Pork Butt Problem

First off, you turned the butt into ham by brineing it. :(

Bob,
Sorry to hear about your troubles. Boston butts always hit what's called the plateau at around the 165 you say it stoped at. When your egg fell to 200 in the night, thats what caused the butt to stall or fall. At 200 dome you were at 170 or so at the grate. It's awfull hard to get to a 200 internal temp with a grate of 170. It don't have anything to do with your troubles, but next time I would skip the brining and just go with a simple rubb on the outside. Keep that dome at 250 and it should hit from 1.5 to 2 hours to pound. Post any other questions you may have and someone will help you. Have a great evening.

Hey Tom the package arrived today,, your crazy but thank you very much.

I did my first Boston Butt (6.2 lb - no bone) this past weekend and learned a couple of things in the process. I did not brine - only used a dry rub, but did that the night before in the fridge.

I loaded my large BGE with more lump than I've used for direct cooking, but in hindsight, I'm wondering if I actually loaded it with enough. I would say it took approximately 30 minutes to get the temp stabilized at 250, but once it got there, it stayed consistent at 250 for approximately 6 hours. That's when I started to see the temp drop. It was at 220 when I noticed. I opened up all air ports, but temp still didn't rise. So, I ended up having to add more lump. Butt was between 145-150 @ 6 hours.

After 6 more hours - I started seeing the same thing. As I did the first time, I added more lump to finish it off the next 1-1.5 hours. Pulled the butt at approximately 192 after 13.5 hours. The meat was so moist and just fell apart as I started pulling it.

I checked my thermometer before this cook and it registered 210 - which was dead on based on my elevation and barometric pressure. Not sure where you live, but 212 seems reasonable.

Unsure if you had any similar issues with the temp dropping during the 18 hour span or not, but you mention 225-250. Thinking to my cook, the temp was actually 250-280 most of the time. Outside of how brining may have effected it, maybe it really was the dome temp.

Any brine that goes over 12 hours starts to be a cure.

Nobody says you can't brine, but if you are doing it for moisture, it is not necessary.

I know you said your thermometers are calibrated, but something is off. First the brine should have made the butt cook faster. Not a lot, but somewhat faster. 7.5 pound should not have taken more than 15 hours too cook at the temps you describe unless the dome was at 225 a lot longer than it was at 250.

From the sounds of the fluctuating temps I will bet you made the mistake of putting the meat in and seeing that the temp dropped you played with the vent. Stabilize the egg at 250. Put the meat in and WALK AWAY. The temp will drop for two reasons. One. You opened the lid. Two you put a cold mass of meat in the egg. Trust the egg to stabilize again. Leave the vents alone.

Panhandle and Misippi - thanks much for the feedback. This was my only my 3rd cooking with the first 2 being direct. As I was mentioning in my post, in hindsight, I figured out I didn't start off with enough lump.

All you guys have been great with helpful feedback.

I will add that I suffered a disappointment during my cooking. During the time I was adding lump the 2nd time, the dome went back further on it's own than what I had opened it to. It went back far enough that the metal top feel off onto my concrete patio. The daisy wheel broke where the screw connects it to the top. It still works but I'm going to try and cement it back since I don't like the idea of it not being attached.

Thanks again!