Question about the fire going out

domefoam · September 2012

I put a 9 lb pork shoulder on the egg at about 9pm last night and went to sleep around 11pm. The temp was stable at 250. My Maverick alarm went off at 6am saying my grill temp was too low. I went outside and the fire was out. It couldn't have been out too long because the meat temp was 167, and as soon as I opened the sliding door, the fire started back up. Here's my question. Should I have taken the shoulder off while the fire started back up? There was quite a bit of smoke coming out of the daisy wheel for about 10 minutes once the fire lit again. I'm just wondering how much this can affect the taste of the meat, even though there's nothing I can do about it. Thanks for your help!

tazcrash · September 2012

Wash it a good smoke, like a piece of wood chunk catching, or did it smell like start up smoke?

General rule: if it smells good it will taste good.

Add more wood chunks for more good smoke.

domefoam · September 2012

It wasn't a wood smoke, but it was t quite as bad as normal start up either. That's probably because the dome temp was 200 when I caught it. But it also wasn't the cleanest burning smoke either. Time will tell.

tazcrash · September 2012

Good luck.

dlk7 · September 2012

Good luck - does this cook make you want to consider a digiq or stoker?

domefoam · September 2012

dlk7 said:

Good luck - does this cook make you want to consider a digiq or stoker?

Not quite yet, but I'm not ruling it out in the future. This is my first overnight cook so I'm willing to take my lumps. I think the shoulder will be fine. I just went outside and it smells so good! My guess as to what happened is I didn't account for the temperature drop last night, and I barely had a sliver in the door. The daisy wheel was barely cracked also. When I caught it, the grid temp was 200 and the dome was 210. If I would have had it open a little more, I doubt I would have had a problem.

fishlessman · September 2012

sounds like your fire didnt go out, you just had a low fire that probably had some ash build up. i like to check on things every 5 hours, maybe shake the grate with an ash tool but you caught it in time and got it going just fine

gdenby · September 2012

My guess was that you had something as simple as ash buildup damping the airflow. Many people have bent wires to poke up thru the bottom grate. I have a long heavy wire that I slip down along the sides, to stir the lump a bit.

Its likely there was some bad smoke. I'd guess it was a little creosote forming from moisture build up, and the cool fire. Creosote mostly forms as the smoke passes thru and beyond the chimney, where the temperature is just a little above boiling.

I've only taken meat off when the fire was completely dead, and I had to load more lump, and re-ignite it. Otherwise, the temp has recovered fast enough that moving the meat to the kitchen stove would not have been an advantage.

domefoam · September 2012

Thanks for the info! I think I'll form a little wire to take care of any ash buildup.

domefoam · September 2012

Just to update, I pulled the pork shoulder off at an internal temp of 200 degrees and then wrapped it for about an hour and a half. It came out perfect, moist, and delicious! So the first overnight cook was a success, even with the little hiccup this morning. Here's a pic of the shoulder right before I pulled it off.

Wally_Wabash_03 · September 2012

Same thing happened to me on my first shoulder. I'm trying my second tonight.

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