By Dylan Clay
A Brisket stalls due to the “sweating” of water found within the meat. This concept is similar to human physiology – we sweat in order to cool our bodies down.
Fast Facts about the Brisket Stall:
Below I go over why you should wait longer to wrap at around 175F internal (it improves your bark), where to probe the meat while it’s stalling, as well as other methods of wrapping like the foil boat.
The stall itself is a result of what’s called “porous bed free expansion cooling” – which is essentially evaporative cooling.
In terms of brisket, as the meat “sweats” it causes moisture to evaporate which cools the meat down.
As the temperature of the cold meat continues to rise, the evaporation rate increases until the cooling effect balances out the heat input.
The meat will then stall or plateau until the all the moisture on the surface is gone.
The above is the reason that most of the bark formation occurs after the stall – this is an important realization as most people will wrap at the start of this process, rather than after it.
Learn more about when to wrap here.
Brisket tends to stall at around 155 – 165F internally.
However, this number is dependent on the size of the brisket (can be 8 – 20 lbs), the type of smoker you’re using (airflow, water pan usage, fuel source), the moisture content (did you inject? what did you use for spices?) – even the accuracy of your thermometer matters.
The primary way to beat a brisket stall is by wrapping the meat – commonly called a “Texas Crutch.”
The Texas Crutch involves tightly wrapping meat in aluminum foil. With brisket, folks tend to introduce things like beef stock to further enhance the “beefy flavors.” Which in my opinion isn’t necessary.
Another way to beat the stall is to increase the smoker temperature. People in barbecue are often told to smoke “low and slow” and then equate that to 225F.
By increasing this temperature from 225 to 250-275F, or even 300F (called hot and fast), you reduce the chances of a stall even occurring.
Some smokers like pellet cookers and electric smokers are also less likely to experience a brisket stall too.
Electric smokers create a super tight seal which results in a humid environment. A pellet cooker creates a convection of heat which can further speed evaporation.
As with almost everything in barbecue, the opinions on wrapping are split.
Either people like to wrap, or they don’t.
If they do like to wrap, they also will argue about the material used to wrap and how to properly use it to beat meat stalls.
In a true Texas Crutch, the meat is wrapped in aluminum foil. Aluminum foil is an impermeable barrier and effectively prevents evaporative cooling from occurring.
Due to the addition of liquids, or even the rendering of beef fat and moisture build-up, you’re gently braising (cooking in a liquid) the meat.
A common issue you’ll find with aluminum foil wrapped meats is that the trapped moisture produces soft, mushy bark.
Folks from Goldee’s Barbecue actually wrap with aluminum foil after the brisket has finished. The point here is that they’re actually wrapping with foil to lessen the “crunchiness” of the bark.
Butcher paper functions in a similar way to aluminum foil in that you’re wrapping the meat in order to prevent evaporative cooling.
The difference between the Butcher paper and the foil is that the butcher paper is a porous material and will readily absorb fat and water.
Wrapping with butcher paper results in less steam, meaning the bark isn’t degraded as much.
With the foil boat method, you’re using the foil to protect the edges of the brisket and the fat cap is exposed which will allow it to continue to render without degrading the bark – meaning it’s crispier, like with a no-wrap brisket.
The boat will also collect juices and work to “confit” the meat.
With this strategy, you want to foil boat at around 175F internal. This way there isn’t a ton of rendered tallow/beef fat that’s collected.
There have even been other ideas proposed for boating like wrapping with butcher paper first and then foil boating.
While I’ve tried the foil boat (I’m a big fan), I don’t quite understand the added benefit of the paper.
I know that tightly wrapping in butcher paper works but I don’t really see a perceivable benefit of the foil at that point. Butcher paper already does a really good job of absorbing a lot of juices and protecting edges.
You also have the people in the camp of no-wrapping.
All this entails is waiting for the stall to pass, which could take 1-7+ hours for a brisket.
Goldee’s Barbecue opts to no wrap simply because they find the fat render is better. They then wrap with foil and hold the brisket overnight which softens the bark over time.
When the brisket is stalling, you will get three different internal temperature readings.
To illustrate, here’s me probing the brisket in the flat muscle, the middle of the brisket, and in the point muscle. Again, all of these photos are taken at the same time.
Flat muscle temperature:
Middle of the brisket temperature:
Point temperature:
To summarize:
In every single case, the point will finish faster than the flat because it has far more intramuscular fat.
For this reason, you should probe in the middle of the brisket.
By waiting till 175-180F to wrap, you also actively create a better bark.
Good advice! I waited to wrap at 175-180 and the brisket cooked just fine through the stall point. The bark was good. Thank you!
Happy to help Paul!