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Maiden Voyage on the BGE (A Pork Butt Story) - seeking feedback

GriffGrills
GriffGrills Posts: 4
in EggHead Forum
After many a long years (and final approve from the wife - I won't lie) I finally secured my large BGE - my first cook being a pork butt.  I use the Maverick Et-732 for grill/food temp.  I followed the Naked Whiz Boston Butt instructions but ran into a couple of interesting areas I was hoping to get some feedback on:

I know that the temp plateaus - for me this was between 170-185...  I had a 5.5 lb butt and while I didn't plan on an exact time I did keep an eye on the roughly 2 hours per pound.  I was hovering around 230 as a temp.  After about 11 hours it was still on 189...lid never opened.  Then for the next hour it dropped down to like 183...kinda weird.  So of course I fiddled with the temp and it jumped up to 350...tried getting it to come back down and over the next hour it did, but only dropped to about 280 by the time it hit an internal temp of 200.  The butt tasted great but it didn't pull apart so well and I thought parts tasted dry.  

Did I rush it?  It had 11 solid hours at 230ish...could that last hour of temp spike do her in?  Anything else I should be aware of?
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Comments

  • Jebpot
    Jebpot Posts: 374

    Easy temp for me to hold is 260 to 270 dome temp. I usually take the meat to 205  internal temp. then wrap in foil and let sit for a couple of hours. Then when I pull the meat apart  I mix the  juice in the foil with it. Hope this helps for reference.

    XL and Small

    Chattanooga, TN

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  • bud812
    bud812 Posts: 1,869
    I do all my butts at 290-300 & they come out great. Sometimes you will get a stall that last a long time & sometimes you get two stalls it depends on the hunk-o-meat. Did you probe the meat to see if it felt like butta? I use a bamboo skewer & probe it all over.

    Not to get technical, but according to chemistry alcohol is a solution...

    Large & Small BGE

    Stockton Ca.

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  • hapster
    hapster Posts: 7,503
    Welcome to the life...

    Butts are pretty forgiving (a lot more than wives can be)... don't be as concerned with time, as with temp, always cook to temp. if you are going along at a consistent temp, don't fiddle with the vents, just have to wait till your butt gets to temp. I usually pull them off around 205-210. Look for the bone to be very loose and pulling clean, and the meat to be super tender when you probe it.

    Butts, briskets, chuckies, clods, etc all can have minds of their own when it comes to stalls, just let it stall and don't fret

    Remember, it's all about having fun... we are our own worst critics, most of the time when you think your cook didn't go "well"; your guests will still be raving over your meal.
    MSV Chill Spot
    Chester County, PA

    http://egginwithedward.blogspot.com/

    http://edwardhardingphotography.zenfolio.com/
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  • Griffin
    Griffin Posts: 8,200

    Welcome to the cult. Congrats on your new Egg.

    I usually run my low and slows at 250 grate temp and ignore the dome thermometer all together. My Egg just runs better that way.

    As for your drop in meat temp, that's no big deal. Sometimes they will drop, sometimes they won't. It can be a surprise if you are not expecting it. It's just the fat and collagen breaking down during the stall. Don't worry about it, leave everything the way it is and let it keep on keeping on. I read all I could before doing my first brisket years and years ago and I actually had two stalls and temp drops in both. Something I had never heard of before and I'll admit I freaked out. But I just let it do its thing and all was right in the end.

    Rowlett, Texas

    Griffin's Grub or you can find me on Facebook

    The Supreme Potentate, Sovereign Commander and Sultan of Wings

     

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  • lousubcap
    lousubcap Posts: 36,803
    About the best finish-line indicator for me with pork butts is when the bone pulls clean, independent of temperature but generally in the low 200's range.  FWIW-
    Louisville; Rolling smoke in the neighbourhood.  Life is too short for light/lite beer!  Seems I'm livin in a transitional period. CHEETO (aka Agent Orange) makes Nixon look like a saint.  
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  • GriffGrills
    GriffGrills Posts: 4
    Thanks everyone. I appreciate the input! Glad to finally join the ranks!
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  • KiterTodd
    KiterTodd Posts: 2,466
    edited September 2014
    GriffGrills, as you have learned, very small adjustment in the grates can have significant impacts to temperature BUT you have to give them time to act.   I have a wireless Maverick also and I'll make a small adjustment (like move the bottom vent 1 or 2 squares on the screen) and then go back in the house and keep an eye on the temp gauge.  If it is slowly moving in the right direction, that's good enough for me.  If it is moving fast, you better back off on your adjustment or you will overshoot the temp you are aiming for.

    If you overshoot it by a lot (sounds like you did) close off all the vents for a bit.  You had too much charchoal burning and it's tough to gradually get that back down.  You need to just cut off the airflow (or like others have said, don't stress about it.  It'll work out).

    Somewhere on here someone posted a picture of what their top and bottom vent looks like for a 225-250 hold, that you may want to search for.  What they posted was identical to what I experience.

    Just look at grate temp.  Hold that and don't worry about the dome.  I am amazed how much my dome temp will fluctuate while the grate stays relatively constant.  In one cook I can see the dome go 20 degrees under AND over the grate temp.  There are little green egg gremlins in there working on your pork and they must move a lot of air around...  ;)


    And welcome!!!
    LBGE/Maryland
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