Big! Butt! Breakfast! Surprise!

gdenby

Actually, the title should be big picnic brunch surprise, except that doesn't sound as nice.

So how fast can a 8+ lb. pork picnic be cooked for pulling? Evidently 7 1/2 hours! I've had a bark covered, bone falling out picnic in a cooler for almost 2 hours, and its 6 a.m.

Here's the story. I started with an 8.5 lb picnic. I trimmed off the skin, leaving just over 8 pounds. Because the chance of thunderstorms during the night was 70%, I decided that I would put the meat on in mid-evening. I expected it to finish by mid morning, earliest. After holding in a cooler, I'd be looking at a mid-afternoon meal, or maybe an early evening dinner if the meat took 16 hours.

The wind was fierce late yesterday. I rotated the Egg so that most of the gusts were not going into the vent. My set up was the one I most often use. The grate with a drip pan with fluid, then the elevated grate, then the meat. After holding the dome at 250 for 1/2 hour, I put the picnic in at about 9 p.m. After 15 minutes the dome reading was 240. After another, it was 245. It looked like the temp would stabilize back at 250, so I called it a night.

At midnight, the storm hit. It was a strong squall, roaring wind, heavy rain, lightning, continuously for half an hour. When it had died down, I decided to check the Egg, and see how things were going.

To my surprise, the dome reading was 295, and I could hear fat sizzling in the drip pan. I put more water in the pan, and saw that the meat thermometer was reading about 165. I shut all vents to the tiniest cracks.

I woke up again around 3:30. It took me awhile to convince myself to get up and check the temp, but I figure with the vents shut down so far, and the air temp having dropped more than 30 degrees, I should take a peek.

By lantern light, I saw that the dome had dropped to 230. I decided to check the pan fluid level. What I saw was the smoke clouded meat thermometer reading 200! I took it out, thinking that because it was large, and a lot of it was in the air, it was reading high. But a check with my pocket thermometer read the same in 2 different places. The picnic was cooked!

So, a little after 4 a.m., I got out my cooler, towels, and HD foil. When I tried moving the blackened picnic by the exposed bone, the bone almost pulled out. So now its sitting wrapped in the cooler next to a bottle of hot water, and I'm guessing a PP omelette will be brunch.

Dang. There' was enough lump left that I could have started another for dinner if I had one handy.

Oh, and no pics. No natural light to shoot by at 4...

Eggtucky

Be curious to hear how you like it gdenby..the last time this happened to me and I didn't let the meat cook slow and render all the fat..it came out a bit more fatty and tough than I like it.. :(

gdenby

I'll post results later. It doesn't seem to be tough, altho some of the bark looks a little crustier than usual. It did look a little fattier, altho being a picnic, it might not be too bad.

I'll have to see if my dome therm is off. Maybe I was cooking much higher, say 350 at the top.