Butts cooked for 20hours at 275 and still not done

Eric

Hi Guys
I am totally confused. I invited my children and 11 grandchildren over for a big Pulled Pork BBQ. I bought 2 - 8 lb bonein boston butts fresh and figured they would be ready in 16 hours. I held the temperature at 250 -275 during the whole time. 20 hours later the digital themometer on both butts read 177 degrees and it was 7 pm. The kids had to go home because of school. I gave one of butts to my son and when he got home, he tempd it and had an internal temp of 196 and the butt was perfect. When he call me my other butt was still on the grill reading 178. I immediately took it off and the butt was perfect.
Is it reasonable to assume that I had TWO new digital thermometers that read exactly the same thing on two different butts and each were broken? SOunds like Human error to me - mine. But I don't know the error. The day was a major disappointment after a lot of work and I still don;t know what happen.[p]Advice pls
Thanks
Eric

dhuffjr

Eric,
Could have been in a pocket of fat or something. The two I did yesterday I didn't put a probe in until the next day. One said 177 when I pulled them but the thermapen said otherwise.

Spring Chicken

Eric,
I just cooked two butts for my in-laws and it took 23 hours to reach 195° internal. I had to bump the grid temp up from 225° to 275° for the last four hours in order to get them done. I never opened the dome once and I was using a BBQ Guru the entire time. I also had a Polder plugged in to help keep tabs on them. [p]It certainly wasn't a shortage of lump because I still had over a third left from when I started.[p]The only thing I did differently this time was to use my cast iron grid instead of my stainless steel grid. That shouldn't have made any difference. [p]Maybe it was just a stubborn pig LOL[p]Spring "Head Butt-Head" Chicken
Spring Texas USA

icemncmth

Eric,[p]I have had butts cook for as long as 26 hours...[p]When I do pork butts I start them around 5 pm the day before I need them.....[p]That is if I plan to have them for dinner then next day..[p]If they get done early they will stay hot in a cooler...[p]If they take longer...I can always bump up the temp on the egg..

Unknown

Eric,[p]You really want to cook butts in two phases. Start them off at 225-250 and leave them there for 14-16 hours. You will see the temperature of the butts move up gradually for the first 10-12 hours and then stop moving once they hit somewhere around 175-180. (This known as the plateau and drives first-time butt smokers absolutely nuts.) At that point, the collagen in the butt will start melting down. This will take around 4 hours. Once the collagen has broken down, the internal temperature of the butt will start moving up again. At that point, crank up the dome temperature to ~325 and shoot for an internal butt temperature of ~200-205.[p]Once you've gotten to that point, pull the butts off the smoker, let them rest for a bit (to reabsorb the juices into the cells as they cool down) and pull that butt.

Wise One

Eric, something is amiss. Two 8 pound butts should never take 20 hours at 250-275. My immediate thought is that you had a bad dome thermometer reading. I once had a 4 pound mini-butt to cook for 10 hours and still never reached 190 and then the next day I happened to look at my dome thermometer and saw it registering 140 - with no fire going. I then realized I had been cooking that butt at about 190. No wonder it didn't do better.

John

Eric,[p]I am new to the BGE, but not to smoking. Are you sure of the cooking temp? Since your butts were OK I would suspect the therm. Also what were the metal top and door set at?
I cannot imagine a butt not being done at that cooking temp in that length of time. I have done 8-9 pound butts sitting right next to each other at 250-275 in a large offset and one would take 6-7 hours and the other almost 12. So it is possible for them to be ready at different times, I agree that the odds of two seperate therms being bad are slim. Have you checked them using iced and boiling water? Have you tried checking the meat for donenss by poking it, does it have trouble supporting it's weight and also seeing if the bone will pull out easily. Not sure how long it took your son to get home, but if the butt was foiled that would have helped to finsh it and it should have had a lot of moisture.[p]I have had temp spikes and overcooked butts before...........you can dry them out, I proved it. [p]Best,[p]John

icemncmth

John,[p]Depending on how much fat and gristle...butts can run 1-3 hours per pound when cooking at 250deg +-......[p]so 8lbs with a lot of fat at gristle could take 20 hours..but another thing to consider is ....were they inhanced?..If so you can have 12% solution added to the butts....[p]And this could cause a longer cook if you took them out of a fridge that had the meat at 40 deg....[p]One thing he didn't metion was what temp the meat was when he took it out of the fridge...Heck it could of had the center at 34%...just a thought

Jeeves

Eric,[p]I put a couple 7.25 #ers on SUNDAY MORNING around 2 am. At 10 AM, the fire was going down. Due to some Cr@P lump from our local grocery store, HEB, made in Argentina, I reloaded with the same junk (to get rid of it), and got the fire back up. I was cooking LOW on purpose (~205). Around 1:30 PM, I was about 160 and I kicked it up to around 225°. At 6, they hit the target. I pulled, foiled and stored them in the cooler.[p]My experience was a combination of bad charcoal, and changing the temp, since I wasn't in a rush.[p]7.25 should have taken ~14.5 hours, but that's based on 225-250, IMO. This took me about 16 hours because I was lower, so I figure I did right...[p]This was all done with a GURU, BONE IN, and making sure that the probes were away from the bone.[p]_jeeves

EggspertMN

Eric,
wow, Eric. Sounds like Mr Murphy was invited too![p]There is always something to be said for having a plan B. And NO, I don't mean hot dogs....[p]I always try to look at things from when you want to eat. it's kinda like a countdown. If we're gonna eat at 5:00pm, then the pork shoulders wil need to be done about 3:00 so they can rest. now count backwards from 3:00 to figure out when you need to start cooking. I always rub up my shoulders with some rub about 12 hours before, so add 12 hours prior to that. For cooking, you might have to take into account you're experience with the charcoal that you are using, the weather, how much meat you have to smoke, how full your BGE is, etc... All of these things will have an effect on your cooking time, assuming that you are holding a good temp in the egg. So, If I want to eat at 5:00, I will need to take a good look and make a decision about mid morning. If temp is now close to the 180 degree range, then Bob's your Uncle and you can take em off at 3:00 and wrap in foil and put in an insulated ice chest. However, if at say 11:00 I have an internal temp of 170 or below, I really haven't plateaued yet, and it is decision time. Crank the heat? yes, this will work, but Murphy still has some say here. If I'm faced with this decision, I'll take em off, wrap in foil, and put in a 250-300 degree oven, where a couple of things will happen. 1. you'll continue to cook, and 2. the steam will be trapped by the foil, aiding with the desolving of the colagens. at the desired temp, turn the oven off, and let it sit there, or move to an insulated cooler. This will NOT affect your finished product. Once you pull it, you'll have a hard time keeping everyones fingers out of there anyway. [p]I will always have be ready to eat when the appointed time comes. Nobody will leave my house hungry. and it will be great.[p]The point is, there are other techniques that will make you successful. In your case, maybe it was a faulty temp probe. I keep an instant read on hand for that purpose. or maybe it just wasn't ready using the technique you were using. Then it is time to change the game plan just a bit, to get ready for your 5:00 dinner. You can do it. just pay attention to what is going on through out your cook, and make the adjustments. [p]Murphy does not come to my house anymore, because I always have a plan B or even a plan C. He tries to crash the party once in a while, but has not been successful. [p]Take what you learn every time you cook. apply to the next time and the next. You'll have this down in no time. It is pretty hard to fail using the BGE, but one thing is constant, you'll always learn something.[p]

Unknown

Eric,[p]I have noticed something similar to what you experienced. I cook on a Backwoods PIglet and Fatboy. When I use IBP butts, either from Sams or my food service company, I can damn near count on them being done in 12 hours. I cook at 225* and the butss weigh 7-8 pounds. When I buy the individually wrapped butts of the same size from a local grocer, it may take 20+ hours for the bone to pull. [p]My assumption is this: the butts have been frozen and thawed more than once. Only an assumption. [p]Odis

Eric

EggspertMN,
Thanks for the insigt. Live and Learn

Eric

icemncmth,
Excellent point. When I initially put the probe in , it recorded 44 degrees. So the Butts were cold. Also I may have put the probes in somekind of fat pocket
Thank
Eric