Vent: That one Saturday where everything went wrong on the smoker

Last month I had a brisket flat go from perfect to ruined in like 20 minutes. My temp probe gave a false reading and I ended up cooking it to 215 internal before I caught it. The thing came out dry as shoe leather and I had a whole party of 12 people waiting on me. Has anyone else had a probe go bad on them mid cook and wreck a whole day?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_joseph19d ago

Oh man, that SUCKS. I had a probe go haywire once and it told me my ribs were at 190 when they were really at 215. I pulled them off thinking they were perfect and they fell apart into a pile of mush on the cutting board. Had to serve everyone pulled pork sandwiches instead.

anthony12916d ago

Wait, @joel_hall17, are you saying your old probe was off by 20 degrees the whole time? That's a huge gap for anything you're cooking... a few degrees can turn a perfect brisket into shoe leather real quick. You're right though, one bad reading can mess up an entire dinner, so spending a little extra on a solid thermometer is worth it.

joel_hall1719d ago

Wait, so you actually have to convert ribs into pulled pork on the fly like that? I always thought a bad probe was just a minor inconvenience, but now I'm seeing it can totally wreck dinner plans. I used to think cheap thermometers were fine for backyard cooks, but hearing how one wrong reading can turn ribs into mush makes me rethink my whole set up. My old probe was always off by like 20 degrees and I just ignored it, figured it was close enough. Now I'm pretty sure that's why my last few racks came out dry and stringy instead of juicy. Guess I'm finally buying a decent Thermapen next payday.