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The Eternal Butt. . >3hrs/pound?

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Dan in StL
Dan in StL Posts: 254
edited November -1 in EggHead Forum
Over the weekend I did smallish (5+ pounds) butt. I posted sometime on Sunday that I was astonished about how long it was taking. I'd heard that sometimes the small ones go long than the bigger ones, but this was like nothing else I've ever experienced.

After 18+ hours I finally threw in the towel and took the thing off at just over 180 degrees. I maintained rock solid 225 grate temp throughout most of the cook. Eventually I ran into some fuel exhaustion problems and had to add some more lit lump. But I never dropped them that much for that long.

My standard dome thermometer seemed to be consistent with what I was seeing on my Guru pit thermometer. I also checked meat tems with a Polder instant read, and it too matched what I was seeing on the Guru. So bottom line, I think I was getting accurate temp readings.

So my question is have you ever seen a butt take more than 3 hours per pound to cook?

Last and not least, it turned out just fine :)
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Comments

  • Hungry Celeste
    Hungry Celeste Posts: 534
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    Hmm, I'm wondering what temp the butt was (internally) when you started out. Sometimes, a piece of meat can be near-frozen inside, despite appearing defrosted on the outside. If it was still frozen internally, you have to re-classify some of the cooking time as "defrosting".
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  • CBBQ
    CBBQ Posts: 610
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    Actually, a frozen butt doesn't take much longer to cook than a thawed one. There is so much fat in them they soften and start warming pretty quick.
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  • SmokinSoCal
    SmokinSoCal Posts: 145
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    Not sure if you knew this. Make sure your RAMP setting was turned off. This will lower the dome temp to equal out the food temp with in 30 degress to stop from over cooking. However, I'm sure that it was OFF at the time.

    This has happedned to me before. I usally hit a wall around 175-180. I just bump the temp to 300 and finish it off. Comes out perfect everytime!
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  • gsgentry
    gsgentry Posts: 128
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    I had this happen to me once on a butt and once a brisket. I determined that it was caused from me placing the meat fat sidw down. On both intances, it was like the meat hit a wall and would not climb in temp. (actually dropped a couple of degrees on my brisket) Once I flipped the meat, it went on to finish as normal.

    Not sure if that is the case here or not, but thought I would share. Was your butt placed fat side down?
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  • Dan in StL
    Dan in StL Posts: 254
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    Butt was fat side down, but that's how I've always cooked them - and from what I've read, there are good reasons to do this.

    Also, ramp on the guru was off and the butt was no where near frozen when I put it on. I think I just had a . . ..mystery butt!
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