Help!


 
B

B Frosolone

New member
Hi Everyone,

I have a 4 1/2 lb pork butt on my smoker now. It's been on since 8AM (now almost 6:30). The meat temp got up to 180, but it got cold out and now dropped to 173. I've been keeping up with adding hot and cold briquettes to keep the temps up, but am getting nervous about the meat temp going down now. Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
The "smoking" is long done. Just put it an oven at your favorite temp to finish off.
You will not be able to tell any difference.
 
And don't forget to shut the WSM down (close all vents). Just because it's low now doesn't mean it won't start up again later.

It'll be OK.
 
I've seen the drop when the butt gets in the stall but never that big. If your cooker temp didn't drop below the meat temp I seriously doubt it was because of the outside air temp dropping.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by B Frosolone:

Any suggestions?

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I suggest you read some of the information on this board before your next cook. It will help a lot. I'm guessing you didn't have enough charcoal to start and that you were probably using water because you said you were adding charcoal and you were only about 11 hours into the cook. Check out the information on Minion Method and with a no water method, you should be able to get over 12 hours before you need to add any charcoal (usually).

I'm also guessing your temp was too low. 4.5 pounds should not have taken over ten hours. Check your thermometer and try for around 250 degrees. Also, practice probing your meat to determine doneness. I'm wondering if it was done after that amount of time.

You learned something today and there's no shame in the oven but you can do better with a little practice. Let us know how it turned out. Usually, even a bad cook yields some good eating. Hope it went well for you.

Tell us a little more about your cook. Did you use water, did you fill the ring, did you start it minion method, what temp were you cooking at, what was the weather like (windy?), do you have a 18" or a 22"? That will help provide better recommendations.
 
18 WSM, used water. I started minion with 35 lit and 70 unlit, Kingsford Competition. 3 chunks of apple wood. Added the butt at 8AM, 215 degrees (Maverick therm temp) I started closing down the bottom vents (to about 1/4 for all 3), top full open. My Maverick therm averaged about 240 and the lid 210 for the first 4 hours. I added more water at 11:30 (4 1/2 hours). At 12:30 I added another 1/2 chimney of lit. My therm temp stayed consistent at around 250 until 4 and the lid at 205. I waited patiently through the stall until it hit 180 at 5:20. At 6:30 it was down to 173. Finally finished to 190 in a 325 oven at 7:30.

Overall the weather was good. It was a little breezy from about noon to 3. Low 40's all day until the sun went down, then the cold picked up and dropped to the mid 30's.

It came out very good. I will post some pics a little later today. I am thinking the amount of charcoal was the problem like Jerry said. This is only my second smoke with the WSM and I have been cautioning on the light side with the charcoal since I am used to trying to smoke on my OTG.

Thanks again for the help.

Brian
 
I would say fuel was a lot of your problem. When cooking for a long time like you did, you need to fill that ring FULL!!!

Live and learn... Move on and enjoy your next cook!
 
I almost always finish my butts and brisket in the oven when it is cold outside. Most times this is faster, and foiling it makes it tender.
 
If you ate it and it was good then it was a good cook. Kinda like a plane landing, any one you can walk away from is a good landing. Any cook you can eat is a good cook. So you did well. Also, great write up on your process.

I'm thinking you're right - you need to fill the ring. But more important, I bet your temp was low. You said your maverick was 240 and your lid was 210. I'm assuming your maverick was on the grate? I'm guessing you were closer to the 210 than the 240/250 that you were shooting for. Check your thermometer and make sure it's not too close to the side of the WSM where the heat comes up which would distort the temp reading.

Good looking pics. Good eats!
 
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