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Ruined Butts? Ruined Butt?

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Porco Rosso
Porco Rosso Posts: 84
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
I put two boneless butts (7.6, 7.8) on last night at 11:30. Went to sleep at 1:30 with things looking good. Dome stable at 245-250. Internal of the big one at 118.

Checking at 5:22 this morning... No! Dome temp had dropped to 185-190. Internal of big one I54. Internal of small one... 171. ...?!

Fire still alive egg. Egg back at 250 in no time. Internal of big butt up to 160 in about 5 minutes.


Chuck one? Chuck both? Keep going?

What to do?!!
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Comments

  • Porco Rosso
    Porco Rosso Posts: 84
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    One correction the internal of the big butt has only gone up to 156. On my last read I must not have given the thermometer time to readjust from when I read the smaller butt.

    I still don't understand why the butts temps are so different. The smaller also looks a lot smaller, not just .2 pounds smaller.

    Fire's cooking steady.
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  • The Virginian
    The Virginian Posts: 275
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    You and the butts are going to be just fine. The meat needs to be below 140 degrees for several hours (what they call the danger zone) before there is a food safety issue. Carry on and enjoy your butts, man!

    Brett
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  • Porco Rosso
    Porco Rosso Posts: 84
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    Bless you, The Virginian.

    Bless you and your great state.
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  • Porco Rosso
    Porco Rosso Posts: 84
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    Okay, I've gotten a couple hours more sleep (and I'm a little less loopy, hopefully). It's 7:45. The domes been steady at 250. The big butt is already at 176. The small butt is already at 192.

    I think one of the reasons it's cooking so much faster is it had almost no fat cap, while the bigger one had a healthy fat cap. But it is at least 7 pounds and I only put it on at 11:30 - less than 9 hours ago. Can it really be almost time to take it off already?

    I'm dropping the dome to 220... if I can.
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  • Rascal
    Rascal Posts: 3,923
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    Move the probe a time or two and compare the readings. Could be it's in a fat pocket and/or touching a bone (if there is one). Same thing happened to me recently (temp coming up too fast) and I solved it by using a second thermometer.
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  • Porco Rosso
    Porco Rosso Posts: 84
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    I just took the temp with a few different probes all over the poor butt and there was no helping it - 205 to 207. The butt had to be foiled and put in the cooler.

    The big butt's closer to schedule at 179

    I'm not sure what happened to the small one but I'm guessing the factors that made a 7 pound butt cook in 9 hours might have been:

    -absence of fat cap
    -the fact that part of it cleared the edge of the plate setter an was getting a little direct heat on it's edge.

    I'm not sure how it will taste when I pull it around noon for the early guests. If it's lousy, the smokey burnt ends will probably add something to my baked beans.
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  • Porco Rosso
    Porco Rosso Posts: 84
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    I came across this post while searching

    http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.php?option=com_simpleboard&func=view&id=432130&catid=1

    Where an egger takes his foiled butts out of the cooler after a few hours and puts them back on a low temp egg - an idea very appealing to me today, as I have one butt already in the cooler after cooking at about 1.1 hours per pound, and a second bigger butt still on the egg coming along beautifully in the low 180s and guests not arriving for another four or five hours.

    Anyone ever re-egg after three hours or so in the cooler?

    Is the 4 hours in the cooler rule a danger zone thing, or a flavor thing?
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  • Michael B
    Michael B Posts: 986
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    Never, Ever, take uncooked (unfinished) meat out of the cooking environment to finish later!

    If you are asking if it is okay to use the Egg to reheat the meat, … sure.

    4 hours in a cooler?
    The issue is 4 hours in the danger zone of 40* to 140* meat temp. It doesn’t matter if it is in the refrigerator, oven, cooler, or where ever. And it is cumulative. 45 minutes getting carried around the store in a buggy + 15 minutes in the car on the way home + 30 minutes in the refrigerator cooling back down + 1 hour on the counter getting prepped + 2 hours in a cool cooker getting up to 140* is already 4.5 hours. The problem is not the buggers that grow on the meat between 40* and 140*, it is the toxins they leave behind when they die. For leftovers you need to add time on the counter while dinner is being served and eaten, etc.

    However, everything else done right, you can leave it in the cooler for a couple days after it is cooked, as long as you mind the danger zone rules - which do allow some fudge factor. 3.5 to 4 hours and it is safe to serve to pretty much anybody. If everybody eating it is healthy with strong immune systems, (no young kids, elderly, or recently sick) you can stretch the rule a bit.
    In England, not that long ago, AGED poultry meant it was hung outside by the neck until it rotted enough to fall to the ground.
    All the fancy sauces etc. the French use were developed to hide the smell and taste of the spoiled meat they were serving.
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