2 more Pork Butt's

MeatosBanditos

Last week I cooked my first two pork butts on the egg. That was the dry run-- yesterday I put two more in to serve at my daughter's birthday party. Both times I did it there was a little over 15lbs of meat. Last weekend it took 15 hours 42 minutes, this time it only took 12 1/2 hours. Not sure why there was that big of a difference. If anything last time I cooked them the temp was higher. I live in a very windy area, and last night the air was entirely still. I could barely get the temp above 205 for a good two hours or so before the plateau. I did have it at 230 for the first hour and then it was slowly fading with the lack of airflow. I opened the vent up about 3/4 wide open. Thats what I had to do. Weird, maybe I'll get the DigiQ II to ensure I don't have to be worried about that stuff.

Here's some pictures below.










Hope everyone has a nice weekend

John
Rochester, MN

Austin Smoker

PD - first, they look great - if they taste as good as they look....who cares how long they took. This is just part of the "when you've cooked one butt, you've cooked ONE butt" reality, they are just all different.

If the "3/4 open" comment refers to the lower vent to keep above 205, then somethign is likely amiss. Did you empty all ash before this cook? For long cooks over 5 hours, I'm pretty picky about how I build my lump pile....I'm not as meticulous as Elder Ward's recommendations, but I use the same philosophy - largeest chunks on bottom, medium in the middle and small on top - and it has worked every time.

Hope the party was a success!

MeatosBanditos

Thanks for the comment and yes the taste great!

I was referring to the bottom vent. I did empty out the ash before I started. However, I didn't do what you described for lump placement. I'll have to try that next time. I know it burned very little lump. There were a fair amount of large chunks in there and not very many small pieces left from the previous cook. I also lit the fire with the BGE Starters in three locations, so I assume I still had three points burning during the cook. I imagine what you describe for lump placement would work a lot better and probably serve me better during long cooks. I'm also confused as to why it cooked so fast when the temps weren't as high. I suppose every piece of meat is different.

Thanks,
John

Fossil Frank

PorkyDork's
Looks like you've got the hang of it, that's some mighty fine looking meat. Still haven't done a long and low cook yet but I hope to soon.
Frank from Indiana

MeatosBanditos

Thanks Frank

Tombo

Hey just a question.
Why did you cook on a raised grill and not just on the
grill?

Green egg mind needs to know.
Thanks
Tom

MeatosBanditos

Hi Tom,

I had it on a raised grill because it worked well the first time I tried them last week. Last week when I was getting ready to put them on, I didn't have a drip pan on my placesetter, so instead of trying to rearrange everything I had just put a layer of tinfoil over the main grill grate and put the raised one on top.

This time I put the foil over the placesetter but still used the raised grill since I liked the way it turned out last time.

No real reason, not sure if that's regular or not. I know some folks put them on the raised so they can cook other things below it.

Hope that answers your question.


Thanks,
John