Smoked a brisket at 225 for 18 hours and it came out dry as leather

I finally got my hands on a prime packer from Costco last weekend and decided to go low and slow all night. Woke up at 4am to check it and the temp had dipped to 190 for like 2 hours because my firebox went out. Learned the hard way that maintaining a steady temp matters way more than the exact number you set. Has anyone else had a long smoke go sideways from a simple temp drop like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

ellis.leo23d ago

You got the temp gauge on your cooker? Sounds like your firebox went out and you didn't catch it fast enough. I run a remote probe with a high/low alarm on my smoker now. Saved me twice when the wind killed my fire. Also helps to put a water pan in the cook chamber to buffer those temp swings.

young.kim23d ago

Idk, water pan can actually make temp swings worse if it's too close to the firebox.

reesel5022d agoMost Upvoted

I mean @young.kim, is a pan really that big of a deal?