Nothing Was Delivered

When I first started barbecuing, I bought a half dozen thermometers. I had a thermometer or two in the meat and I had them in the smoker near the meat. I had wireless thermometers, and analog ones that you could barley see from the smoke. Cooking seemed like an exact science, so I figured that I wanted as much data as possible.

Since then I’ve found that it’s easier to go by feel. I’m down to 1 thermometer now. But there really is science behind it. You’re trying to bring a mass of protein and fat up to a certain temp slowly over the course of many hours. But you notice that the meat will often hit a certain temperature and stay there for a while. Hours even. It gets frustrating. You expected this damned thing to be cooked by this point, but you’re at the same internal temp you where several hours ago.

Why does that happened? I just assumed the BBQ gods were testing your patience, but it must have bothered someone enough that he looked into. He studied it in depth. There’s even graphs. Check it out.