Fought a brisket stall for 9 hours straight and still ended up with shoe leather

I got this beautiful 15-pound prime packer from a farm down in Lockhart last weekend, figured it'd be an easy 12-hour smoke. Hit the stall around 160 internal and it just would not budge, I mean I was wrapping, bumping temps, the whole deal. Ended up fighting that thing for 9 extra hours before I finally pulled it at 2 in the morning (my wife was not thrilled). Have any of you run into a brisket that just refused to push through the stall, or did I just mess up my setup royally?

2 comments

2 Comments

lisak261mo ago

Bet your fire was running too clean the whole time. Did you check if your smoke was thin enough to see your hand across the pit?

the_paul1mo ago

Is it just me or does thin, clean smoke not always mean a good cook, @lisak26? I've had plenty of great briskets where the smoke was white and thick for the first hour or two. Thin blue smoke is nice but I don't stress over it as long as the meat tastes right.