plateau or do something different to persuade it to actually get to my target range?
Given my success rate with the recipes on the free side of the site, I'm looking forward to what I find over here...
Thanks for any advice!
That said, I can't seem to convince a brisket flat to get to 200-205 degrees. Last time around, I cut a flat in half so it would fit into the smoker, stuck an iGrill probe in each piece, and got things started. At the stall, I wrapped both in butcher paper and folded the edges underneath. One piece half eventually (14-15 hours later, probably 5 lbs of brisket) hit 199 and I pulled it out to avoid starving to death. The second half was only around 181 at that point. Since it was getting late and I needed to work the next morning, I took the temp from 225 to around 320 for another 2 hours, which pushed it all the way to 183. Tasted great and was absolutely edible, so no concerns there.
Question I have, though, is should I be factoring altitude into my target temps? I'm at 7900', give or take, in the foothills west of Denver, so water boils around 197. I've dug around on Google a bit as well as here in the forum, and didn't really see a clear cut Yes/No consensus. And if I don't need an altitude adjustment, should I adjust my thinking and just pull the meat when it seems to plateau or do something different to persuade it to actually get to my target range?
Given my success rate with the recipes on the free side of the site, I'm looking forward to what I find over here...
Thanks for any advice!
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