First Pork Butt

GoodTidings

ok first time poster.  Had my Large Egg for 6 months or so.  Have enjoyed several cook of various sorts.  Sorry, I keep forgetting to take pics.  

Cooked My first pork butt this weekend.  I have one pic of before...not worth posting. I forgot to take the after pic... sorry. 

i used a dual probe thermometer for my cook.  I monitored 3 temps in the cook.  Dome temp,  Grill temp @ the grate, and internal temp of the butt.  

Butt was 9 1/2 lbs bone in. 

I tried to keep notes on the cook for reference, but I am confused...

all the posts, blogs, recipes, etc I read said I needed to cook at  250ish.  The dome temp varied from 230-270.  I checked it every 1/2 hour to hour.  

However, the grill/grate temp averaged 350... 

Took butt off after about 6 1/2 hours with internal temp @ 201.  Butt wasn't as tender as I thought it should be but it was still great.  I did not tent of pull the butt after awhile.  I didn't notice a stall I have read about, but looked for.  

Should I have tried to cook grill/grate temp at 250... or dome at 250ish.  If I need to cook with grill/grate at 250, that means the dome would be around 150-175.  Is that correct?

Thanks for any advice or help.  

Hope to Egg a turkey and some beer-can chicken for family this weekend.  I'll try to take pics and post.

Happy Thanksgiving to all....

bgebrent

Your cook was fine.  Be sure your dome thermo is calibrated.  And for that matter, your probes. Butts turn out well at all temps you described.  IT 201 should've been really good.  Every butt is different.  Do 10 more and you'll be good.
Dome should be at least 225.  Easier at 275-300.  On longer cooks like this the dome and grate temps nearly equalize.  

lousubcap

Key to pork butt success is when the bone pulls clean w/o resistance, generally in the low 200's.  It should pull with relative ease if finished.
And regarding temps-you can overload on temperature information.  By chance was your grate thermo exposed to the direct heat from the lump?  Convention here is that unless otherwise noted the temperature is dome temp as that is the one indicator all BGEs come with.
BTW-Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey.

Great_EGGspectations

@GoodTidings Welcome!

I haven't posted much, but here's a post I wrote detailing the approach I take for low and slow cooks of pork shoulders:  http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1196163/low-and-slow-a-boneless-pork-shoulder#latest

With pork shoulder (bone in preferred or boneless if that's all I have available), I use the same approach detailed in the post. I'm a huge fan of low @grill temp 225 degrees and a longer cook. Others may cook at higher temps for shorter duration; but, I haven't achieved that really tender cook at the higher temps.

Regarding your dome temp question - I don't pay attention to the dome temp because my food isn't sitting that high up in my LBGE. I simply focus my attention on the probe at the grate level and the internal food temp probe. That dome thermometer is simply decoration to me. LOL

Did you pull it and wrap the pork butt in foil at any time during your cook? If not, try it next time as that may help you get that tender, pull apart cook.

I hope this helps and have fun experimenting!

Great_EGGspectations

jtcBoynton

GoodTidings said:

.... The dome temp varied from 230-270.  I checked it every 1/2 hour to hour.  
However, the grill/grate temp averaged 350... 
...
Should I have tried to cook grill/grate temp at 250... or dome at 250ish.  If I need to cook with grill/grate at 250, that means the dome would be around 150-175.  Is that correct?
.....

Welcome.

Where exactly was the grid probe?  Small location differences can make major temperature differences.  You were cooking indirect, correct? (if you were cooking direct, ignore almost all of the discussion you have seen and find specific discussion on cooking a butt direct).  You may have had the grid probe too close to a hot air draft.  Normally, the dome temp will start out higher than the grid temp and slowly the grid temp will increase to match the dome temp.

GoodTidings

Thanks all for your suggestions and advice... getting ready for a turkey smoke on Thur and beer can chicken on Friday... I'll try your suggestions! Thanks again. 

tikigriller

No pic is unworthy to post.

This may just be me, but I would love to hear your answers to the questions all the replies to your thread posed. It rounds out the conversation and helps new eggers like myself learn more. Right now, I am still left with so many questions about your cook, that I may not sleep well tonight. 

GoodTidings

Good evening all... some addl info.  I did not wrap the meat in foil at any point.  Maybe that was part of my problem.  This is all a learning process.. good thing is, even though I'm learning, I haven't had to throw out anything yet!  It's all been good!  

Maybe my grate thermo was close to hot spot.  I could see a small difference in temp from grate to some,  but not a tremendous spread.  

Last time  I used Egg dome thermo was ok, but to be on the safe side I re-calibrated it again tonight.  

I'm smoking a turkey tomorrow and beer can chicken on Friday.  Gonna have fun!  I'll try to take pics and remember to post them.  

Happy Thanksgiving all!  I have so much to be thankful for....

GoodTidings

Missed a question.  I was cooking indirect...with a drip pan on the platesetter... no liquid in the drip pan...