First Boston Butt ... Need Assurance

schizoid2k · July 2019

Hi all,

trying my first Boston butt. I have the egg around 275 to 280. The butt has been on the egg for about 2 hours and internal temp is already in the mid 140s. Is this normal for a 6 pounder? Seems like it is moving a bit too fast.

thanks

Dondgc · July 2019

Is your grill temp thermometer calibrated? And is your meat probe in the thickest part of the butt? If the answers are yes just relax.

CanadianAnvil · July 2019

Sounds good, the temp can slow down its climb when its doing the latent process of melting collegen.

morrobayrich · July 2019

You are right on track. The temp initially goes up faster than you would think it would but when it hits the 160 area, it will slow down and you might actually see it drop a bit as the collagen melts. Finally it will start to rise again. Just hang in there, all is going well.

schizoid2k · July 2019

Cool.. thanks. Everything seems to be set up correctly, and I just kinda spiked. Looking at the recipe on the bge web site, it recommended to wrap at 160 after 6 hours. Since I am close to 150 after 2 hours, I am getting a little nervous.

i also see that some folks do not wrap and just let it go. I may try that, or I may stick with my original game plan.

lousubcap · July 2019

@schizoid2k Welcome aboard and enjoy the journey. Above all, have fun.

Regarding the wrap-I am in the no wrap camp as I like to preserve the bark and am lazy once the cook gets going. However, there are many recipes that use the wrap so cook one with the wrap and one w/o and decide for yourself which serves you better. No worries, the largest variable in that experiment will be the pig. And sometimes you have to wrap to power the cook along and cross the finish-line. FWIW-

gonepostal · July 2019

If you've got the time today, I would just let it go and enjoy the ride. Plenty of ways to get there and you can try them all and eventually settle on your preferred method. Welcome!

schizoid2k · July 2019

Thanks again to everyone for your help. I have decided to let it ride for this one and not wrap. I’m about 4 hours in at this point.

hopefully I will have some nice pics to share later on.

MotownVol · July 2019

Depending on your cook temp the stall can last a long time. If you are cooking L&S around 225, the stall can last for hours.

johnmitchell · July 2019

Welcome.. Pour yourself a cold one and enjoy..

schizoid2k · July 2019

Thanks everyone... and here's an update.

7.5 hours and it came out great. Thanks to everyone for talking me down... I was a bit worried about the quick spike in temp.