Am I In Trouble?

Spring Chicken

I put two 7# butts on about 5 hours ago at a constant 250 degrees indirect. I'm set to go to 200 degrees after an anticipated 18 hour cook. Only my internal temp is already up to 152 degrees. Sould I slow it down a bit or will it reach a plateau and sit there for five or six hours during the night before continuing to climb?[p]Spring "Long Night Planned" Chicken
Spring Texas USA

Unknown

Spring Chicken,
You will hit a plateau and it will take some time to get to 195. Although I have my theory about butts. I think there is a lot of difference in the cuts of meat. The last one I did was doing what yours is doing. After eight hours it hit 200 and the Egg dome was still at 250. The meat came out fine but if my temp control had not have gone off, and my wife heard it cause I was dead, I would have over cooked it. I would not change the temp of your Egg, just keep the temp alarm close to your head while you sleep. [p]Jerry

Nature Boy

You are dead meat. Spring "Dead Meat" Chicken.[p]Seriously, 152 is where you want to be. I'd knock 'er down to 225 and roll on. Couldn't hurt to put a polder probe at the grate level too just to see what you are really cookin at.[p]Cheers ma man.
Chris

TRex

Spring Chicken,[p]If your dome temp is calibrated and you're really at 250 dome, I wouldn't worry about it. You'll hit that plateau soon. However, you might want to set your alarm to wake up one time during the night just to check your temps. If all goes normally, you should be pulling the butts off the Egg early tomorrow morning.[p]By the way, my 8 lb butt took 16 hours this time - 2 hrs per pound exactly. It's amazing when I cook two butts at once how the overall time goes up by several hours (e.g., 18-20 hrs for two 7 lb butts). I'm assuming the same will be true with the two butts on your large Egg. But, just in case, you may want to wake up and check at the 2-hrs-per-pound mark, or an hour or so before that. So, let's see, 6 a.m. would be a 14 hr cook, so maybe wake up around 4 and check them out.[p]Best of luck,[p]TRex

Spring Chicken

Spring Chicken,
You guys are right on. I checked it at about 1:30 AM and it was 250/169 degrees, and again at 3:00 AM and it was 240/168. I tweaked the vent a bit and got it back to 250 and I think I can sleep well the rest of the night.[p]Thanks for the input.[p]Spring "Walking Talking BBQ Guru" Chicken