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First two pork butts in the books.

MacD1988
MacD1988 Posts: 11
in Pork
Hi all, I'm a new egg owner. I have a large and smoked my first two butts (bone in) this weekend. I've found that maintaining anything below about 275 is almost impossible because of the ambient temp here in Dallas (101 today). I ended up cooking the 6.5 lb for 5 hours at 300 and foiled it and let it rest for four more. The bark was intact and it was stellar. The 3.5 lb butt went for 4 hours and rested for an hour and thirty mins foiled. The smaller butt was a tad better. I'm learning slowly how to dial in the temp. Work in progress. 
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Comments

  • Hook_emHornsfan_74
    Hook_emHornsfan_74 Posts: 1,431
    Ambient temp shouldn't really matter.  I live in Midland and haven't really had a problem holding temp.
    Midland, TX XLBGE
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  • dldawes1
    dldawes1 Posts: 2,208
    First Welcome to the madhouse for everything egg related and secondly welcome to the eggdiction!!!! Get your money ready!!!   

    You ou said you liked the smaller butt better....can you explain?  Did the larger not meet your eggspectations!!? We can fix that !!

    Donnie Dawes - RNNL8 BBQ - Carrollton, KY  

    TWIN XLBGEs, 1-Beautiful wife, 1 XS Yorkie

    I'm keeping serious from now on...no more joking around from me...Meatheads !! 


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  • MacD1988
    MacD1988 Posts: 11
    Hook em, I may just not be watching it closely enough at the beginning. I worry I may put out the lump if I restrict the airflow too much. Granted, those are totally unfounded fears because I have no experience. Dldawes, the smaller butt cooked much better. Could it be, that I let it rest for a shorter period in foil and it maintained more moisture and juice? 
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  • cheeaa
    cheeaa Posts: 364
    If it's hard to maintain the low temperature, there is no reason to fight it. If it likes 275, like mine, let it ride. 
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  • MacD1988
    MacD1988 Posts: 11
    Cheea, I had mine at 280 and did just that. It's not a bad idea. 
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  • MacD1988
    MacD1988 Posts: 11
    I took all the advice on here and what do you know? Perfect temp control. Thanks everyone.
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  • Battleborn
    Battleborn Posts: 3,528
    To me, there is really not much difference between 250-275. I have only been cooking ribs at that temp though as I started going turbo (~350) on butt cooks. I live in Vegas and don't really see any correlation between high ambient temps and controlling a low and slow temp. 
    Las Vegas, NV


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  • da87
    da87 Posts: 640
    Doesn't take much air to hold 250, and I can only do it if I catch the temp really early. LBGE seems to run fine on very little vent 



    Doug
    Wayne, PA
    LBGE, Weber Kettle (gifted to my sister), Weber Gasser

    "Two things are infinite:  the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe"   Albert Einstein
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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 33,897
    Welcome aboard and as you have just experienced, continue to enjoy the journey.  You will find there are many ways to get the end-result you want with the BGE.  Just pick one and go-learn from it, change up one thing and go again.  Iterative process and you will find your "sweet-spot".
    As above, most LBGE's seem to settle in for L&S in the 240-270*F range.  Go with it.  FWIW-
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood. # 38 for the win.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period.
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  • wc116
    wc116 Posts: 4
    da87 said:
    Doesn't take much air to hold 250, and I can only do it if I catch the temp really early. LBGE seems to run fine on very little vent 




    thanks for the pics, I did my first butt last weekend and my vents had to be like this to hold a low temp I thought I was doing something wrong.

    I did a 9lb put it on at  9:30PM it was finished at 7:30am too soon, but I did wrap in foil/towel and put in cooler for 4 hrs and it was still hot and very good.
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  • MacD1988
    MacD1988 Posts: 11
    Based on the pics, I was definitely allowing too much air flow.

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