BRISKET

Yes, that is fine. It is called the plateau. both briskets and butts go through plateaus. This is when the connective tissue is breaking down and changing in the meats.

Give it time. If you are in a rush, place the brisket in foil and wrap it up and place it back in the smoker. Then let it rise to 190-195 and start checking with a poke test.

RibDog knows his stuff. Do not do what I did my first few times. I cranked up the heat to "help" it over the plateau. It only helped pry the moisture from the meat. Just let it ride until it reaches temp.

Here is another link on the topic.

A 10 lbs brisket is almost too small for this kind of cooking.

I would give a 12 lbs brisket 18-20 hours.

The key is to shove it in there and just let it cook. I don't use probes and the like as many here do. I go by the weight of the cut and set the temp and let it cook my arbitrary number of hours.

Example: a 15 lbs shoulder? That's a 20-24 hour cook at 225.

Well,I'm no brisket expert-but I have cooked a few on several different Cookshacks,over the years.

There are certainly some experienced cooks,that know their cooker well,that can guesstimate weight/time and wind up with a product that suits their tastes.

For most cooks, new to Cookshacks,and the products they are cooking,we find that cooking with a remote therm and taking good notes on the cook ,help reduce the learning curve measurably.

Yes,if we don't worry about the "plateau" and accept it as part of our overall cook time,we will be fine.

As my teammate,Ribdog,mentioned,there are solutions that can be applied-if necessary.

Just my $0.02

To report back on the results of being patient. After 12 hours the flat reached 190 deg so I took it out and doubled wrapped it in foil for another hour, and put it in a cooler. Since the point was double the flat thicknes (and with the probe temp at 167 deg)I put it back in for another three hours to reach 195 deg. The flat was moist and tender and the point pulled apart easily and was great. Thanks for the advice.

Are you saying when the flat was 190*, the point was 167*? What was the point when the flat got to 195*?

When the flat got to 190 deg (and the point was 167 deg) I cut the flat off and foiled it and put the point back in the 009 finish to 195 deg. Hope this clarifies what I did.

Its physics at work, the temperature plateau is caused when the connective tissue and fat is changing physical state, its going from solid to liquid and rendering out. That change of physical state absorbs a lot of energy so you wont see the meat temperature rise but the smoker is definitely working its magic! After everything is rendered out then the temperature goes up...