Brisket disaster-please help

well obviously he didnt follow your advise......

The heat source is very close to grate on Treager, sounds like he needed to flip it during the cook or use a lower setting.

The traeger can overcook and very often keeping the brisket in foil may be the solution. I got rid of mine years ago but remember this very problem. Does he have the digital controller on it? I found that I needed to do a full cleaning on it each time and use the foil over the drain to keep it from flaring up with fatty meats. Best bet is to check it early and often.

Brian

I have no Traeger but have seen guys post it runs much hotter than controller says - tell him to sell it for UDS money.

SmittyJonz said:

I have no Traeger but have seen guys post it runs much hotter than controller says - tell him to sell it for UDS money.

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A buddy that has a Traeger now uses his UDS ( Big Poppa) and getting a second one after tasting the difference.

Imo what went wrong was the smoker change. The cooker can determine the process. As stated pellet cookers have a different heat source than drums.
Also your friend may have botched the process. I think he may have cooked to hot.

Did he monitor the internal temp? I find that is very important to use as a rough guide.

Royalslover said:

I typically cook between 300 and 350. He head steady at around 260-275.

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Then he did not follow your process.

Royalslover said:

I typically cook between 300 and 350. He head steady at around 260-275.

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As others have said you're cooking on two completely different cookers. Heat source, and distance from the heat source are going to be the biggest differences between the two.

I cook on both my Traeger and UDS frequently. There are several differences on a Traeger, or any pellet cooker for that matter, that can change your cook dramatically.

First, the RTD that detects temperature in the grill is not really in a prime location, it is put in the location where it is least likely to get damaged. So the temperature you are actually cooking at can vary depending on your location of the hunk of meat in the grill.

Second, the temperature variance across the pellet grills tends to vary even more at higher temperatures, and you are cooking at a fairly high temperature for a long cook for this type of cooker. Rotating your meat around can help reduce this effect.

Third, the forced air flow from the fan reduces the cooking time due to more heat transfer, this is especially noticed on longer cooks like a brisket. So when you tell him it may take 8 hours on your UDS, it may only take 6.5 or 7 on the Traeger. If you don't keep an eye on it, it can burn easily.

My suggestion on the Traeger, from my experience, is to not cook hotter and faster like people do over other heat sources. It just doesn't seem to turn out as well. I cook at the 225 setting on my Traeger and it generally gets done about the same amount of time as cooking at 250 - 260 on my UDS's. Also, the pellet cookers produce more smoke at lower temperatures so I think doing this improves the taste.

I have a question about all of this. When he probed the brisket, did he probe the flat? Or was the thick part of the flat actually edible? From what you're saying he probed the brisket, but the entire flat was inedible because it was burned through. I don't see how during a rest period after probing the thick part of the flat it could have burned itself through.

Royalslover said:

Good point about the temp. He about had a heart attack when I told him how hot I cooked. I told him that most people don't cook near that hot and he would be fine cooking at a temp he is used to. I think where he went wrong was it might have been done when he wrapped it. I told him not to worry about the internal temp but to just probe it. I'll bet if he would have probe it when he wrapped it he would have found it almost tender at that point. I'll take the blame for that mistake.

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I use internal temp as an indicator of when to start probing for doneness. If he didn't start checking until an IT of 250 well .....

smoke ninja nailed it... The smoker dictates the process, i.e foil no foil, fat cap up or fat cap down and cooking temp.

This is why I am an advocate for Fat Cap DOWN