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Help with a Boston Butt on a new Egg

BBGLarry
BBGLarry Posts: 0
edited January 2012 in Root

Ok so I bought a large BGE this Christmas and absolutely love it, my new nickname from my kids is smoky because that’s what I smell like all the time. Anyway, this post regards my new favorite food; pulled pork. I have now cooked two butts and they both turned out great. I have cooked both of them at 225-235 degrees according to the built in dome temp gauge. The first one I cooked weighed 3 lbs. and was boneless. I pulled it out of the fridge and put it on the grill with heat deflector in place. Cooking at the above mentioned range it took damn near 9 hours to get to 190 degrees internal temp. The second butt was 3.75 lbs. boneless and I put it on the grill after it came to room temperature hoping to reduce cooking time. I purchased a Maverick ET732 thermometer and incorporated it into the cook process. Rather than clipping the grill thermometer to the grate I dangled it down the upper vent so that it hung to the same height as the built in thermometer. Much to my surprise there was a 30 degree temperature variation. The maverick would read 255 when the built in egg thermometer would read 225. After a few hours of cooking I took the maverick termp sensor out of the chimney and clipped it directly to the tip of the egg thermo- WOW same temp readings +/- 5 degrees. So obviously the air at the top/center of the dome is considerably hotter than a little lower down and I imagine even cooler right at the grate level next to the meat. This second butt cooking at 225 again took 12 hours to bring to 190 degrees. Meat thermo has been calibrated and matches the temp reading from the maverick exactly. So all that being said the, consensus around the internet is that a butt should take 1.5 - 2 hours a pound to cook at 225 degrees is hogwash. My question is where should I be taking readings from for proper cooking, the grate, the dome thermo? And if in fact the dome thermo is not a true reflection of the temp on the meat how much should I raise the temp to on the dome thermo to achieve a cook time of 1.5-2 hours a pound? I'm guessing around 260 degrees. Thoughts???<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Comments

  • CaptainSpaulding
    CaptainSpaulding Posts: 368
    edited January 2012
    Cook at 250° dome, next time. You gain nothing by cooking at such a low temperature. My butts are typically between 8 and 9 pounds and rarely take more than 12 or 13 hours to get to 200°F internal.

    If you have a food saver, start cooking some meat, man. Most of the steaks I cook are about 3 pounds. It takes the same amount of time to cook 6 of them as it does to cook one.

    image

    For what it's worth, The 1.5-2 hours/pound rule I have always seen is for 250° dome. You can cook them as high as 300°-350° and will not likely notice a difference in the resulting pulled pork.

    Cheers,

    Captain Spaulding
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    All temps are dome temps
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • etbtcar
    etbtcar Posts: 1
    How long did it take you to cook those butts. Does the greater mass increase your cook time? Or still around the 12-14 hour range. Thanks much
  • Those times are insane for those smaller butts. Raise the temp and check our thermos for accuracy (boiling water). All the advice above is accurate and good.
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX