Hi all eggheads,
I’m an egg newbie and so happy I found this forum. I have learnt so much here!
First time doing overnight smoke pork butt. I put the butt in around 11:00pm and was aiming around 250-275°F. I woke up around 7:00am and noticed the temp was dropping. I didn’t mess with it and hoped it would go back up. Until it dropped to 215, I thought it was out of charcoal so I opened it up and took the food/plate setter out.
I found there was a hole in the middle of the charcoals and the fire was dying. Charcoals around the center were barely burnt. I gave a good stirred and opened the top and bottom wide open to let the temp to catch up. Then the temp stayed steadily for 4 more hours until I pulled the butt out at 200 IT.
Have any of you experienced this? Is that normal or did I do something wrong? How to avoid this situation?
Thanks in advance.
Answers
Grand Rapids MI
A solution to this is a automatic temperature control. There are many models on the market. A popular brand is the BBQ Guru. It uses a temperature-controlled fan to maintain the airflow to the fire. In essence, it's doing the same thing as opening the damper wider to maintain the temperature.
A lot of people will advise you to learn how to control the temp yourself before purchasing an automatic controller. They are correct in this.
Temperature controllers vary in cost, but on the high end they can be pretty expensive, but a good night's sleep is worth the expense to me.