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What Is the Stall Temperature for Brisket?

By: Author William Thomas

William Thomas

Editor-in-Chief & Pitmaster

I have been smoking and grilling meat from an early age and enjoy sharing my knowledge and expertise through the hundreds of articles I have written about BBQ. I hope to make everyone’s BBQ journey that little bit easier.
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What Is the Stall Temperature for Brisket?

When you are cooking meat, you need to cook it to a specific temperature. Otherwise, it will be considered undercooked.

Eating undercooked meat is not good because it can make you extremely sick in the long run.

The best way to avoid this is to cook the meat to the recommended temperature, but sometimes it doesn’t always go according to plan.

There are times when the temperature will stall during the cooking process, requiring us to intervene. One food this can happen with is brisket.

In this article, we are going to touch on this subject, and by the end, you’ll know exactly what it is and how to fix it.

Definition of Brisket

Before defining what a stall temperature is, we want to touch on what a brisket is. Brisket comes from a cow.

To be specific, it comes from the lower breast or pectoral muscles. Since it’s a muscle, it’s not hard to figure out that this cut of meat is very tough.

There are two types of cut you can get with brisket. One is the flat cut, and the second is the deckle point.

The main difference is that the flat cut is thinner, while the deckle point is fattier.Brisket can usually be found at your local butcher, but it can be available at your grocery store, depending on where you live.

Another thing to keep in mind is that brisket is expensive, so you will want to keep this in mind.

If you are on a budget, then it’s not best to go with this cut of meat. It used to be affordable, but high demand has caused its price of it to rise.

Now that you know what brisket is, we will go into what stall temperature means because you’ll need to know what it means to prevent it.

Definition of Stall Temperature

One phenomenon that exists is plateauing. Commonly, we see plateauing when people are trying to lose weight.

They will be doing well and shedding the pounds until it all comes to a stop. No amount of working out or eating right helps them lose any more weight.

Well, in cooking, there can also be a plateauing phenomenon.

With meat, sometimes the internal temperature can reach what is called a stall temperature, where it doesn’t heat up anymore.

Brisket will usually stall around 155 to 165 degrees, and this can be quite frustrating when you are trying to finish the meat in time for the meal.

The reason meat seems to stall is because of the moisture that starts to evaporate from the surface of the meat. This moisture then cools the meat, making it difficult to heat it any further.

It might sound daunting but don’t worry because there are steps you can take to prevent this from happening in the first place. Keep reading to find out how!

How Do You Get Past the Stall Temperature?

There are a few things you can do to get past the stall temperature. We’ve found five methods to help get past the stall temperature, and they include:

  • The first method to getting past the stall temperature is to just let it be. Yes, it can be that simple. Not everyone is going to want to go with this method because it requires you to sit and be patient. If you don’t want to wait, then consider one of the other four methods.
  • By spritzing your brisket with water, you can create high humidity. If you have high humidity, then it can stop evaporation from happening.
  • Another thing you can do is you can make it hotter and then cook it at a fast speed. So, consider using this method if you find that you are short on time. Sometimes, with cooking, we just can’t spend a lot of time during the cooking process. This is why so many people use crockpots to make dinner.
  • You could keep the brisket separated rather than cook it together.
  • Finally, the last method you could use is wrapping the brisket in paper or foil, which can help stops the evaporation. You want to make sure you wrap the brisket well because it could cause it to eventually stall at some point.

These are all the best methods to being able to get past the stall point.

Admittedly, it’s very frustrating when the stall temperature hit’s your meat because you’ve poured all this energy and effort into it. Thankfully, there are things you can do to get past the stall temperature.

All of these methods come with pros and cons because where there are good points, there are also bad.

The Ideal Temperature for Brisket

Brisket needs to be at a certain temperature, and once you get past the stall temperature, you’ll be able to cook it to its ideal temperature.

Usually, with meat, you need to reach a specific temperature to be considered safe enough to eat. However, before you do that, figure out whether brisket is white or red meat.

For something to be considered white meat, it needs to have come from a bird. Now for it to be considered red meat, it needs to come from a four-legged animal and be red in its red form.

Brisket, in particular, needs to be cooked between 160 and 205 degrees. It just depends on what type of device you are cooking your brisket on.

Final Thoughts

And here you go, all you brisket lovers out there! Brisket is an unbelievably delicious food to cook on your grill, and sometimes the temperature can stall despite your best efforts to prevent it from happening.

However, we’ve outlined methods of how you can fix it, so if it does happen, you’ll be able to fix it.

Stalling temperature can be a frustrating thing with cooking, but cooking isn’t an exact science.

This is why we produce methods to help fix the problem, so next time your brisket’s temperature stalls, you’ll be good to go!

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