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My First TOTAL failure with the egg!

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cdees_1993
cdees_1993 Posts: 135
in EggHead Forum
If any of you have seen any of my posts, you know I love my egg more than any grill ever and still do! However, I decided to go away from my tried and true method of low and slow on my boston butts yesterday and decided to try what I had read on here just for something different. I went 300 indirect and had planned on going straight to 200 IT. Well not exactly sure where it went wrong, but everything was going fine, I was at about 185 IT and went to sleep with the remote temp guage by the bed with alarm set. I woke up at 2 am and realized alarm never went off! Jumped out of bed like a crazy person and grabbed the temp guage. I was like oh crap what has happened! The temp guage is now reading 145 IT. I run outside and the grill has completely cooled off. I took it off and started to pull it only to realize the meat must have gone bad while sitting there. There now lies a 10lber in my outside dumpster. Uggggghhhh. Never again will I try anything but low and slow. It just works. Don't get me wrong, this was not the eggs fault. I guess I just ran out of fuel. I am going to check when I get off work to see what happened.
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  • jhl192
    jhl192 Posts: 1,006
    edited January 2014
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    Sounds  like the fire must have gone out shortly after you went to sleep.  When you took the meat off the grill was there any lump left or was it all ashes?  If it was all ashes then you must not have put enough lump in.  If there were ashes left then you may have clogged your grate.  Either way,  I would try my next higher temp butt so it cooks while you are awake.  I'll bet some animals will be visiting your dumpster tonight.  Your loss is their gain!  

    BTW.. It was not a total failure,  it was a successful learning experience. 
    XL BGE; Medium BGE; L BGE 
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  • cazzy
    cazzy Posts: 9,136
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    You didn't have to throw your meat away...it was still good. Next time, fire that bad boy back up and get it up to temp. This happens all the time and nobody has complained of food poisoning. Besides...145 IT is well in the safe zone.
    Just a hack that makes some $hitty BBQ....
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  • Hogman348
    Hogman348 Posts: 70
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    cooked a 8lb butt last weekend for 7 hours @325-350 to IT 200 on one load of lump. I filled it with only fresh lump to the fire ring. there was some charcoal left when i was finished but not alot.

    dont give up..... (or fall asleep).
    Woodstock, GA
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  • Mike_the_BBQ_Fanatic
    Mike_the_BBQ_Fanatic Posts: 700
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    Some remotes also have some settings where you can associate alarms with both high and low temp warnings on the food probe and the same at the pit temp too...might give a little more flexibility / warning if something is going south

    Making the neighbors jealous in Pleasant Hill, Ia one cook at a time...
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  • Canugghead
    Canugghead Posts: 11,515
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    +1 with cazzy, 145F is still in safe zone.  Did you measure the meat internal temp? 'gone bad' in what way?
    canuckland
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  • henapple
    henapple Posts: 16,025
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    Dare I ask the brand of lump?
    Green egg, dead animal and alcohol. The "Boro".. TN 
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  • shadowcaster
    shadowcaster Posts: 620
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    henapple said:
    Dare I ask the brand of lump?
    here we go....


    =))
    Pure Michigan
    Large BGE, Medium BGE, Mini BGE, Weber Smokey Mountain, Weber Performer.
    If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.
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  • QDude
    QDude Posts: 1,052
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    cdees_1993 said:
    If any of you have seen any of my posts, you know I love my egg more than any grill ever and still do! However, I decided to go away from my tried and true method of low and slow on my boston butts yesterday and decided to try what I had read on here just for something different. I went 300 indirect and had planned on going straight to 200 IT. Well not exactly sure where it went wrong, but everything was going fine, I was at about 185 IT and went to sleep with the remote temp guage by the bed with alarm set. I woke up at 2 am and realized alarm never went off! Jumped out of bed like a crazy person and grabbed the temp guage. I was like oh crap what has happened! The temp guage is now reading 145 IT. I run outside and the grill has completely cooled off. I took it off and started to pull it only to realize the meat must have gone bad while sitting there. There now lies a 10lber in my outside dumpster. Uggggghhhh. Never again will I try anything but low and slow. It just works. Don't get me wrong, this was not the eggs fault. I guess I just ran out of fuel. I am going to check when I get off work to see what happened.
    Don't give up just because it went wrong the first time!  Persevere.  The same thing could have happened with a low and slow cook. 

    Northern Colorado Egghead since 2012.

    XL BGE and a KBQ.

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  • revolver1
    revolver1 Posts: 372
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    I think I might have just brought it in, put in the oven and finished the cook.  Or, since it was at 185, just slice it up.  
    Dan, Columbia,Mo.
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  • RickyBobby
    RickyBobby Posts: 744
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    Was your Egg completely cleaned out, including ash area, before filling with Lump for this particular cook? Any cook where I may leave my Egg unattended for a period of time ... means I start with a completely clean & vacuumed out Egg to guarantee I'm getting the best possible air flow. Just curious.
    My PitMaster IQ120 FREAKIN ROCKS!!!!!!! Current BGE arsenal: XL & MiniMax
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  • cdees_1993
    cdees_1993 Posts: 135
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    It was full to top of fire ring and is mainly ash now. Weird thing is I had vacuumed it out prior to loading it. Oh well live and learn. Just hard to beat low and slow. Oh someone asked the brand. I had picked up the Kroger brand of lump and started fresh. I had ran out of my normal lump. The reason I said I was bad is that it just didn't smell good like it should when it comes off and it was very tough to say the least.
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  • cazzy
    cazzy Posts: 9,136
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    cdees_1993 said:
    It was full to top of fire ring and is mainly ash now. Weird thing is I had vacuumed it out prior to loading it. Oh well live and learn. Just hard to beat low and slow. Oh someone asked the brand. I had picked up the Kroger brand of lump and started fresh. I had ran out of my normal lump. The reason I said I was bad is that it just didn't smell good like it should when it comes off and it was very tough to say the least.
    I'd bet you anything it was fine...prolly just needed more cooking.  If you run into that again, someone is always awake.  
    Just a hack that makes some $hitty BBQ....
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  • cdees_1993
    cdees_1993 Posts: 135
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    I think you are probably right that it just needed more cooking. I was just serving it to my faculty and couldn't make my self take that chance. If for me would have totally put in oven and tried it.
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  • cazzy
    cazzy Posts: 9,136
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    cdees_1993 said:
    I think you are probably right that it just needed more cooking. I was just serving it to my faculty and couldn't make my self take that chance. If for me would have totally put in oven and tried it.
    I hate to keep beating a dead horse but...chance...there was no chance.  Your meat was 145 internal...it was 100% in the safe zone and it wasn't even close.  If anyone got sick, the contamination would have happened in your kitchen.  
    Just a hack that makes some $hitty BBQ....
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  • cdees_1993
    cdees_1993 Posts: 135
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    ok
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  • hapster
    hapster Posts: 7,503
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    Go grab that bad boy outta' the dumpster and fire the egg up... consider it a skinned knee with a little dirt rubbed on it. Get back in the game...
    MSV Chill Spot
    Chester County, PA

    http://egginwithedward.blogspot.com/

    http://edwardhardingphotography.zenfolio.com/
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