Which way do you go when your pit temp suddenly tanks mid-cook?

I was running a brisket on my offset last weekend and the temp dropped from 275 to 190 in like 10 minutes because my firebox door hinge snapped right off. Do you fight to rebuild the fire and ride it out, or do you wrap and finish in the oven like a quitter?

2 comments

2 Comments

grayjohnson1mo ago

Used to think you had to push through and rebuild the fire no matter what, but a similar hinge failure changed my mind. You can only work so hard to save a cook when the hardware gives up, and the oven finishes just fine if you wrap it right. No shame in keeping the meat from drying out while you fix the smoker for the next time.

rileyw721mo ago

Yeah, "no shame in keeping the meat from drying out while you fix the smoker" really hit me. I was one of those guys who thought if you didn't ride the fire all the way through you were cheating. But a few months back my controller went haywire on my pellet grill and I spent like an hour fighting with it before just giving up and using the oven. The brisket came out just as good if not better because I wasn't opening the lid every five minutes. It kind of changed how I look at the whole thing. Now I'm way more chill about finishing in the kitchen if the smoker decides to act up.