Burned a $40 brisket flat because I trusted the smoker's built-in thermometer

I was smoking in my backyard in Austin last Saturday and the grill said 225, but after 8 hours the meat came out like shoe leather because the real temp was 150, has anyone else had their smoker thermometer drift that bad?

3 comments

3 Comments

charlescraig12d ago

Man, I used to swear by those built-in thermometers too. Thought they were good enough for backyard cooking. But after pulling a $50 pork butt off way too early one time, I finally tossed a digital probe in there just to check. Turns out my smoker was running 40 degrees hotter than the dial showed for the first few hours, then dropped off later. I don't trust any of those factory gauges anymore. Now I always double check with a cheap oven thermometer right on the grate.

piper_kim11d ago

Ditch those junk gauges, real talk.

karenh5612d ago

Wait, your smoker was reading 225 but actually sitting at 150 the whole time? That's brutal, I would've been so ticked off if I spent 8 hours on a brisket only to end up with shoe leather. I've had my own run-ins with those factory thermometers, but not that extreme. The worst I got was a 30 degree difference on my old offset, and even that ruined a few racks of ribs before I caught it. You can't trust those things at all, especially after a few years of use. I finally bought a two pack of those little oven thermometers at Walmart for like 8 bucks, and now I always set one on the grate next to the meat just to keep an honest check. Sorry your brisket got wasted like that, it's a real bummer when you put in that much time and effort.