Opposite problem -- looonnngggg plateau with butt

EggZactly

OK, I have the exact OPPOSITE problem -- one we've never had before.

Started an 8 or 8 1/2 lb butt yesterday around noon.  Ran it at 215 in the Egg all day yesterday, lowered the pit temp to 195 for the night.  Pit temp was steady at 195 at 0500, butt temp 160 degrees.  Bumped the pit temp to 200.   5 hours later, the butt was still 160 degrees. (This would be after 22-ish hours).  Bumped the Egg temp up and up and up, to 225, then 250, then 275, and the butt temp only got up to 168-169 over the next 5 hours.  Bumped the temp to 325 about 3:30 pm, but the meat temp was still only at 170 degrees at 5 pm. Finally cranked the pit temp to 375, and the meat temp got to 180.

The thing's GOTTA be done, so we're going to pull it out, wrap in foil and put in a cooler for a half hour or so.

My  question is... has anyone else ever had a butt that plateaued out on temp and never did get past the plateau? I've always got to a point where it held temp and then increased to 180 or so, then increased the temp to about 300 until the butt got to 200 degrees.  But I've never had a butt this size take over hours to cook!   

Thanks!

travisstrick

It sounds like you had your egg too cold. Most folks cook butts at around 250-350 deg. 

BOWHUNR

I agree with travis.  I've never cooked a butt lower than 250* dome.  Why such low temp??

Mike
Omaha, NE

canoeandcue

I cooked a 8.5 lb. butt about 2 weeks ago. 225 deg dome temp, it went down to about 190 in the morning. Back up to 225 to 250 for 18 hours total,  (I started to run out of lump)  I foiled it, put it in a deep aluminum roasting pan and it went on top of my woodstove covered with a towel for another 3 hours. FINALLY it hit 185 internal temp. I find that 250 deg. dome temp is really about 205 to 209 grill temp with platesetter legs up. 25 deg. can make a big difference in time on long cooks.

stike

Dunno why all the fussin with temps. Peg 250 and let it go

EggZactly

We were trying to follow the "Elder Ward" method ... and per the write- up (Naked Whiz site and the BGE cookbook from the forum compilation), the suggested pit temps are 195-200ish. 
 
We pulled the meat off; it was 185 internal temp where the probe was, higher in some areas.  Wrapped it in foil with towels around it in the sink for 15 or 20 min or so, pulled it.... and it was the best butt ever.  Sooooo juicy!  Sooooo flavorful!   There is just nuthin' like pulled pork just after one of these comes off the grill.

Next time, we'll try it with a little higher temp.  While I had concerns about this being done, they were unfounded...

boatbum

That's some long legs on that butt.

joe@bge

Dunno why all the fussin with temps. Peg 250 and let it go

Yup what stike said...never smoke at less than 250.  Seems to work the best for me.

hogaholic

Dunno why all the fussin with temps. Peg 250 and let it go

Ditto this