Stall!

82c52ksl

Hi all -

I've had my XL BGE for 1.5 months now, and have been cooking non stop on it.  Today, i am doing my third long smoke - my first pork butt (the other 2 were 2 unsuccessful briskets).  

I set my temp to 225 last night at 11pm, and was expecting a slow, 16 hour cook.  Well, i just crossed the 17 hour mark, and my temp is still at 170.  I've only gone up 12 degrees in the last 6 hours.  I knew briskets had long stalls, but never expected my pork butt to do the same.  

Is there something i am doing wrong?  All three long smokes have taken almost double what i've seen others accomplish through videos.  My temp remains consistent, and i'm no longer opening and closing the lid every so often to "check" on it.  What is going on?  I finally wrapped in foil, and set it back, but somehow i lost 4 degrees down to 166, and am not even back to 170 yet almost 30 minutes later..  I've attached a progress graph.  The red line is my pit temp, and the orange line is my meat temp.

theyolksonyou

Drink more. You may hit another in the high 180s

SoCalTim

Enjoy it, this is what low and slow smoking is all about ... I'm envious.

lousubcap

Here's a good read on the stall:
http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/the_stall.html His site is a wealth of info and recipes, as well.

MeTed

It`s normal. Enjoy!

nolaegghead

Make sure your grill temp probe is in the shadow of the fire or it can give you a false high temp.  That's probably not the case, but the trick to cooking it faster is use a higher temperature.  225 grate is very low.

SoCalTim

82c52ksl  .. think of it as 'foreplay ', in a bbq sort of way ...

Sonny3

lousubcap said:

Here's a good read on the stall:
http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/the_stall.html His site is a wealth of info and recipes, as well.

Thanks for posting this link.  It is a wealth of info for an egg noobie like me. 

When I cooked my first butt the other day I hit the stall around 165.  Thinking back to many of the threads I had read here, I decided to foil it and sure enough the temp began to rise and it powered through.  I took it out of the foil at 190 and put it back on til it reached 200.  My  house guests and my wife said this was the best tasting pulled pork they had ever tasted.  I have to say I agree.

Guys like you that take the time to post things like this sure shortened the learning curve on eggs for guys like me.

Thanks again.

lousubcap

We all started in the same space at one time.  Glad to help where I can-we all continue to learn tips and tricks here.  
Best current one I can offer is don't have your credit card around when opening many of these threads.  You may buy  a gotta have gadget or worse...  

Carolina Q

225° is too low. Dome temp, 250° (or 350° if you want to get it done quickly). At this point, crank it up to 350°.

Sonny3

lousubcap said:

We all started in the same space at one time.  Glad to help where I can-we all continue to learn tips and tricks here.  
Best current one I can offer is don't have your credit card around when opening many of these threads.  You may buy  a gotta have gadget or worse...  

Too late for that last tip about the CC.  Seems I have had to ask for a replacement, melted the edges and it won't swipe anymore.  Been on a spending spree since finding this place.  But it is a good spending spree.  a) I am fortunate to have set aside the funds for this new endeavor and b)  it is a lot more fun to spend on this as opposed to spending it on cancer the way I have for the last 6 years.

And this is a lot more exciting, believe me.

shadowrider

When you say you set your temp, where is it set at?  Grill and dome will be different.  I'm planning on doing my 1st BGE'd packer brisket and butt at 225 at the grill level of the meat.  That would duplicate what I did in my electric cookshack which worked fantastically at 225.  As a matter of fact I did pretty much everything at 225 except poultry which I bumped to 275 because I didn't want to chance the breast being in the danger zone that long.

DMW

Here's my butt cook today, those are grid temps, dome was a good bit higher. 8.5 and 9.5 butts, both finished about the same time.



225*, especially if that was dome temp, will take forever and may not finish. 225* could be 200* or so grid.