21 Hours for 9-lb Butt?

BGE_Zach

Threw a 9-lb butt on at midnight Saturday night. Dome temp was hovering around 250 throughout entire cook (+/- 50 degrees). Used an iGrill thermometer to monitor IT throughout the entire cook. Everything started off great. Hit a plateau around 7AM where it leveled off around 150-160. But at 5PM (18 hours into cook... thanks to the extra hour) it still hadn't broke through the plateau, so I wrapped it in foil. It finally started rising again after about 20 hours (7PM), but my wife/guests weren't willing to wait until it hit 200, so I pulled it after 21 hours (temp around 185-190). I thought maybe my probe was bad (I was a little suspicious about the accuracy of the iGrill when I purchased it, but couldn't resist the bells and whistles), but I checked with my ThermoPop numerous times throughout the cook, and it was always within 2-3 degrees of the iGrill. 

Any one have an idea why this took so long?

SoCalTim

Hi Zach, 21 hrs .. in a word, no.

I recently did two 8 lb butts @325 ... total time, 5 hrs. (give or take) .. I think when you first get your egg and get start cooking ... it's a cool thing to say 'Oh,, it took 14 hrs' ... you kinda wear that as a badge of honor, but soon the newness wears off and you just wanna eat ..

Butts are simple, forgiving cooks. Next time, try 275, see how things roll out and feel free to bump the temps (if things slow down) to as high as 350.

Tim

tarheelmatt

Dome was at 250° temp at grate is usually lower, roughly 25°.  So if you're at 225° and you're wanting to get a 9lb butt to roughly 200°, that's going to take a while, you know?  

Don't be hesitant to go higher, say 275-300°.  

Legume

Did it pull easily at that temp or did you have to chop or slice it?  That might be the best clue.

I agree with Tim, that timing just doesn't sound right.  Also your comment about +/- 50 degrees on the egg doesn't sound right, did you have a probe of grid or some temp?  I wonder if you didn't run lower than 250, more like 200?  Dome thermo calibrated?

Hokie_Smoker

Nice profile pic @BGE_Zach

BGE_Zach

Thanks for the feedback yall.

SoCalTim – Yeah, I knew something wasn't right. It sounds like I am just cooking at too low of a temp. After this, and a very similar experience with a 14-lb brisket, I can definitely appreciate your point about just wanting to eat.

tarheelmatt – I knew that the grate temp was lower, but I didn't realize it was that significant. I don't have an extra probe to put at grate level, but I definitely will be investing in one soon. 

Legume – I was able to pull it with relative ease, but it definitely wasn't as juicy as I had hoped. I have calibrated the dome thermometer before. Everything I have read about cooking butts says to get the egg between 225-250 (which now sounds like bad advice). I have difficulty getting my egg to initially stabilize at 250, I pretty much have to completely close the daisy-wheel, and only keep the vent open about 1/8" (see picture below). Once it stabilizes though, it'll typically hold pretty steady, unless it's overnight. When I woke up Sunday morning the dome temp had dropped from 250 to about 200, so I opened up the bottom vent to get it back up to 250, but I overshot, and it got up to around 300 for a bit before I could get it back down. 

jtcBoynton

At 250º a 9 pound butt should be finished in about 13-14 hours - give or take an hour or two.  I suspect that you were not actually cooking at 250º.  You checked your iGrill for accuracy, but did you check your dome thermometer?  

Also, the bone in that piece of meat looks more like a leg bone, not shoulder.  I am not sure of cooking times for leg compared to shoulder. Maybe some others will be able to address that possible issue.

BGE_Zach

Hokie_Smoker said:

Nice profile pic @BGE_Zach

Thanks. Bittersweet news about Beamer yesterday huh? Hate to see him go, but I think it's the best for the team (and hopefully our offense). Now fingers-crossed that we can win 2 of the last 3 and let him go out with a 23rd consecutive bowl appearance... 

jtcBoynton

@BGE_Zach   Pork butt can be cooked within a wide range of temps with great results.  You said: "Everything I have read about cooking butts says to get the egg between 225-250 (which now sounds like bad advice)."  The 225-250º temp range is not bad advice. It is a good temp to cook butt at.  It can sometimes be hard to maintain lower temps in an egg. Because the results of cooking at various temps are very similar, it is often recommended to settle your egg in at whatever temp it is steady at and not try to chase a small temperature difference.  For example, I can get my egg to be very stable at 240º or above. It is much harder to maintain lower temps.  

BGE_Zach

jtcBoynton said:

@BGE_Zach   Pork butt can be cooked within a wide range of temps with great results.  You said: "Everything I have read about cooking butts says to get the egg between 225-250 (which now sounds like bad advice)."  The 225-250º temp range is not bad advice. It is a good temp to cook butt at.  It can sometimes be hard to maintain lower temps in an egg. Because the results of cooking at various temps are very similar, it is often recommended to settle your egg in at whatever temp it is steady at and not try to chase a small temperature difference.  For example, I can get my egg to be very stable at 240º or above. It is much harder to maintain lower temps.  

Thanks for the reassurance. Other than the 100 degree swing (250 -> 200 -> 300 -> 250) between 3AM and 10AM I felt like the dome temp was pretty stable. I was just surprised with how long it took. But it sounds like if the dome temp was between 225 and 250, I was probably cooking at a grate temp between 200 and 225, which would explain why it to took a lot longer to cook. Also, I probably should recheck the dome thermometer to make sure that it is accurate.

nolaegghead

I can cook a butt to 148F internal and hold it there 24 hours and it's fall-apart tender.  This is with sous vide, but the point is the end point temperature is meaningless depending on the journey.   Your stall was brutal and that stall is water evaporating (and cooling) the chunk of meat.  Check for tenderness with skewer once you hit 190 or even lower if you're really cooking at a low temp. When there's almost no resistance, pull it off, it's done.

henapple

Each cut is different. I had the same thing happen Saturday. 

Hokie_Smoker

BGE_Zach said:

Hokie_Smoker said:

Nice profile pic @BGE_Zach

Thanks. Bittersweet news about Beamer yesterday huh? Hate to see him go, but I think it's the best for the team (and hopefully our offense). Now fingers-crossed that we can win 2 of the last 3 and let him go out with a 23rd consecutive bowl appearance... 

I bought tickets for the last home game, I want to be there to send Frank off. Most people don't realize how much he has meant to the University, and the State overall. He's done things the right way and I wish him the best.

SouthernSmoke

I've had this issue with previous cooks as well.  To help with this problem (and to avoid paying for another thermometer), I bought just a cheap old oven thermometer that I put on the grate.  I now bring my egg up to about 25 degrees higher than my target cook temp and just check the oven thermometer.  It has worked well so far, but I will soon break down and purchase a dual probe. 

texaswig

I also had a one Saturday. I started it at 225 till about the last 2 hours. It was getting close to time to eat. So I wrapped it and turned it up to 250.till IT off 203.

Legume

thing of beauty there Scott

henapple

The only thing I'd advise... It vote for Trump. 

MrT

Keep the egg low until you hit the plateau. Once that happens, you can crank the egg up - I usually cook at 200 for a Boston Butt. I hit a plateau around 170 - 180... If it sits at that temp for an hour or two, I just crank up to about 375 or so... It takes a little while, but the meat will start to rise eventually. Once it is over the hump, I bring the temp back down and start checking for doneness around 195 - 205 internal temp. 
Basically, the outer layers of the meat start to act like an insulator protecting the inside, and the only way past it is to overwhelm that insulating layer. Once you are at that point of the cook, you really are not going to hurt the meat by cranking up for a little while. 

jtcBoynton

That the meat somehow converts from a non insulating layer to an insulating layer as an explanation of the stall is something that I have not heard before.  Most people seem to accept that the stall is caused by evaporative cooling.

A nice discussion of evaporation cooling causing the stall can be found on Amazing Ribs:
http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/the_stall.html