BrianCal
TVWBB All-Star
Ok, so decided to do two 8# butts the other day. Strange day....
Was up at 5, got the coals going, was using minion method. Had them on before 6. Noticed while I was getting the WSM going that my Thermoworks probes were giving me temp readings about 9 degrees apart, even though they were just out on the table. And they seemed a little higher than I expected, but since I was a little foggy didn’t really think to do much about it.
Started the cook, seemed to be progressing nicely at 250 until early afternoon. Thats when it seemed like the wheels came off a little. Around 2pm had an IT of 165, so time to wrap. I’ve always done foil, but wanted to experiment with butchers paper since I’ve never tried it before. Double wrapped the butts, and I always take this chance to swap which grates they are on. So that takes a few minutes, and the cooker temp fell a bit, but shouldn’t be a problem.....but from then on, fought to keep the temp hot enough for the rest of the day. One self induced problem, had to get on two hours of video calls for work, so couldn’t tend to it as much as I’d like. Got back to it and my temp was barely 200. reloaded some coals. But the butts stayed at the stall for about SIX hours, have never had that before. So no pulled pork for dinner. Tried to up the temp to 300 to move it along, but struggled even with using a ton of KBB.
Finally got to 200 at about 11:30, pulled it and into the cooler, dozed on the couch until about 1am when I pulled the first one. The good news? Tasted great, nice bark, good tenderness. Fell back asleep and pulled the other about 3am. Also excellent.
Yesterday I decided to calibrate my probes. Guess what? Both off by more than ELEVEN degrees !! Thermoworks says anything more than 4 means a faulty probe, but it also means that my already low temps in the cooker were even lower than I realized. It also reminds me how great my old Maverick was......
For those of you that use butcher paper, did I use too much? I double wrapped just to make sure it was fully covered, would that have been part of the issue? Also, I think it’s time to try the snake method, minion just seems to be a fuel hog lately, never was before, not sure what changed. And it seems like a key skill to know anyway.
Anyway, thanks for listening to my vent / rant, any thoughts or comments are welcome.
Was up at 5, got the coals going, was using minion method. Had them on before 6. Noticed while I was getting the WSM going that my Thermoworks probes were giving me temp readings about 9 degrees apart, even though they were just out on the table. And they seemed a little higher than I expected, but since I was a little foggy didn’t really think to do much about it.
Started the cook, seemed to be progressing nicely at 250 until early afternoon. Thats when it seemed like the wheels came off a little. Around 2pm had an IT of 165, so time to wrap. I’ve always done foil, but wanted to experiment with butchers paper since I’ve never tried it before. Double wrapped the butts, and I always take this chance to swap which grates they are on. So that takes a few minutes, and the cooker temp fell a bit, but shouldn’t be a problem.....but from then on, fought to keep the temp hot enough for the rest of the day. One self induced problem, had to get on two hours of video calls for work, so couldn’t tend to it as much as I’d like. Got back to it and my temp was barely 200. reloaded some coals. But the butts stayed at the stall for about SIX hours, have never had that before. So no pulled pork for dinner. Tried to up the temp to 300 to move it along, but struggled even with using a ton of KBB.
Finally got to 200 at about 11:30, pulled it and into the cooler, dozed on the couch until about 1am when I pulled the first one. The good news? Tasted great, nice bark, good tenderness. Fell back asleep and pulled the other about 3am. Also excellent.
Yesterday I decided to calibrate my probes. Guess what? Both off by more than ELEVEN degrees !! Thermoworks says anything more than 4 means a faulty probe, but it also means that my already low temps in the cooker were even lower than I realized. It also reminds me how great my old Maverick was......
For those of you that use butcher paper, did I use too much? I double wrapped just to make sure it was fully covered, would that have been part of the issue? Also, I think it’s time to try the snake method, minion just seems to be a fuel hog lately, never was before, not sure what changed. And it seems like a key skill to know anyway.
Anyway, thanks for listening to my vent / rant, any thoughts or comments are welcome.
