Butt Assistance Please

Cornbread Willy

I've got a pork butt question for the experts. Put the 7.5 lb roast on yesterday around 4 pm and maintained a nice low and slow @ 225-250 dome until I went to bed around midnight. Standard indirect plate setter set-up. Woke up to check at 5:30 and my dome was about 215 and the internal read 152 - I was pretty groggy so I opened the wheel ever so slightly to increase temp and went back to bed. Got up at 8:30, my fire was out and my internal was down to 135. By the time I got the fire going again internal was 122! I've got a fire of about 275 right now and I don't really want to get much higher than that. Am I proceeding correctly in trying to bring it back slow, or would I be better served to crank the temp to 300? Am I risking any spoilage issues? I'm not really on any timetable, but I imagine pork sandwiches will be for supper, not lunch. Any advice? Thanks in advance and sorry for the longwinded message.

Mike in MN

Cornbread Willy,
I wouldn't go higher, in fact I'd probably let it drop back down to the 225-250 range and let 'er ride and see what happens. I don't think there will be spoilage issues, that little bit of time that you lost fire (over a 3 hr period) only allowed the internal to drop a bit. I imagine that the internal came up again rather fast when you got the heat going again to around that 150 mark. So, you've just slowed the process.[p]Good luck, you'll be having pulled pork for dinner tonight![p]Mike in MN

Spin

Cornbread Willy,[p]The meal is fine, albeit finishing a bit later than planned. The spoilage bacteria in the meal were killed once the temp passed 140°F. You can raise the temp to 300°F to help with time, but I wouldn't go any higher than that.[p]Spin

Wise One

Cornbread Willy, it seems like you ran out of lump. Were you using a large or a medium? I try to fill my firebvox up within an inch or two of top of the fire ring (not the firebox - more than that) when I'm doing a low and slow. With the medium I even try to put more than that in. Once you get the heat re-established, your internal temp will rise quickly. Watch and make sure you don't overcook (and dry it out). I put on two 8 LB butts last night at 7PM. I checked at midnight and I was holding at 240. At 2Am it was 225 so I kicked it up a bit and went back to bed. At 6:30 AM it was reading 250 and my internal was 198. I pulled them off, wrapped in foil and pulled them about 9:00 this morning. You should be good to go by now (11:30) so I bet you are eating sandwiches as you read this. Let us know how they turned out. Even the worst I have ever done was really tasty.

Cornbread Willy

Wise One,
Hour 21: Actually, it's not going quite so well. You're right - I did run out of lump, though I'm pretty full right now and have been steady at 250-275 since about 9 am - I'm only at 156 internal, though. Do you think it's going to be dry? Not sure what my options are. Still hoping to have for supper...