Looooong Night

civil eggineer

I am cooking butts for my nieces baby shower. Planned on cooking 4 - 6.5 lbs butts in my medium as Molly said she once did 5 at once in a medium. Butts wouldn't all fit but I did get 3 in on 2 levels. Temps seemed fine although lower then normal and had numerous alarms from my Maverick throughout the night although smoke was existing the daisy at a decent rate. I had the bottom vent open over an inch and still only had dome temps around 210! Finally at 3 am I looked through the daisy to see the top butt was almost acting like a cork and blocked the exhaust somewhat. Took 1 butt out and through it in the oven and things got back to normal until 6 am when my lump was basically used up. Now all three are in the oven in a foil tent at 200 degrees as I don't want them coming off until around 3 pm.

Moral of the story...only cook 2 butts in a medium if you value sleep!

cookn biker

Oh man, that stinks! How much lump did you load? That doesn't sound quite right. I'm sure you stabalized, right?

Gator Bait

 
Hi Civil Egg.

I am surprised your lump did not last for the whole cook. I have a medium and for low and slow cooks load the lump to the top of the fire ring and it will run for at least 24 hours at 230º burning Royal Oak.
I have been having issues with low and slow cooks but I think they are related to my DigiQII, it is headed back to the factory one of these days for a check up. My first and last brisket was reduced to a hockey puck and my first attempt at beef jerky with it my pit temp wasn't even close to the dome temp. I was having to set the DigiQ pit temp to 330º to get the dome to 200º.

Are we having fun yet?

I'm glad you were watching your cook so closely. Many don't and end up tossing everything in the morning. At least you will get to eat.

Good luck and have a great day,

Gator

cookn biker

I agree about the lump and the close eye on the cook.

civil eggineer

I had the lump loaded all the way to the top of the fire ring and have also had 18 hr cooks with 2 butts. It seemed weird, low dome temps yet fairly wide air inlet and a constant supply of smoke coming out of the top. The meat was even sizzling and I would have swore the temps were much higher then the thermo indicated. I frequently check the thermo calibration. It was a bizzaro evening, and day for that matter although non-related. Anyhow, butts coming along nicely in the oven and believe they all should have been bathed in hickory smoke long enough to work. Live and learn....

civil eggineer

Update:

Egg cooled down and I checked the remaining lump level. Had about 1/3 of fire box in lump left over. Did I mention it was blizzard conditions? Although I have cooked numerous time in similar conditions, the high winds may have had some negative effects.

Molly: have you really cooked 5 butts in a medium before? How big were they?

cookn biker

Huh, each cook is a learning experience. Do you have an instant read therm? I also put an oven therm on the grill for the long cooks. I figure the more the merrier

Little Chef

Tim...Sounds like the butts were jammed in pretty tight... and possibility the dome thermo was actually touching that top butt, skewing the temp reading? Just a thought.... :huh:

cookn biker

I did, they were about the same as yours. Did you put 3 on the bottom and two on top?

civil eggineer

The probe wasn't touching them but do to the crampness I don't think there was adequate air movement. I just pulled them out of the oven and placed in the cooler with a cook time of 15 hours so I think the dome temp was reading correct.

Molly: I do have a thermopen, purchused from a lovely lady on this forum....

This will be the last time I try three big butts at one time in my trusty medium BGE. Maybe a large is in my future.....

RU Eggsperienced

I feel for you. I call it Egg Induced Insomnia..