Cooking too fast?!

Stuart

I put two 7 lb butts on the egg at 4PM keeping the temp between 225 and 250. It's only been 6 hours and the probe is reading 172! What happened to the 20 hour cook I'm supposed to have? Dinner isnt until 2:00 tomorrow afternoon. I know this cook usally has a "stall" but it had better be a helluva stall to prevent this meat turning to jerk!

Stuart

Of course you knew I meant JERKY not jerk.

Vegas Slim

stuart, are you sure the thermometers are calibrated?

Unknown

stuart,
You could also slow the cook down but once the meat reaches 170 to 200º it is dumping moisture and if you try to stall it too much you will have jerky.
I would pull at 195º internal and pull as soon as you can. Refrigerate and reheat, not the best way to go but you don't want to try hold hot for more than a few hours.
Jim[p]

WessB

stuart,
My advice to you would be ( assuming your making pulled pork ) to let it keep going like it is to an internal of 200° and if it reaches that temp more than an hour or 2 early, you should wrap them in foil and then wrap with a towel and place the in a cooler and they will stay HOT until your ready to pull..a good 3 or 4 hours at least..then just before serving time open em up and pull em..realy shouldn`t be a problem...let us know how it goes..[p]Wess

CR

stuart, I also did two 7 pound butts this weekend. Put on at 9 pm at 250° dome. 3am dome at 235° internal meat at 165°. At 7am adjusted dome a little back to 250° and internat temp was 187° Butts were at 203° at 11:15 am and I took off of the Egg and wrapped in foil, towels, and into ice chest until 2pm. Pulled at this time and was very good.[p]The butts cooked about 2 hours per pound which is rather normal. You referenced a 20 hour cook which would probably be for larger cuts of meat; like 10 pounds each. I think that your cook was going along just right fine except maybe you started the to cook a little early. Remember that the approx 2 hours per pound id for the size of each butt not the combined total weight.[p]CR[p]