My first piece of pork butt had a strange temperature change.

gdenby · August 2006

I'm still not quite confident I can manage an overnight fire, so for my first ever pork butt I did a 3.5# piece with bone in on Sunday. The odd thing happened at the end when I decided to wrap it in foil. At 7 hours, I still wasn't through the plateau, and I had hungry people waiting. So, though I had hoped to do the butt entirely unwrapped except for finishing to have the best bark possible, I wrapped it in foil and upped the temp to 300.[p]I had re-inserted the thermometer through the foil. The temperature began zooming up, 2 - 3 degrees a minute, and in almost no time the internal was at 200. I was afraid I might dry-out or burn the meat, so I pulled it and put it in the cooler for an hour, while I roasted some corn. [p]The meat turned out good, but not quite finger shreddable. More like finger lumpable, and the bone was not ready to drop out. So, is a temperature rise like that to be expected? And should I have let it go to a higher temperature, or would additional time in the cooler have made the piece more tender?[p]gdenby

katman · August 2006

gdenby,
Not sure what you had going on there, but a couple of things I've experienced. You didn't say what the temp was when you foiled, but whenever I have foiled and cranked up the cook temp the meat temp does rise rapidly. Also, at 3.5 pounds and bone in, that is about half the size of the butts I usually cook. I got a small one (or piece of one) once and it just didn't get as tender as the full bodied version.

Ronbo · August 2006

gdenby,
Is there any chance the probe was touching the bone? If so that could explain the temp difference

gdenby · August 2006

katman,[p]It was 164 when I foiled it. It had been at that temp for almost an hour, and 163 for the hour before that. I guess maybe foiling shoved the temperature up, but didn't leave enough time to get the collagen to collapse.[p]gdenby

katman · August 2006

gdenby,
It does sound like it could have cooked for a while longer before foiling. Leaving whole in the cooler for an hour or so should help, but next time try to get a bigger butt (7 to 8 lbs seems to be a nice size). Cooking them at about 245 till they get to 190-200 seems to work pretty good. I just wait till the bone can be released. Foil and let rest for about an hour. Usually shreds easily.[p]I usually get my butts at Sam's in a two pack. You can cook one and freeze one if you don't want to cook both at the same time. Costco usually has pretty good shoulders, which make great mojo. Just don't get enhanced or "self basting" meat. I think a lot of the smithfield brand is enhanced. Doesn't taste right or cook the same. Could be what you had was a small enhanced cut.

katman · August 2006

gdenby,
meant to say "picnic" before when I said shoulder.

My first piece of pork butt had a strange temperature change.

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