The Grill Shack is a known problem for all Pit Masters. Knowing how to crown it is the key to perfectly smoked pork tenderloin and brisket. Find out what causes grill stalling and how to combat it with our guide to smoking grills.
If you have temporarily smoked pork tenderloin or brisket, you have encountered a strange phenomenon. Her meat is cooking well when suddenly the internal temperature hits a brick wall.
To cook hotter, wrap the meat in foil or even slice the food. None of these work. So what before?
The good news is that this is not an uncommon anomaly. In fact, IT IS called a stall, and it’s something many seasoned pit masters and grill pros go through to this day.
Today we’re going to explain what Stall is, the meat science behind it, and show YOU the best ways to avoid or defeat him. Let’s get into that!
What is the grill stand?
The stand is a devil known by many names in the smoking community. It is called a plateau or zone. This phenomenon usually occurs when a large amount of meat is smoked at a lower temperature for a longer period of time. What causes the meat to stall is that there is some moisture in the meat that reaches 150 to 170 Fahrenheit in temperature.
If at some point that humidity reaches that point, it may begin to stop increasing. Unfortunately, when this happens, it takes a few hours to resolve. You are probably very confused and using all the thermometers you need to check the temperature of the grill. Many people even resort to checking that the grill is plugged into power.
I assure you the grill works. The meat just stagnated. It’s an obvious dismay situation because people are so excited about the food and it just doesn’t come. As a BBQ chef, you have no accountability to anyone and are probably afraid that a riot could break out at any moment.
Don’t be afraid because you can explain to them that the flesh is sweating. Believe it or not, meat sweats when it reaches a high temperature. As the meat begins to sweat, this candy rises on the grill and evaporates, cooling its temperature.
This problem can even last up to six hours, which only makes the grill master more frustrated. The fact that you can find collagen in any succulent meat you cook is what is needed to absorb the heat and keep the meat from sweating. When a thinly sliced prime steak is cooked, that product often doesn’t contain much fat, meaning there isn’t enough collagen to keep the meat from sweating.
How does stagnation come about?
You may be wondering how stagnation comes about.
Scientists have evaporative cooling and suspect this dies from the meat being 65% water and using a slow smoke grill. When people grill or slow cook, they often die with an unexpected amount of meat. By combining these two features, you can begin to understand how it works. Imagine putting a large pot of boiling water on the grill to grill it.
At the temperature you smoke meat at, how long do you think it would take to bring such a large pot of water to a boil? Now that you’ve answered that question, try putting it in the context of meat. Stagnation occurs as the smoke now tries to heat the water that is in the meat.
Therefore, sometimes it seems that the temperature stops moving or even continues to decrease. In this case, you check the grilling temperature and find that it is at the level you set. A key aspect of this problem is that once the stagnation is over, the temperature can rise quite quickly.
This is important as people often compensate for loading by increasing the temperature of their grill. You should always check when the position ends. When you turn up the heat and go back inside to chat with your guests, you may find that the meat is completely seared because it came from a stand and you weren’t there to turn the heat down.
It can be messy and demoralizing, but it shouldn’t stop you from enjoying a meal you’ve written so hard for. If you intend to increase the heat to prevent this phenomenon, consider that you can come back and check on the meat every 15 to 30 minutes or so.
Related Factors
How big is the meat you want to cut?
Of course, the larger the meat you want to smoke, the longer it will take. From the same conclusion, we can assume that the larger the meat, the longer the stall. What YOU need to consider when smoking a cut of meat is both its density and surface area.
In plain language I mean how thick the meat is that you want to smoke. A juicy cut of steak will take longer to cook if it’s dense. An example of this is when we smoke or smoke a leg of lamb . There is a large concentration of water in the center of the lamb shank, which will likely cause the grilled food to pool. This is different than when you have a juicy steak that has been sliced flat and spread out on the grill. If your meat was cut this way, the water will evaporate much faster than if the meat is dense.
What type of grill product do you have?
It’s no secret that the type of grill you use to smoke your meat affects how much you experience during its shelf life. If you’ve managed to purchase a grill where airflow has been prioritized throughout its growth, you’ll experience a smaller barn than surely who have a sealed grill.
This is because airflow works well to drive evaporation. If you examine the design of your product and find that it has a fan, like you’ll see on most pellet smokers, you’re on the good side of the grill gods. If you’re unlucky and your smoker doesn’t have good airflow, you may have to compensate by constantly opening your grill yourself.
High humidity
Another major factor that could be plaguing you is a lack of moisture in your grill. Humidity is very important to maintain temperature. Therefore, most grill manufacturers make sure that not much moisture is lost.
When we were talking earlier about putting a pot of water in the grill to grill it, I want you to think again. Placing a small saucepan or pot of water in the grill can help retain moisture inside. This trick also benefits the food you’re preparing as it enhances the overall smoky flavor you want your meat to have.
How to outsmart the mail
Now we can get to the juicy part of the article. Let’s look at two ways to hit the ever tormenting post.
Use a blanket
By adding a blanket in this scenario I am referring to aluminum foil. To beat the stall, you can wrap your meat in foil and then start smoking. In this way, the moisture is retained in the grill. If YOU don’t understand the science behind it, let me give you an example. Imagine if I wrapped you in plastic and made you run down a hill.
You will perspire throughout the procedure, but you will not lose sweat or temperature in the process. It also doesn’t get cold as it’s wrapped in a plastic bag. The warmth is composed. If I let you run in the sun now, it’s even hotter. This is the same concept we use here.
You can even take advantage of this and put different juices or marinades in the foil and wrap it there with the meat. It is customary to add beer or fruit juice. This is an excellent way to work around this problem, but it comes with a downside. Many people enjoy the crispy or charred exterior of a piece of smoked meat.
With this procedure we lock in the moisture; Therefore, the outside of the meat is unlikely to burn and become crispy. So if you still want a crispy or charred exterior on the cut of meat you’re smoking, you’ll need to remove it from the foil once it’s fully cooked on the inside to allow it to harden on the outside. This process is efficient but takes more time.
Start early
This part isn’t exactly rocket science. In the past, he might have been a lover who came to the barbecue and grill a few hours before guests’ dinner, but now he knows better. A great general wins his war on paper first.
When you expect your guests to eat and you know that loading can take a maximum of 7 hours and cooking around 6 hours, there’s no shame in starting your grill at 8:00am. It’s not always that the position lasts that long; 8:00 am might be an exaggeration, but it guarantees that your guests’ bellies will be full by nightfall.
You need to understand that this procedure works so you know the best way to keep meat warm if you’re doing it soon. You can do this by wrapping it in aluminum foil and then placing it on the smoker over low heat. This keeps the meat warm and moist at the same time. Your guests come to the barbecue with freshly prepared smoked meat.
The last word
Bottom line, being the BBQ boss has its perks. These perks include eating first and receiving compliments from those who enjoy your glorious masterpiece. In order to reap these benefits, you must successfully defeat the monster known as the Stable.
If you google this problem, you will read many horror stories from people whose guests didn’t even get a chance to eat because the stall took too long. You are better off because YOU are prepared by experience or by reading this article.
The immediate advice I can give you is to always start on time. We may, due to the various factors involved, such as things like the size of your meat, how it’s cut, and what type of grill you have don’t tell you how long your toll lasts. Therefore & YOU take the necessary precautions to ensure your meat comes out on time & is delicious.
Writer & content creator. BBQ fanatic!
