I threw a pork butt on the smoke this AM for a 12 hr smoke including “the stall”. What happens during the stall?
Why does temp climb quickly to 140-ish, slow down until 165 or so, and then speed up again? I’ve only seen it with pork and beef, not with fish or poultry..does it happen with other red meat (ie venison, bison, etc.)? It makes sense for the temperature rate of change to slow down over time as the delta between internal and external temp narrows, but I’m struggling to understand the fast / slow / faster pattern.
In: Biology
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The fat is changing state from solid to liquid, this state change requires energy. The temperature can actually drop, while the total energy is increasing.
It’s not because of water evaporating. It will happened even if the meat is sealed tight and no water can evaporate.
around 140- 160 the temperature of the meat becomes high enough that the the water inside begins to evaporate. When this happens it cools the meat, in the same way sweating cools you. This is why if you wrap the meat you push past the stall, because the wrap prevents evaporation.
Here is an experiment that tested if the stall was due to water or fat evaporative cooling: https://modernistcuisine.com/mc/barbecue-stall/
TL;DR is water evaporation, which was a surprise to me. It also explains the very short stalls I’ve experienced on my last two briskets. I wrapped each between 155 and 165 IT so that I could ho away for a few hours. In each case, the meat was at 195 a little less than 2 hours later. TIL.
The water evaporation puts the temp of the meat in equilibrium until most of the water is cooked off. Higher fat content actually reduces the stall cause there’s less water and something like a wrap or foil boat reduces it further as all that heated fat is retained and heats the water instead of dripping below.
Here’s an excerpt from a good article on the topic:
Large chunks of meat, when cooked at low temps, hit a point at about 150°F when the interior temp stops rising. For hours. The exact temp depends on many variables, especially airflow through the cooker. Electric smokers have no combustion, so there is little airflow, and the stall is minimal. The stall is longer in drafty wood smokers.
This “stall” is caused by moisture evaporating from the surface and cooling the meat just like sweat cools you on a hot day. It has nothing to do with fat or collagen. If you wrap the meat in foil, the humidity in the foil is close to 100%, but there is no evaporative cooling, so this method, called the Texas Crutch allows you to power through the stall.
https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/understanding-and-beating-barbecue-stall/
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