Ok - My Butt Cooked WAY too Fast - What's Up?

Unknown

Ok, I put what I believed to be a 10# pork butt on for a lo n slo. The egg ran away from me for about 90 minutes in the beginging and got up to about 285 versus the intended 250 degrees, after that it held between 24 - 240 the whole time. 12 hours and 15 minutes later that puppy was at 200 internal. Now it was great, but I had figured on 15 - 20 hours. My question is what happened? Part of me wonders if I really cooked a butt because it had a pretty big bone in it (I am by no means a butcher in case you can't tell, and this was only my second butt to cook). The store I purchased it from has a pretty good meat counter and that's what they sold me, but I'm not sure cause of the cook time - anyone have any thoughts. Just for info the set up was: clean egg, fresh lump about 1/2 way up the fire ring, inverted plate setter, drip pan 1/2 full of water, grid, butt in a v-rack directly on the grid.[p]Thanks
C.

Unknown

Conundrum,
Read that as the egg held at 240 - 250 for the rest of the cook after I got it settled back down.[p]Again, thanks
Reed

Ronbo

Conundrum,
You can get them bone in or out. I prefer bone in. 10lbs is pretty big though. I usually get the largest one with bone in and it is aroun 7.5lbs. BTW it is actually the front shoulder

WestCoastBarbeque

Conundrum, Have you calibrated your dome thermometer and meat thermometer recently ? You might want to check them...

Kelly Keefe

Conundrum,
I'm not expert since I only do 4-5lb butts, but two thoughts:[p]Are you sure the probe wasn't touching the bone?
Have you checked that the thermometer is accurate?[p]Just spitballing here...[p]Kelly

JSlot

Like all good BBQ, it's done when it's done. I've had variances of 3-4 hours cooking time on butts that were within a few ounces of each other in weight. It's not that unusual. I don't think the higher temp had a big impact on the cook. When I'm cooking butts, as long as the thermo stays between 250° and 280°, I don't touch it.[p]Jim

Unknown

West Coast Barbeque,
I calibrated the dome thermometer a couple of months ago, and it was dead on when I did it. I use a Polder for internal temp, and didn't realize it can be calibrated - can it?[p]Thanks
C

Celtic Wolf

Conundrum,[p] You can count on one hour to two hours per pound. The actual time depends on several factors. How much fat the meat has, how big that bone is and what the actual grate temp is.[p] The more fat the longer the cook, the bigger the bone the quicker the cook, and of course the higher the grate temp is the fast it will cook.[p] If you used an acidic brine it will cook somewhat faster too.

Darnoc

Conundrum,
Your temp should have been 225/235 range for low and slow.Make sure the temp probe is the thick part of the meat,not touching the bone.Also good to check later on in the cook a different spot to insert the temp probe to get a better idea of what is going on.Dont open the dome to look at it for at least 9/10 hours.When internal temp is 190/195 its done.