The Physics of Pork Butt

Kelly Keefe

Got a "poser" to throw out to the Forum. First, a fact: I only do butts in the 4lb range.[p]It is my understanding that a butt should hit a plateau around 150° give or take while the fat renders out. Mine never do. They just keep going up without stopping at any temp for very long. I pull it off the Egg at an internal temp of 200°. The "problem" (it still tastes good) is that I don't think the fat inside the butt is rendering out as well as I think it should.[p]Yesterday I decided to experiment since the butt hit 200° internal about two hours BEFORE I thought it needed to come off to be done. (Using the rough 2 hours at 225° per pound theory) So I decided to let it keep cooking. OK, THAT's where it "plateaued" on me. For the next two hours the internal temp only went up 2°. It still had what I considered to be a little too much internal fat. [p]The dome thermometer AND the polder check out as accurate. There was no bone in the PB so I know the probe wasn't hitting anything, nore was the dome thermo touching the butt. There shouldn't have been anything "hinky" there.[p]Anybody got any thoughts? Just thought y'all might be tire of talkin' turkey -- grin![p]Kelly
Jefferson City, MO

Unknown

Kelly Keefe,
Pork butt temp is one of the most confusing things about eggin.

Deetwood

Kelly Keefe,[p]What temperature are you cooking at? Mine always stall in the 168-178 range and I cook to 190. It taked me about 16 hours to cook a 8 pound butt.[p]I cook at 225 to 250.

Smoked Signals

Kelly Keefe,
Direct or indirect? Bone in or out?

Pakak

Kelly Keefe,[p]Caveat - I don't consider myself to be an expert but have had good luck with butts. It seems to me like the answer may be to lower your dome temp *IF* it seems like, once again, you're not reaching a plateau in the 150-180 range. This would enable you to extend your cook time and hopefully render out more collagen and fat. I'm not talking about doing it at the start of the cook, just when it becomes apparent you'll overshoot the plateau stage.[p]Whaddya think?

jwitheld

Deetwood,
if i did not know better i would think i wrote that!
this mirrors my results with grill temp (guru cont) at 180.

Nature Boy

Hmmmm. Yeah, that is odd, Kelly. Are you checking the internal temp at different places in the butt? [p]The only reason I can think of a butt getting pushed through the plateau is that the cooking temp is too high. But 225 is not too high. To be sure, try monitoring your cooking level temps. I cook at about 220-225 at the cooking level, and always have a long plateau. [p]Good luck man.
Chris[p]

Unknown

Kelly Keefe,
4 pound butt is on the bottom end of the scle to be able to use the rule of thumb. Connective tissue needs more time break down and the rule of thumb is based on a 6 to 7 pound butt.
If your dome was 225 what was the grate? If it were closer to 200 then the stall would be expected.
If the probe is in a pocket of fat that will also throw off the final reading, the fat will read higher than the meat mass.
Jim

Kelly Keefe

Deetwood,
I cook at 225° with only an occasional spike to 250°. Anything I cook below 225° tastes "sooty" to me unless I've just done a high temp cook to burn the Egg clean.[p]Kelly

Kelly Keefe

Pakak,
Well, it's a thought but as I said below anything I cook below 225° tastes sooty to me unless the Egg is absolutely spotless. (Right, like that ever happens -- grin!) I'm not sure it's the dome temp that's the "problem".[p]Kelly

Kelly Keefe

Jim Minion,
I tend to agree with you that the rule of thumb IS based on a 6-7lb butt, yet it's pretty close for the 4lbs as well. At least as far as getting the internal temp up to 200°. But a larger butt is just too much for the wife and me. (Gabe's still eatin' Gerber...)[p]As far as the probe being stuck in fat, who knows? My X-Ray specs aren't back from the shop -- grin! I always insert it into firm meat and probe for the direction of the bone with my fingers, if a bone is present so that the probe tip is well away from bone. Guess next time I do a butt I'll try monitoring the grid level temp with another probe. [p]Cooking technique is always the same: Plate Setter, drip pan, grid, grill topper with holes in it(to make it easier to get butt on/off), butt. Nothin' fancy.[p]Kelly

Unknown

Kelly Keefe,
A 4 pound butt is 43% less than a 7 pounder but that is only part of the total picture. When I'm getting close I
will probe in a few different spots to get an average of the whole butt and cuts down on the chance of hit a fat pocket, with 7 different mucles making up the butt, the fat is hard to judge it's location.[p]The other thing is some pieces of meat just won't follow the rules, there is good chance that is the case here, it just wasn't going to give it up until it was ready.
Jim

Unknown

Kelly Keefe,
The stall is created by the cells breaking and releasing their moisture, it starts at about 150 but it continues until all the cells are broken. The trick is to get it off the cooker before it breaks everything down and the moisture is gone.[p]Because of the size of butts they load up with heat, what I will do is allow the butt to go to 195 internal and then place it in a dry cooler for 2 to 4 hours, the internal will climb another 10 degrees before it starts cooling down.
There will be small amounts of fat left but it is very little.
Jim