So all large chucks of meat "Stall"?

[thirtydaZe]

I hadn't even considered that my Chuck Roast would stall.

It went up to 145* as expected, and has been hanging there, check that, it has fallen to 144*, and has been there for about 1hr 45min.

I need at least 3 hours in the oven for the recipe i'm making, so what would you recommend I do at this stage, company is coming over at 6 and was planning on a 7:30 dinner for the game.....

BTW i'm making the recipe begolf25 posted recently.
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=19030.0

Thanks again begolf25 for your help with this!

[FLBentRider]

If it has a lot of connective tissue, it will stall. Not sure about the cut of chuck you have.

The primary reason for the stall is when collagen breaks down into gelatin, the by-product is water, the evaporation of which can have a cooling effect.

Lean tender cuts, like a pork loin or a rib roast, do not seem to exhibit the "stall".

[kaskiles]

How many pounds of chuck are you smoking?

Check out my smoke log at the end of this post:
http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=18852.0

I didn't think it was ever going to get to pulling temp...

[Sailor]

Seems like everything that I have done in the Bradley has a stall time.  My 19mm snack stix had a long stall today at 120.  They still have not reached 152 IT butt getting close.

[Habanero Smoker]

I have seen this "stall & drop" around 140°F in other meats, even chicken, and it doesn't last long (it a side effect of when I first got my new Maverick ET-73 and becoming obsess with watching temperatures). Connective tissue doesn't begin to break down until it is around 160°F - 165°F. So I look up what could be occurring. It seems that around 140°F the meat begins to shrink and when doing so the cells release a lot of moisture. So during this stage, I believe this rapid loss of moisture escaping from the cell will stall and at times will bring the temperature down.

[Sailor]

Habs, that makes sense about the cells releasing moisture. 

[pbonem]

Here's Chef Steps' take on the stall. http://www.chefsteps.com/classes/barbecue/#/barbecue-geekery

[TedEbear]

Holy 4 year old thread, Batman.   :o

[Smoker John]

No kidding that is funny TedEbear