Problems with my 1st Butt.

Unknown

I started up the Egg at about 9 pm last night. I had a 10 pound butt and figured that it would be ready around 5 pm tonight.[p]It started raining and I could not control my flame. I could get it to stabelize at 300 but not any lower. I only had the bottom vent opened a quarter inch and the daisey wheel slots were half closed. It was VERY windy and that did not help any. Anyway, I get up this morning and the fire was out. I got it started back up and decided to get the temp up to about 300-350 to make up some time. (We were having guests over) [p]I only got the internal temp up to 187 degrees when I had to pull it off. It was VERY tender and actually broke in half when i tried to get it off the grill. It tasted great but was very greasy. Was this grease due to not getting the temp up to 200 degrees? would the extra 13 degrees of internal temp have rendered the rest of the fat?

Nature Boy

Nate Dogg,
It is not as much of a final temp issue as it is a time issue. You could take a butt to 200 internal real quick at 350, but the fat wouldn't have the time to fully render since the butt is "pushed" through the beneficial plateau.[p]Normally we try and cook at lower temps....at an optimum temperature so that the meat stays in the 155-170 internal temp range as long as possible. A slow cooked butt that has stayed in that range for, say, 8 hours and gets pulled off at 185 internal will likely be better than a butt that has been "pushed" through the plateau with high temps, and pulled off at 200.[p]Make sense? Sounds like you still got a little half decent eating in!
Cheers
Chris

Mike in MN

Nate Dogg,
It sounds as though the vents were open too far (top and bottom) when you were at 300°. The high wind makes it worse because it acts like a forced draft from the bottom vent through the egg, producing more airflow = higher heat. I would say that bottom vent should (normally) be barely cracked (credit card thickness) and the top about 1/2 on the daisy wheel to get 225° out of it....of course everything has an effect (Lump brand, lump size, loading, weather, etc.)[p]When the temp gets too high, you have to close the vents completely, allow the temp to slowly drop on it's own, then reestablish a stable temperature at the lower number. Sometimes this can be quite a process, and you wouldn't want to leave it alone too long (there's no time for sleeping at this point) [p]The wind itself doesn't have that much effect on the egg when it is vented correctly. I've done overnighters at 225°when the temp was way below zero (F) and the wind was whistling. [p]Mike in MN