Help...need to serve butt at 7 and temp is only 170 at 4:20 PM

eggandart

How high can I push the egg temp to get it finished?  I cooked it at 225, then bumped up to 250, now 275...but still not moving the needle fast enough.  Thanks

AleBrewer

It's probably in the stall, and may stay there for awhile. You could try putting some foil on it, and keeping a dome temp of 300°.

How big a butt is it?

eggandart

The butt is 8 lbs. But, it's shape was not too round, more oblong and flatter than most...Thanks for the idea...I'll give it a try unless anyone else out there has an idea.  It seemed to stall at 138 earlier today, stayed there a long time.

brewcityegger

Wrap it in 2 layers of foil and crank it up to 350. Should be done by 6:30, giving you a half an hour to let it rest. At this point the meat isn't going to absorb any more smoke. Crank it up and power right through that stall.

lousubcap

Listen to brewcitybrewer-don't know your initial parameters but with 250-260*F on the dome, figure around 2hrs/#.  And aim to finish early on the next one as you can hold (foil, towels, cooler-FTC) for several hours before pulling to serve.  Give turbo butt a search as that can accelerate the cook.  Enjoy-all's well that ends well!

Hungry Joe

A stall at 138? I guess it could happen but that is a first for me. Are you sure your thermometers are reading correctly? Have you checked them in boiling water? 

Anyway +2 on what brewcityegger and lousubcap said.

travisstrick

lightly drape with foil and you can bump to 400 with no problem. 

Brownie

travisstrick said:

lightly drape with foil and you can bump to 400 with no problem. 

Yeah, I once did a butt at 375* dome for the entire cook without foil (yes it was on purpose) and the only down side to the bark was that the sugar was past caramelized at those temps. It wasn't burnt or tasted bad, the bark just wasn't quite like a low n slow.

Brownie