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Smoked my first Boston Butt!

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dawsonhull
dawsonhull Posts: 105
edited October 2012 in Pork
Picked up a 7.9 lb. Boston butt yesterday. Rubbed down with mustard and Bad Byron's Butt Rub. Figured I would play it safe for my first long smoke. Got the LBGE up to 225 and put her in at about 11 PM. I then proceeded to check my new Maverick ET-732 every five minutes. Reached 200 at about 3:30 PM today - 16 1/2 hours later. Wrapped in foil and a few towels and placed in a cooler until it was time to eat. Turned out great! Plenty of leftovers!

Question: When you do a long smoke and get your temperature stabilized, do you have to continually adjust it every hour or so? I had to constantly adjust my vents - the temperature would get above 250 so I would close it down JUST SLIGHTLY and it would stabilize around 225 and then about an hour later, it would dip to the low 200s. This seemed to be a cycle. Is this just part of doing a low and slow or was I doing something wrong?
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  • DMurf
    DMurf Posts: 481
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    From what I have seen on the forum trying to maintain 225 without a controller is difficult, I do my butts at 250 and do not have to adjust again. I have done some extremely long cooks that have gone 18+ hours without opening the lid.
    David
    BBQ since 2010 - Oh my, what I was missing.
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  • NibbleMeThis
    NibbleMeThis Posts: 2,295
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    First of all, congrats on your first butt.  My sister is smoking her first one tonight on her new Egg tonight and I'm coaching her via phone for her overnight cook. 

    I cook my butts at 250f and rarely make more than 2-3 vent adjustments and they are usually late in the cook.

    I try to get my Egg stable at 250f, then add the plate setter, make sure stable again and then go.   But I don't adjust as long as I'm within 10 degrees of 250f.  When I first started egging, I noticed that "the more I chased temperatures, the more I chased temperatures" meaning I was causing more instability by constantly adjusting.


    Knoxville, TN
    Nibble Me This
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  • Tjcoley
    Tjcoley Posts: 3,551
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    I did a number of 225 degree cooks and had no issue maintaining a stable until the last one, where I woke to a cold Egg.  Based on the advise on this forum, I now go 270 or so.  They get done sooner, and no difference in quality.  Makes it much easier.  
    __________________________________________
    It's not a science, it's an art. And it's flawed.
    - Camp Hill, PA
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  • double
    double Posts: 1,214
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    In my limited experience it's stabilizing at the start that's the most important. I do 250 to 275. They come out great.
    Lynnwood WA
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  • Little Steven
    Little Steven Posts: 28,817
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    We have a saying in the electronic business...You are chasing your tail. Get the temp set with whatever you have to put in the egg (except the meat). Add the meat and don't touch it.

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

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  • The Cen-Tex Smoker
    The Cen-Tex Smoker Posts: 22,961
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    Even slight temp adjustments can have affects 30-45 minutes down the road. You'll get the feel of it. The more you do it, the more natural it gets. Nibble is right. Seems like the egg (at least my large) really likes to settle in around 260- so I let it. I find 225 is too low and tends to dry out the meat (for me, anyway. There are lots of guys that cook that low and I did for years).

    Nice cook. Looks awesome
    Keepin' It Weird in The ATX FBTX
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  • MrCookingNurse
    MrCookingNurse Posts: 4,665
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    The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

    Even slight temp adjustments can have affects 30-45 minutes down the road. You'll get the feel of it. The more you do it, the more natural it gets. Nibble is right. Seems like the egg (at least my large) really likes to settle in around 260- so I let it. I find 225 is too low and tends to dry out the meat (for me, anyway. There are lots of guys that cook that low and I did for years).


    Nice cook. Looks awesome
    +1

    I leave a pretty wide gap to fall in 225-260 and I'm happy for butts. It should stabilize after a while. Don't be scared if its slowly moving around for a first few hours. I did a 16+ hour smoke last night. Did two adjustments after the initial set up. It takes time to learn the egg. I chased my tail like cray on my first ribs. I was touching it ever 15 min for the whole 4 hour cook. It was awful!!


    _______________________________________________

    XLBGE 
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  • dawsonhull
    dawsonhull Posts: 105
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    So it sounds like they are going to do just fine if the fire gets up around 250. I think I'll try to allow a wider gap next time. I really want to learn how to do it manually rather than getting a stoker - although they ARE pretty tempting! Thanks for all the input!
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  • Dave in Florida
    Dave in Florida Posts: 1,157
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    dawsonhull said:
    So it sounds like they are going to do just fine if the fire gets up around 250. I think I'll try to allow a wider gap next time. I really want to learn how to do it manually rather than getting a stoker - although they ARE pretty tempting! Thanks for all the input!
    I also waited to learn how to manually control my LBGE.  But my Stoker sure does make for a more restful sleep.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Welcome to the Swamp.....GO GATORS!!!!
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