Brisket stalled at 160 for 6 hours, I panicked and wrapped. Was that the wrong call?

Last Saturday I was smoking a 14 pound prime packer on my offset in Austin, Texas. Everything was going smooth until it hit 160 and just sat there, not moving for a full 6 hours. I got nervous because guests were coming at 7 PM and it was already 3 PM, so I wrapped it in foil to power through. It finished by 6:30 and tasted decent, but the bark was soft and the fat didn't render as clean as my last unwrapped run. My buddy swears I should have let it ride and pushed dinner back, but my other friend says wrapping is the only way to save a stall. So which camp are you in, fight the stall or give in to the foil?

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1 Comment

knight.xena5d ago

...so really you were just dealing with the same thing we all deal with when we refuse to change plans mid-cook. That stall isn't a bug, it's the meat telling you it needs time, and wrapping is basically saying "I don't trust the process, I need results now." I've done both and honestly the best briskets I've ever made were the ones where I just let the temp do its thing and adjusted everything else around it. But here's the thing, your guests were coming, dinner had to happen, and a good brisket at 6:30 beats a perfect one at 9 PM on a Tuesday when nobody's waiting. The real mistake isn't wrapping, it's that you didn't plan for the stall in the first place, that's what the extra hour or two of buffer time is for. Next time, start at 6 AM instead of 9, or tell your friends dinner is at 8, and you'll get that unwrapped bark you're chasing. You didn't ruin anything, you just learned the difference between cooking for a clock and cooking for flavor.