Pulled Pork - slow things down?

Teach42

So I'm doing my first overnight cook, about 8 pounds of boneless pork shoulder. The overnight hours went just fine. Only one moment of panic, in the middle of the night I must have accidentally switched my wireless therm from Fahrenheit to Celsius! Couldn't figure out how my temp seemingly dropped in half in just a couple hours.

Anyway, my dome temp is about 240, and internal temperature is 176 right now (8am). People are coming over around 5:30-ish.

As I understand it from Naked Whiz, I can safely keep it wrapped up in a cooler for about 5 hours. So that means I gotta hope to keep it in the egg until at least 12:30 or so.

Should I try to drop the egg's temperature down to 225 or 215 to slow down the last few hours? Or do you think I'm already safe... will it take 4+ hours to get the internal from 176 to 195?

Would appreciate any advice on this!

Thanks as always.

Gator Bait

 
Hi Teach,

Here is a good link, as long as you observe and respect the "danger zone" you should be OK.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/How_Temperatures_Affect_Food.pdf

Gator

 

FossilPeddler

I wouldn't tinker with the temp, if you have a steady 240 dome. It will still take a while to get to 200 internal. Then you can do the foil wrap, towel wrap, inside a cooler deal. You can then pull the pork before guests arrive if you wish to. Enjoy!

stike

you can go to 200/205 even. won't dry out, and adds ten degrees to your buffer

Teach42

Perfect! And thanks for the links. Will keep you posted on the progress. Seems to be moving pretty slowly still right now as it is, about 45 minutes later and internal temp only went up 1 degree. So I might be just fine.

Thanks for the tips,
Steve

Celtic Wolf

Take a deep breath grasshopper and lower the dome temp a bit. Remember it will take a bit for the temp to drop..

Teach42

I haven't dropped it yet, but it's still sitting at 177, an hour and a half after I first posted. So I think I'll be in fine shape. If it's still moving slow in a few hours, I can always crank it up a bit. But looks like I was worrying needlessly

Deep breath indeed. Feel like a mother hen sitting on her Green Egg.

rsmdale

If you slow it down enough it will give time to grab my sandwich rolls ,moppin sauce and slaw and still make dinner.


GOOD EATS AND GOOD FRIENDS


DALE

ckillian

I say leave it alone.

If anything, you're going to be panicking later because it's getting close to dinnertime and the butt still isn't done. If that's the case, just bump the heat up and finish it off.

The last butt I did plateau'd at around 177 for nearly NINE hours.

ckillian

I say leave it alone.

If anything, you're going to be panicking later because it's getting close to dinnertime and the butt still isn't done. If that's the case, just bump the heat up and finish it off.

The last butt I did plateau'd at around 177 for nearly NINE hours.

Teach42

ckillian wrote:

I say leave it alone.

If anything, you're going to be panicking later because it's getting close to dinnertime and the butt still isn't done. If that's the case, just bump the heat up and finish it off.

The last butt I did plateau'd at around 177 for nearly NINE hours.

SO, the newbie decides that sits it's been sitting on 177 for an incredible two straight hours (and he hadn't read your post yet), so he shifted the vents open just a teeny tiny bit. I'm taking less than 1/8 inch. And then I took my son to the farmers market.

Come back, the temperature has cruised up to 275 and the meat has gone from 177 to 189 and rising.

I closed the vents completely to try to knock the heat down, but the internal temp has gone up to 195 in the last half hour already.

So at this point, I have some hot water in the cooler to get that thing warmed up and towels and foil are at the ready. Going to let it get up to 200, maybe 205 tops and then pull it and toss it in the cooler with the thermometer still in it so I can monitor the heat loss.

Heh, a heck of a learning experience all around so far. Good thing this is just a practice run for the party in a few weeks!

Now I'm off to find some good recipes to cook up the beautiful looking poblanos I found at the market.

Celtic Wolf

205 is too high. Double check the temps and if they are above 195 get them out now.

Teach42

Well, it got up to 198 with both vents closed completely and then leveled off and drifted down to 197. At that point, I double wrapped it in foil, and threw it into the pre-warned cooler with 3 towels. Internal dropped down to 188 during that process and seems to be hanging steady for right now.

3.5 hours until people are coming, so we'll see if it holds up. According to Naked Whiz, it looks like I should be able to keep it safely that long, but I'll be watching that thermometer like a hawk.

Thanks again for all the tips and advice. Dying to take a bite out of this thing! Looks incredible!

Steve

Teach42

Hour or so until people arrive and internal temperature is still holding strong over 160. Looking good!

Didn't think I had much juice left in the egg, but I fired it up to roast some poblanos and before I realized it, it had flown up to 600 degrees! Amazing how efficient this thing is.

The Naked Whiz

You doubt me? :laugh: :laugh:

Teach42

LoL, you were dead on actually. Pre-warmed the cooler with some hot water. Double wrapped in foil and settled in with 3 towels. Temperature dropped steadily over 4 hours, and when everyone got over there, it was still lingering at 153 or so. I figure if needed, I could have kept it in there for about another 45-60 minutes, which is exactly what your graph said!

Thanks for steering me right! Pics will be in a new thread.