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Boston Butt Temp Question

Unknown
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Hi folks,
I've been away from the forum for awhile but I haven't stopped cooking
on Mr. Egg. I've been mostly cooking small stuff lately (except for
a couple of hams around Thanksgiving) because of long hours at work.
I cooked a 9 lb butt last fall using Elder Ward's method as a guide
and used WG Comp. Blend Lump. It took me 2hours of tinkering with
Mr. Egg to get the dome temp to stay at 200. The dome temp read 200
for the next 15-16 hours but the meat temp peaked at 160 degrees and
sat there for 3 hours. Elder Ward states the butt should settle around 180 before cranking up the egg for the finish. I cranked it
up to about 280-300 for four hours to get the butt to 199 internal.
It was great, but I wonder if it would be better if I could get the
butt to level out around 180 degrees before the finish.
Should I cook my next one at a higher dome temp, say 220 degrees?
What do you real eggsperts think?
Thanks

Comments

  • grillnut at Norcross Ace,
    If you have a dome temp of 200, the grid temp is probably 180? The meat is going to have a tough time getting to 180 if the temp on the grid is only 180. 200 is tough to maintain and probably just plain too low. Try 230-250 and let the butt stay in that plateau as long as it wants.[p]TNW

    The Naked Whiz
  • Wise One
    Wise One Posts: 2,645
    grillnut at Norcross Ace, do NOT. I repeat DO NOT try to get the dome to stay at 200. If you do that then your grill temperature is less than 190 and your meat will never reach 205. Try for 240 or so. That will put your grill temp in the 225 range and you will experience a great slow cook. I know Elder Ward says 220 but that i stsill difficult to maintain and IMHO not quite hot enough to allow the meat to reach 205.[p]On the otehr hand, if you got your dome to stay at 200, you have exhibited great control over Mr. Egg. You ar eto be congratulated.

  • Wise One
    Wise One Posts: 2,645
    The Naked Whiz, sorry - just stepped all over you. Good advice.

  • The Naked Whiz,
    Thanks Whiz.
    I wondered if that might be the problem, but I didn't want
    to dispute Elder Ward.
    Grillnut

  • Thanks guys,
    The message is loud and clear. I plan to try another one
    for the family during Winter school break later this month.
    Speaking of school breaks, we never had a week off in mid-
    winter in Ga. when I was growing up. I personally would
    rather give up these extra school year holidays and let the
    kids start school after Labor Day rather than early August!
    Enough of that.[p]I'd like to note that I used Ken Stone's Guilded Splinters
    as the rub for that butt and it's my favorite rub for ribs.
    He sent me a sample last year when I was looking at rubs for
    the store last summer. Us not adding it to the store in no
    way takes away from it as one the best rubs out there.
    If you read this Ken, don't change a thing.[p]Grillnut

  • grillnut at Norcross Ace,
    I have never had any problems doing butts. I temp my Egg at or around 240 to 270. Leave it there. The secrete to getting the Egg to hold temp is fill the Egg up with lump. I mean fill it up. Light it all around, let it stablize before putting the meat on. I can have mine up and running with meat on in about half hour. Usually done with temp at 195 in less than 14 hours. The ones I did this past weekend, all be they were not huge butts, in eleven hours. [p]Chef Jerry

  • Jwirlwind,[p]See and I light one spot in the middle and open the vents, and then close them down as I approach temp. Once I am at my target temp, I close them more untill the temp just starts dropping, then open the bottom up just a touch more. Holds there as long as I have lump.
  • grillnut at Norcross Ace,
    Thanks for ordering the Tsunami for me last week (the chicken's great but still a mess to deal with). I do butts at 225-245 till the collegen melting stage (175ish). Then crank in up to 300-325. It gets pulled at 195-200, then waits under foil/blankets in a cooler (my labs love the egg residue). I use a Maverick remote instead of the BGE gauge. I also try to use a butt with the bone in place instead of a picknic/shoudler. Publix or Patton's (N. Berkley Lake & PIB) can usually can hook you up with a great cut.

  • Highcotton,
    Thanks!
    Now I know who you are. People like you help stores like
    ours stay in business.
    Off to work now.
    Grillnut