Butt temp after egg went cool, HELP

johnrezz

So it my butt did not go as easy as planned.....

I lit the BGE around 10:00pm last night stabalized around 230 at 10:30 added chuncks of dry cherry, added 8 lb. butt at 11:00.

At 3:00 the temp on the egg was about 180-190 and the meat was around 141. I stoked the coals and it came back up to 230.

At 6:00 am the egg was at 210 and the meat at 150 so I left it go.

I fell asleep and woke up at 8:40 and found the egg to be about 150-160 and the meat at 145.

I added some lump and got it back to temp. the meat is now at 143 and continuing to cook

Is it going to be bad??? or am I ok.... :woohoo:

John
Steamboat Springs, Co.

trex1210

I did the same thing last week, and the best advice I got was toss it...........you can buy another butt for $12.

It isn't worth the risk or nervousness you will feel when someone eats it.

Get another butt and give it another shot!!!

Good Luck!!!!

Trey

johnrezz

I was under the impression that the magic number was under 140. I know that the temp waws above 200 1.5 hours ago and the meat did not go below 140 so I figured it was not an issue just going to be a longer smoke.

Did your go below 140?

John

Rib Fan

Personally I do not see a problem. Cook temp was still higher than butt temp....therefore still heating up. If the egg went out for a few hours and temps were below 140 for a period of time.....then well I would be kissing that $12 goodbye. Again nothing I see wrong with present butt.

Enjoy

egret

You're good to go on this! The surface temp. is what you're concerned with......not so much the internal temp. If your chamber temp. never got any lower than what you say, then the surface temp. had to have been over 140 degrees.
Enjoy it :laugh:

johnrezz

it never got below 140, somewhere between 150-160 dome temp was as low as it got....

thanks....

Fidel

I'm with egret. This one seems safe to me.

johnrezz

The internal temp is coming down it is now at 140.... Does that matter? the cooker is back to 230...

So this leads me to the never ending discussion of long slow burns... I am finding that in order to maintain 230-250 I have to have my bottom gate open about 3/4" to 1" and my upper wheel basically cracked. I live at 7000 feet so I assume this is why I am not at the nickle sized opening on the bottom gate like everyone else. What I am noticing is that my lump will not last for 15+ hours, I have had to add lump the last two times I tried to smoke a butt. I do the Elder process and was extra careful this time since I was going to bed. I lit it in three places as well so I did not get the chimney effect, any thoughts.... altitude possibly?

Are there any other thin air Eggers out there???

Fidel

I think the surface of your meat is fine.

I do believe your burn issues and vent openings are due to a lesser concentration of Oxygen at your altitude.

You might try on a future cook opening your daisy petals more and the lower vent a little less to allow for more of a chimney effect to pull more air through the lump. I am not at altitude, so I am limited to theoretical advice.

Grandpas Grub

John,

Not sure of the physics of burning lump at higher altitude. I wonder if more oxygen is required but does it take more fuel to cook at any given temp. Member Neversummer is in high in the Rockies also cooking at 7 or 8k feet possibly she will jump in about vent settings and how long of cooks she can get.

I am cooking at about 4700 feet. My vent openings on that low of a temp is 1/8" and upper vent slider closed and petals 1/3 open will hold 230°

In the beginning it was hard for me to grasp that the lower vent would be that closed. I was sure the lump would go out - never has though.

Wigh a full load of lump I can get extremely long cook times. Full load to me is up close to the top of the fire ring. I light in 3 or 4 places and make sure the egg is good and stabilized.

If you don't have a powered vent system I would suggest for a overnight cook you set the calibrated dome temp to 250° - 270°.

While reading your post I was wondering if you are not allowing a proper air flow through the egg. I have to agree with Fidel about closing down the lower vent and opening the top petals more.

A lot of people on the fourm use those settings 1/8" and petals 1/3 to 1/2 opening. Many of them are close to sea level and I am at about 4700' and see where your egg settles in.

Let us know.

GG

Celtic Wolf

If I was feeding most of my family I'd let this go. If you are going to feed older folks I'd toss it.

If I was it was for a cater it would have been gone when my cooker went below 165.

Remember you are reading dome and not the grate temp. You said the dome went to 150. That could easily mean the grate went below 140.

How long was it at 150. One hour, 4 hours. If it is close to the former you are probably safe. if it's closer to the later it's not worth it..

johnrezz

I could not imagine it being low for long since I checked it around 0615 and it was over 210 and arond 0845 it was about 150-160...

so maybe an hour

stike

you are fine....

johnrezz

came out great and no belly aches......

I gotta tell you it took a long time to cook, 16 hours for a 8 lb butt.....

Butt it was great, I did half in sweet baby rays and the other as a Eastern North Carolina.....

Thanks for all the advice.....

John