Need Help - Butt on the Egg

jurisdoc · January 2011

Have a 5 1/2 lb Boston Butt on the XL Egg. Put on at 11 pm. Cooking at 225 (pretty darn close all night.

Around 9 am, Butt at 160 deg, but Egg temp falls to 200 and keeps counting down, despite my best efforts to open up the vents, etc. Quick check revealed some charcoal left, but it simply won't burn.

At 9:30, with the egg at 185, I remove the butt and cover with foil for about 5 min, thrown in a few wood chips (didn't want to use a starter cube that would take forever and some new lump. Reinstalled the setup, and egg came back to temp fairly quickly. Butt temp dropped from 160 to 155 (interestingly enough, most of the drop occurred when I placed it back on the egg).

Right now, Egg stable with it's temp and Butt finally came back up to 158. Two questions:

1. The short duration off the grill and minor drop in the temp of the butt won't cause any risk, will it?

2. Will this affect the quality of my finished product? My guess is yes, as this probably occurred right in the plateau where steady temp is needed.

fishlessman · January 2011

your good to go, just keep cooking. if it were me i would bump the dome temp up to 250 though

jurisdoc · January 2011

Actually dome temp is around 250. Grill temp is at 238 right now.

2Fategghead · January 2011

I don't believe your butt cook will be adversely effected by the interruption. My experience of cooking butts has only been two years but, in the past I have had similar interruptions with no bad effects.

One thing I would do for sure is bump your dome temp to 250F. Tim

fishlessman · January 2011

right on tract. when it gets to 180 internal i bump the dome temps even higher if i dont see enough bark for my liking, if it looks good i just let it ride til done

BigA · January 2011

listen to what fishklessman and 2fategghead have said! The decline in your temp wont hurt anything, i have a lot of pork butts that hit their stall at around 170. you wont see any difference in your final product!!

Pull apart and eat that sucker!!

:laugh:

CBBQ · January 2011

You're good to go. The butt for all practical purposes is cooked. You just need to get to the "falling apart" stage.

howmeisterg · January 2011

Hi - I also have an XL, and have done 2 butt cooks with it. My eggsperience with my XL is that it does not like to cook at 250. If it hits 250, it eventually drops and won't maintain there. Of ocurse I do not have a microadjuster or controller. I had this happen on both cooks. So I did my butt at 285 and came out great.

Next time your temp drops, however, resist the urge to open the lid. Open the bottom vent and remove the dual function top. Then wait for 30-45 mins - I think the temp will start to increase again (assuming your fire was built OK). Both times, I was able to get temp up this way - but I had to be patient and wait.

One time, the temp was 200, I opened up the botttom and removed the top. The temp stopped dropping pretty quickly, but it took 30 mins for the fire to re-establish itself. But it did re-establish itself!

Here is my first butt cook:

http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=1023880&catid=1#

jurisdoc · January 2011

All is well. Thanks for the reassurance. I think the vent holes got a little clogged despite my best efforts to build up the fire just right.

I like a lower temp cook, and usually go by grate temp with my Maverick more than the dome temp. At the beginning of the cook, grate temp is 15 to 25 lower than dome, so 225 grate is about 250 dome. The XL held it within 15 degrees either way until 4 in the morning - or else I slept through the alarm! I'm using BGE charcoal (mixed with a bag of Royal Oak the local Wally World finally put back on the shelf).

Pig is good. Sorry, forgot the pics. I think a whole ribeye or filet is next, or maybe a deer ham, or another brisket, or . . . . . . , well you get the picture.

Need Help - Butt on the Egg

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