Low and sooo slow pork butt

DavidL

After cooking for a long period of time without replacing a burned up gasket, I finally got around to installing a new gasket before cooking a pork butt I had just brought home.  Without a gasket, it's a lot of work, if not almost impossible, to try to maintain a low dome temp, and I wanted to be able to set the dome temp low and forget it.  It also takes a little time to correctly install a gasket, hence, I had put it off for quite awhile.  Bought a smallish 4.99 lb. butt. since there are only 3 of us.  Have tried to maintain a dome temp between 200-230 deg.  Awoke this morning with it at 300 deg.  Brought dome temp back down to 250 deg.  Still cooking on initial load of hard lump charcoal and pecan chunks, and the dome hasn't been opened one time.  And now, almost 19 hrs in , the internal meat temp is only at 160 deg.  At this point, I'm thinking of adding some new fuel (charcoal) and some water to the water pan. I'm fearful that I'm not going to have enough fuel to finish the cook.  I plan on wrapping it in butcher paper when it reaches 170 deg and putting it back on until it reaches an internal temp of 200 deg.  I really did not anticipate it taking this long to cook a smallish butt at that dome temp.  But, I guess it's done when it done.

R2Egg2Q

Something sounds weird with that internal temp after having cooked that long for a small butt.  Did you get much resistance when you probed it? If it’s a bone in shoulder does the bone wiggle freely?  Any idea how long it was cooking at 300?  At 300 I’d think it could be done cooking in just a few hours (nowhere near 19 hours).  At this point I’d think that should have been done long ago.  

bikesAndBBQ

200-230 dome temperature will take a very long time. Is your thermometer accurate?  If it is even 10 degrees off, you would be running close to sub 200 degrees if you are aiming for 200-230. 

DavidL

R2Egg2Q said:

Something sounds weird with that internal temp after having cooked that long for a small butt.  Did you get much resistance when you probed it? If it’s a bone in shoulder does the bone wiggle freely?  Any idea how long it was cooking at 300?  At 300 I’d think it could be done cooking in just a few hours (nowhere near 19 hours).  At this point I’d think that should have been done long ago.  

Seems weird to me, too.  The therm probe went in with little to no resistance.  Like I said, I haven't opened the dome so I can't comment on the how loose the bone is.  I went to bed at 3:00 a.m. and checked the dome temp around 9:00 a.m., so I'm not sure how long it was at 300.  I think I'll go open the dome and see what it looks like.  There may not be anything left of it.

Woodchunk

Have you got a stand alone temp gauge that you can check the IT with. 

DavidL

DavidL said:

R2Egg2Q said:

Something sounds weird with that internal temp after having cooked that long for a small butt.  Did you get much resistance when you probed it? If it’s a bone in shoulder does the bone wiggle freely?  Any idea how long it was cooking at 300?  At 300 I’d think it could be done cooking in just a few hours (nowhere near 19 hours).  At this point I’d think that should have been done long ago.  

Seems weird to me, too.  The therm probe went in with little to no resistance.  Like I said, I haven't opened the dome so I can't comment on the how loose the bone is.  I went to bed at 3:00 a.m. and checked the dome temp around 9:00 a.m., so I'm not sure how long it was at 300.  I think I'll go open the dome and see what it looks like.  There may not be anything left of it.

Well, it actually looks ok, like it's supposed to (see pic below).  I was afraid it was going to resemble jerky.  The dome temp had climbed back up some, to 280 deg.  I tugged on the bone and it had no give to it.  There's plenty of water/juice in the water pan so no need to add any more.  I pulled the therm probe and reinserted it in a different spot.  The result...159 deg.  Since the dome temp had climbed upward, it appears I have ample fuel for the time being so I don't think I'll add anymore lump right now.  I don't know what the deal is.  I guess I'll continue with the cook as planned.  An additional note, I calibrated the dome thermometer right before I started the cook so I feel pretty confident that it's giving a correct reading.  Scratching my bald head on this one...

DavidL

Woodchunk said:

Have you got a stand alone temp gauge that you can check the IT with. 

I currently don't have another temp gauge with which to get a "second opinion."  I've been through several different thermometers and am currently using a Weber iGrill Mini.  I like it better than anything else I've used so far.  It's worked like a charm for me for a while now.  I did have to replace the battery in it a couple of hours into the cook.

Mattman3969

DavidL said: There's plenty of water/juice in the water pan so no need to add any more.  I pulled the therm probe and reinserted it in a different spot.  The result...159 deg

There is the weirdness. No need for water/juice in the pan.  You are actually creating a steam temp of 212° under the meat no matter what temp your egg is running at.   The egg doesn't need water pans like offset cookers.  

Sea2Ski

Something ain't/wasn't right. 
I did 3 -7 lb shoulders Friday to Sat and they took 14 hrs at roughly 215-225 dome.

DavidL

Mattman3969 said:

DavidL said: There's plenty of water/juice in the water pan so no need to add any more.  I pulled the therm probe and reinserted it in a different spot.  The result...159 deg

There is the weirdness. No need for water/juice in the pan.  You are actually creating a steam temp of 212° under the meat no matter what temp your egg is running at.   The egg doesn't need water pans like offset cookers.  

Hmmm, I've never thought about that or heard that before.  I always use a water pan on an indirect, low and slow to catch the meat drippings so that they don't burn and emit burnt smoke into my meat from the plate setter that sits just a few inches directly below my meat. If I don't use a water pan, how do I avoid that issue?  Or, maybe it's not an issue and I have just conceived that it is.  Would love to get some feedback on that.

DavidL

Well, after 27 hrs, I finally removed it, internal temp was 190 deg.  It came out great, as usual--very moist.  Just didn't anticipate it taking that long to reach a proper internal temp. 

As a testament to how efficient the BGE is, when I removed the plate setter and could see into the fire box, I still had a really nice glowing fire. 
  Again, that was with the initial load of hard lump and some pecan chunks and after 27 hrs of continuous cooking.  So, I added a couple of more chunks of pecan and threw on some ribeyes, which we ate for dinner.  Saving the pork butt for some quick meals during the upcoming week.

StillH2OEgger

Looks very good. It better, that's a long time to wait for your grub (-:
You don't need any liquid in the drip pan as long as there is an air gap underneath the pan. I use balls of tin foil on the plate setter and that works well. No burned drippings.

DavidL

StillH2OEgger said:

Looks very good. It better, that's a long time to wait for your grub (-:
You don't need any liquid in the drip pan as long as there is an air gap underneath the pan. I use balls of tin foil on the plate setter and that works well. No burned drippings.

Ok, now I'm tracking with y'all about the water pan--use the pan to catch the juice, but don't put any water in it.  I thought everyone was saying to not use a pan at all.  When thinking about no pan at all, all I was picturing was the juice hitting the plate setter below and burning.  Great tip about using foil under the pan to create an air gap!

Thanks everyone for the comments!

David