Smoking times and temperatures chart for planning the cook

Smoking is planned by the clock and finished by the thermometer. USDA FSIS puts the air inside the smoker between 225 and 300°F for the whole cook and says meat or poultry can take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours, depending on the type of meat, its size and shape, its distance from the heat, the heat itself and the weather. The chart below collects what Traeger, Pit Boss and Masterbuilt publish for the common cuts, with the USDA safe minimum beside each. Every time in it is an estimate. A thicker cut, a windy day and a lid that keeps opening all stretch it.

Use the chart to decide when to light the smoker and a thermometer to decide when the food comes off. The final temperatures, and why tough cuts go far past the safe minimum, are covered in the meat doneness temperatures guide. This page carries only the USDA minimum, so the safety floor sits next to each manufacturer's target.

Smoking times and temperatures chart

Where two sources publish different figures for the same cut, both appear with the source named. The times assume the smoker holds its set temperature, which a pellet grill does only within a band. Pellet grill temperature swings explains how wide that band runs.

The USDA column comes from the FSIS safe minimum internal temperature chart: 145°F with a rest of at least 3 minutes for whole cuts of beef and pork, 145°F for fish, 165°F for all poultry. Two manufacturer targets sit below that figure and are not in the pull column: Traeger's turkey breast recipe pulls at 160°F and counts on a rise of about 5°F in the rest, and its tri-tip guidance finishes at 130°F. The FSIS chart is explicit that the minimum is measured before the food leaves the heat source, so those are quality targets, not safety standards, and the chart above carries the USDA figure for both rows. The USDA column is the floor.

Why time per pound is a planning number only

Time per pound tells you when to start. It does not tell you when to stop. Traeger's brisket page shows the spread inside one source: 6 to 9 hours for a 10 pound brisket, 10 to 12 for 15 pounds, 12 to 16 for 20 pounds, and then the line that matters, internal temperature rules the cook, not the clock.

Between sources the spread is wider. For a pork butt at 225°F, Traeger and Pit Boss's blog both plan about 2 hours per pound, while the cooking chart in Pit Boss's FB2 manual says 1.5 hours. On an 8 pound butt that is a 12 hour cook against a 16 hour one, from two honest sources describing different meat in different weather.

Traeger names fat content and how often you open the lid as the other variables. Masterbuilt puts a number on the lid: every time the door of one of its vertical smokers opens, the chamber loses 50 to 75°F and takes 10 to 15 minutes to recover. Six peeks is an hour or more. Plan with the longer figure and read the thermometer.

The stall and what to do about it

Partway through a long cook the internal temperature stops climbing. Traeger puts the stall at around 150 to 160°F on a pork butt. Moisture evaporating from the surface cools the meat about as fast as the smoker heats it, so the probe reads the same number for hours. Masterbuilt gives 150 to 170°F and notes the reading can even drop slightly. Nothing is wrong with the grill.

You have two choices, and turning the heat up is not one of them. Traeger says the stall still happens at 275°F. Wait, which Masterbuilt says gives the best bark, or wrap. Masterbuilt wraps tightly in foil or butcher paper at around 165°F and accepts softer bark for a faster cook. Pit Boss wraps brisket earlier, at 140 to 160°F, and spells out the trade: foil traps heat and speeds the cook, butcher paper is more porous and keeps a crunchier bark. Decide before the cook. If the schedule has slack, wait. If it does not, wrap at the trigger temperature and leave the lid down.

Where the probe goes

A probe in the wrong place turns a good chart into a bad guess. Masterbuilt's rule is the thickest part of the meat, away from bones and fat pockets. Traeger's turkey guidance says the deepest part of the breast, not touching bone, because bone gives an inaccurate reading. USDA checks a whole turkey in three places, the innermost thigh, the innermost wing and the thickest part of the breast, and all three must read 165°F. For brisket, Pit Boss checks the thicker section where the deckle and the flat meet.

USDA wants two thermometers, one watching the air in the smoker and a leave-in oven-safe one in the food for the whole cook. The leave-in probe protects the schedule because it answers the question without opening the lid. Route its cable away from the fire. Pit Boss's manual warns that direct flame or excess heat damages the meat probe.

Resting and holding

The rest is the part of the schedule that saves the schedule. USDA asks for at least 3 minutes on whole cuts of beef and pork. Manufacturers rest big cuts far longer for quality. Traeger's brisket minimum is 30 minutes, its ideal is 2 to 3 hours, and it will hold a brisket 4 hours or more wrapped in a towel inside an insulated cooler. Pit Boss rests brisket covered for 2 to 3 hours. Traeger rests pork butt at least 45 minutes and holds it longer wrapped in foil and towels in a cooler.

That range is your shock absorber. A brisket that finishes 2 hours early rests 2 hours longer and lands inside Traeger's ideal window. A brisket that finishes late has no rest left to give up. The hold has an end, though. USDA wants meat and poultry refrigerated within 2 hours of coming off the smoker, in smaller portions in shallow containers, and used within 4 days or frozen.

How much time buffer to plan

Work backwards from the meal. Take the top of the manufacturer's range, add the rest, and light the smoker that far ahead. Traeger's brisket page says the whole process, trimming and seasoning included, can run 18 to 20 hours. Masterbuilt says a 10 pound brisket might take 10 hours or 14.

Two adjustments belong in the plan before the smoker is lit. Above 5,000 feet, Traeger adds 10 to 15 minutes per pound to a turkey. And the meat must be fully thawed. USDA says a smoker's low temperature lets frozen meat linger in the danger zone between 40 and 140°F, and its turkey guidance says never to smoke a frozen bird. Traeger plans 24 hours of refrigerator thawing for every 5 pounds of turkey, so a 16 pound bird starts its schedule three days out.

I would plan every long cook to the top of the range plus the full rest, and treat finishing early as the goal. The meat waits well in a cooler. Guests do not. Which pellets suit which cut is covered in the smoking wood flavors guide, and the numbers to pull at live in the meat doneness temperatures guide.