Too low for a Butt

407BGE

I'm doing my first Butt's (2 total each 6.5 pounds) on the Egg and I have had them on since 11pm last night. I have the BBQ GURU pegged at 215 attached to the meat thermometer. As of 6AM (time I leave for work) the meat was at 157 degrees.

I need to have the meat ready for 6pm and was worried that a 12 hour cook was not going to be enough so that's why I put it on last night. I'm going to go home at lunch (noonish) to check on the meat. I seem to walk the line of being scared that the meat won't be done (an having guests looking to eat and it's not ready) and worried that the meat will get too done.

That's a long setup but my questions are

1) Can you cook too low from a taste perspective?

2) If I get home at noon and the meat is at 190 can I set the temp of the Egg to 195 and not worry about it drying out?

3) How much higher can I go in the future and not affect taste? I'd like to develop a method that allows me to adjust cooking temp up and down to adjust total cooking time. Sometimes its not possible to put it on 14 hours early but 18 or 10 hours is an option.

Long Time Lurker, Infrequent Poster

Thanks for all your help

Essex County

215 is really low. It will take you a long time to get to an internal of 190 at that temp. The muscle is able to insulate its core for quite a while. I've had butts go 16, even 20 hours at 260-270 (my preferred temp). From a taste point of view, you should be fine but it may take until 11 tonight to hit your target. When you go home for lunch, bump to 250. There should also be no loss of quality if you bump your target internal to 195. Some folks take it to 200. Others may have additional recommendations for your endgame but I think we'll all suggest a higher cooking temp.
Good luck
Paul

gdenby

The butts I have done "plateau" at about 160, and stay there for hours. It seems unlikely to me that you will be above 170 by noon. I'd raise the dome temperature to at least 250.
You can hurry butts up by putting them in a foil pan with liquid, and cover the pan with foil. Then take the dome to 350 for 2 hours. My results using this method were not as good as doing it at 250 full time, but the results were still acceptable.

Crimsongator

First, tell us what the dome temp says. If the guru is at 215, the dome is probably near 245-250. I don't think you've hit the temp plateau yet so you will probably be OK. You can always bump the temp at lunch if you need to, in order to get the meat finished by dinner.

If you get home at lunch and the meat is at temp, simply wrap them in foil and towels and stick in a cooler. The meat will hold temp for several hours this way. It would be better thantrying to lower the egg temp or stick them in an oven.

To adjust times, adjust temps. Higher temps=lower cook time. Same the other way. I keep the egg at a stable temp and adjust when I put meat on (due to meat weight) That is one thing that will improve your consistency. If you constantly change temps to meet your schedule, you may always be unsure when things will get done. It is a learning process but that makes it more difficult.

Fidel

I would set the guru to hold 230-240 since you are measuring temps at the meat level and not dome level.

I would also use the guru ramp mode just in case. Set the food temp at 195 or 200 and set ramp mode on.

Butts are very forgiving. You can cook them at 225-275 and have very little discernible difference in the end results.

I really prefer to wrap the butts when done and let them rest at least 45-60 minutes before pulling.

Crimsongator

He gave you guru temp at the meat. My suggestion is that his dome is near 250.

stike

i think you are fine for 6pm, actually. 215 IS low, but that's at the grate, right? translates to maybe 225 dome, which is what i use sometimes when i need to start a smaller butt and have it go longer (overnight) rather than start it at 3am. so, you'll drag the cook out a bit. good thing is you can check it at noon. each butt behaves differently. i have had the last 10 degrees take forever, and sometimes it's lickety split. but, at noon, see where you are. if you are 175/80, you might let it cruise at 215 grate. if you are still in the 160s, maybe bump it to 250.

in my opinion, you can safely pull a butt anywhere from 185 to 205, and it will be damn good.

resting an hour is often proscribed by those that know more about this than me (which is a lot of people), but we have all pulled them early, or waited too long, or skipped the foiled rest, and the thing will still be great. butts are hugely forgiving. you sound fine. right on track, actually

OzarkQ

I read Elder Ward's NC butt info on the NW site - I think it said to stabilize around 195' - which seems low, but I must have mis-read it??

Grandpas Grub

I have cooked a butt Hot & Fast...

Last fall there was a big fuss on the forum about cooking Hot & Fast. Many said it wouldn't work or tast good.

I decided I wanted to give it a try and see how it would work.

I cooked an 9# butt which was done done in 7.5 hours. Tasted very good and pulled nice and ate well.

I was told by others the results would vary and the meat texture would vary within the butt and would vary with different cooks.

Mine turned out fine.

With that said, I haven't done a Fast cook since.

Like stike said, butt is very forgiving.

No matter what you do I would get the meat done so there could be a good amount of rest time.

If you decide to bump the temp up much You might consider foiling if your bark has formed.

GG

407BGE

UPDATE

I went home and at 12:30PM (13 1/2 hours into the cook) the meat was at 165 degrees. The meat temp at 6:30AM was 157 degrees. Wife now says the target time to table is back one hour to 7PM.

The temp was set at 215 and I'm using the adjustable rig (cooking surface a couple of inches above the felt line) was 220 degrees.

Based on the feedback here I

1) Bumped it up to 265 degrees

2) I turned on the ramp mode on the GURU and set the meat temperature goal to 200 degrees.

My wife will arrive home at 3:30 so I can adjust one more time if needed but hopefully I have this thing dialed in.

I'll try to take a picture to post (a first for me of taking a picture of my cooking).

Thanks for all the help.

DynaGreaseball

I've been experimenting with higher temps on my butts lately. I always set the dome to 250° and keep it there 'til the meat starts to come out of it's plateau. It's at this point that I used different temperatures to finish the cook with an internal of 200°. I have found no difference in flavor nor texture, whether I let it finish with as much as 290° or let it finish at 250°. If I try to use higher temperatures before the plateau is reached, some of the meat ends up looking and tasting like pork chops. This has helped me a great deal whenever I have one of those butts that seems to take forever to finish. I'm guessing I can shave off at least an hour from the total cook time by finishing at 290°. Not sure if this helps in your case, but as has already been said...they are very forgiving.

Let us know.

Knauf

Just make sure you don't pull it off too early. If you can't wait for the temp to push through the plateau period and get to 195 or better you might as well order pizza and have the butt tomorrow. Did it once...never agian. Toughest butt I ever had!

407BGE

UPDATE

The internal temperature of the meat as of 3:55 (almost 16 hours into the cook) is 193 degrees.

I put the Guru in ramp mode (food target 200) so the wife says that the temp is 234 and the fan is running at minimum so the egg temperature is dropping. My hope is that the meat is a 195 internal by the time I get home at 5:30 and that I can pull and let the meat rest in a cooler for an hour.

I can then pull the meat and have time to grill the corn!

Grandpas Grub

I agree with Knauf.

You are througth the plateau Pull the meat at any time now 195° to 200°. Wrat in HDAF or double wrap in thin foil. Make sure you use a solid piece at the bottom of the butt as there will be juice.

When wrapped, either put in a cooler with some newspaper and towls or I wrap in a large blanket. I make sure there is plenty of blanket/towls wrapped around the foil. I have kept butt hot for 3 to 5 hours. That rest is perfect for butt or brisket.

I would not let it sit inside the egg using the ramp mode, I suspect another few hours will end either overcooking or drying out the meat.

Sounds like you are going to have a great pulled pork dinner. Wish I were there.

GG

Grandpas Grub

I have pushed the temp to 350° - 400° dome several times to catch a eat time and the butt & brisket has come out fine.

If I bump I do foil the meat as to not ruin the bark. If my dome is that high I will shut the egg down at about 190° and let the meat stay inside the egg until 195° then a hopefully at least an hour rest.

GG

DynaGreaseball

Nice to know I can safely take it that high. I was doing it in about 10° increments. Next butt, I'll try 350°. thanks