My temp probe gave out right before a brisket competition last Saturday

I was 4 hours into a 12 hour smoke for the county fair event and my trusty probe started reading 180 on a brisket that was clearly still cold. Panicked for a bit, then dug through my toolbox and found an old analog thermometer I had from a grill I replaced 3 years ago. It worked fine but I had to pop the lid every hour to check it, which cost me some heat. Has anyone else had a backup fail on them during a cook and had to improvise with something random?

3 comments

3 Comments

ruby_rivera761mo ago

Love how life always tests your backup plan for the backup plan.

patricialee1mo ago

Life tests your backup plan for the backup plan" - yeah, that's too real. Had a friend who planned her whole vacation around a flight, then a rental car, then a bus, and still ended up stuck at a rest stop for 4 hours. She texted me a photo of a vending machine dinner like it was a trophy. @ruby_rivera76, you're spot on.

caleb_thomas931mo ago

Why do people act like having to adjust your plans is some kind of tragedy? Your friend still made it to a rest stop with a vending machine, so she had food and shelter. That's not a disaster, that's just a Tuesday for anyone who's ever lived outside a bubble. The backup plan failing is usually your own fault for not having a real backup - like packing snacks or learning to sleep in a car. Life doesn't test you, people just overplan vacations that involve fifteen different moving parts and then act surprised when one of them breaks. Maybe the lesson is to stop treating everything like a mission and just roll with the cheap crackers.