Pulled Pork for 4th of July party!!

EGGRPh

First of all thanks to all who helped me on Thursday with my 16lbs. of pork butt.
Second Happy belated Independence day to everyone!!
Now, on Thursday night I got the BGE going and locked in the temp at 250. Put 2 8.0lbs pork butts on and let them go. Went to bed at 11:30pm, BGE still at 250, woke up at 6:45am and went to check, dome temp went down to 150. Opened all vents got it up to 300 and locked it in. Internal temp of pork 129. At 2pm internal temp of pork 195. Pulled and let rest for 30 min. Pulled the pork and put on sauce and took to party everyone who tried it said it was great. Yea me!!
My question is what could have caused the temp drop overnight? Outside temp went down to 47 degrees this should not affect dome temp correct? Also I am missing a part of my gasket but for 2 1/2 hours it maintained 250 degrees and next morning after I took it up to 300 degrees it maintained that temp. So what gives?

Thanks,

Stef in Brunswick,Oh.

FearlessGrill

Stef,

Congrats on the successful cook. In terms of the overnight temp drop, a couple of ideas. You're right that the outside temp shouldn't have affected it.

1) Fire Prep: Did you fully clean out your Egg before setting up for the overnight cook? I'll normally take the guts out of mine and clean out all the ash before starting a long cook. I'll then reset with all fresh lump, putting at least a few layers of large chunks at the bottom to maximize airflow and minimize the chance of ash buildup blocking air. I don't just dump the bag in at that point, but pull pieces out by hand to avoid dropping in a lot of small bits and dust. I save any old lump that might have been in the Egg to use some other time.

2) Lighting: How many spots did you light your fire? When I started out, I would just light in the middle but I would find on longer cooks, the lump would burn straight down, rather than using all the lump in the bowl. Now I light in four spots, which helps spread the fire out across all the lump.

3) Stabilizing: You said you got the Egg 'locked in'. How long did you let it stabilize and did you do so with the plate setter in? I'll usually get my fire lit, let it catch, then put in the plate setter and grid to warm up and set the temp settings to where I want them. I'll then let it go for up to an hour, until the temp isn't moving at all from where I want it. At that point, I'll put in the meat. The temp will drop from putting a lot of cold meat in. Don't touch anything. The temp will eventually come back to the stable setting.

If you did all those things, you did what you could to minimize issues, but its always possible that ash could build up in a way that limits airflow. If that happens, use a wiggle stick to clean out the holes in the fire grate, re-stabilize your temp, and keep going.

One other bit of advice... if you plan to do a lot of overnight cooks, invest the $40 in a remote thermometer like a Maverick ET-73. It lets you set alerts to warn you if your temp gets too high or low, and tells you when your meat is at the temp you want.

Hope this helps,

-John

Jruss

I agree with the previous post. Before a long cook, clean out the inside first. After years (10) of using the egg I had to replace the fire box. The inside was caked with ash etc. After replacing the box the egg was 100% more efficient than before. I believe the buildup of ash between the wall of the egg and firebox made the temp harder to controll.

reccitron

Did you let the temp creep up to your desired temperature?

I overshot my temperature once and then had to cool it off. Once I got it lowered back to 250 and stopped adjusting the vents it seemed like it was stabilized. After I let it sit for about an hour the temp started dropping. Luckily I was watching it and wasn't asleep. I think when I tried to cool it I put out too much of the charcoal and the grill and platesetter were holding the heat.

Now I'm very careful to let the temp creep up to my desired temp range. If I do overshoot it in the future I'll monitor the temp longer than normal. Of course the Maverick ET-73 gives me peace of mind because it will alert me if the egg falls out of the temperature range I set.