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New personal record for turbo butts

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lilwooty
lilwooty Posts: 215
in Pork
This weekend I smoked 32 lbs of pork shoulder for a big pool party of 70 people. I decided to go turbo on Saturday morning. My previous experience with this has been about an hour cook time per pound on my XL. I don't know if it was because of the combined meat mass inside the XL, but they all were at 205 degrees internal temp at 6 hours. The egg was at about 325 dome temp the entire time. Indirect with plate setter and the larger shoulders were on a raised grid. Two of the shoulders were 8.5 lbs and the other two were a little over 7 lbs each. Four of them total. Anyone else experience filling up your egg with meat causing the cook time to accelerate? It just seemed to me that they were done awful quick.

Living Large and XL

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  • Foghorn
    Foghorn Posts: 9,834
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    When I cook large quantities, I've noticed that multiple big hunks of meat act as a heat block/sink. If you were 325 at the dome, you were probably 375+ at the lower grid. That's probably why it cooked so fast. I generally don't worry too much about "dome temp vs grid temp" but in cooks like this one, if you get the dome temp to 350, you can have the lower grid temp reach 400+ and burn the underside of the lower butts. The more meat you have to act as a heat sink and restrict the airflow, the more this can potentially be an issue.

    XXL BGE, Karebecue, Klose BYC, Chargiller Akorn Kamado, Weber Smokey Mountain, Grand Turbo gasser, Weber Smoky Joe, and the wheelbarrow that my grandfather used to cook steaks from his cattle

    San Antonio, TX

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  • R2Egg2Q
    R2Egg2Q Posts: 2,136
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    Nice job on the pork. How close was that butt on the front of the upper grid to your dome thermo? Maybe it was close enough for the cool meat to pull your thermo temp down enough so that you were cooking hotter than the 325 that it read.
    XL, Large, Small, Mini Eggs, Shirley Fabrication 24x36 Patio, Humphrey's Weekender, Karubecue C-60, MAK 1-Star General, Hasty Bake Gourmet, Santa Maria Grill, Webers: 14" WSM, 22.5" OTG, 22.5" Kettle Premium, WGA Charcoal, Summit S-620 NG

    Bay Area, CA
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  • lilwooty
    lilwooty Posts: 215
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    Thanks for the feedback guys.  You bring up some valid points.  I have been thinking about getting one of those new Party Q's anyway.  I think I need to monitor the temp at the cooking grate level for better results.

    Living Large and XL

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  • MaskedMarvel
    MaskedMarvel Posts: 3,142
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    Recalibrate your thermometer
    Large BGE and Medium BGE
    36" Blackstone - Greensboro!


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  • Raymont
    Raymont Posts: 710
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    In the picture it looks like that raised butt would be really close to your dome thermometer. At a minimum, it might have restricted heat flow.

    Small & Large BGE

    Nashville, TN

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  • Ladeback69
    Ladeback69 Posts: 4,482
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    Looks good to me. I've only done 2 at one time in 6 hours with the turbo method indirect on a raised grid. I am thinking of doing 2 pork butts and 2 briskets on my XL for my brother's birthday coming up the end of October. I'm not sure if two briskets will fit on the bottom, will see. Did you sauce the meat or leave it dry? I usually leave mine without sauce and add back in some of the drippings for moisture and flavor.
    XL, WSM, Coleman Road Trip Gas Grill

    Kansas City, Mo.
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  • lilwooty
    lilwooty Posts: 215
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    Ladeback69 said:
    Looks good to me. I've only done 2 at one time in 6 hours with the turbo method indirect on a raised grid. I am thinking of doing 2 pork butts and 2 briskets on my XL for my brother's birthday coming up the end of October. I'm not sure if two briskets will fit on the bottom, will see. Did you sauce the meat or leave it dry? I usually leave mine without sauce and add back in some of the drippings for moisture and flavor.

    2 of the shoulders were sauced for pulled pork sandwiches.  The other 2 had a different rub mainly chili powder and cumin based.  They were not sauced.  They were for tacos.  I put it in a crockpot on the warm setting with a little beef broth to keep it from drying out while it was served.  It took quite a while before everyone was finished serving themselves, so I was afraid it might get too dry.

    Living Large and XL

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