Big Mistake


 
B

Brian B.

TVWBB Fan
All,

I naively assumed that since I had done 5 smokes that my overnight one would go perfectly. I didn't check the temps of any of the meat until just a little bit ago and had a bad surprise.

Butts 220
Chuck 225

I pulled them off and foiled them, but how bad are they going to be? Did I just ruin a bunch of meat? I had some problems controlling the heat for the first couple of hours, but I didn't think it would lead to this.

Thanks
 
How did the meat feel? Was it fall-apart tender? Did it look dry? How long do you need to hold it?
 
I was planning on holding it for about an hour and then pulling it to reheat later today. I didn't get a good feel on the chuck, but the butts seemed to feel ok. How is it possible that they made it to that temp so quickly? I was never above 290 (lid temp) while I was trying to get it under control and when I checked on it at 6:30 am this morning it was at 240 (260 and falling when I went to bed at 2:30 am).

Thanks again for the help.
 
How long was the meat on? Any buried large wood chunks? What sizes were the meats when raw?

You could consider a finishing sauce when pulling (as noted, just about 1-2 T per large handful or cup of pulled meat) to even texture and flavors.

I don't find chuck, if on the small side (< 6 lbs) takes all that long. How yours turns out will depend on the place on the chuck it was cut from. But chuck hunks are often quite forgiving as their connective tissue, if not always their marbling, is usually fairly substantial.
 
If you look in the dictionary under giant bonehead, I'll think you'll find a picture of me. In my early morning confusion this morning I switched the probes between my two thermometers. They obviously are not compatible and gave wildly different readings and probably really screwed up my cooking schedule.

So now, have I done any damage to the meat by pulling it off, foiling, and holding for 2 1/2 hours? Fortunately I kept the smoker hot b/c I was putting ribs back on later, so all of the meat is safely back on the smoker.

FYI, the chuck is 9 lbs and the butts are 7 lbs apiece.

It looks like everything is right around 135 F right now.

Thanks
 
Okay--so you pulled the meat at what turned out to be way too early, foiled and held it for 2.5 hours (held hot, wrapped in toweled cooler?), then returned it to the cooker--right? Were the meats hot when they were returned?
 
They should be fine. I'd pretty much ignore internals. Cooking, viz. rendering, continued while the meats were in the cooler. It is possible--even likely--that the meats will reach tender before the internals correlate. Check for tender with your probe. When the bone is loosened in each butt (if bone-in) and when the probes go into the butts and the chuck with no resistance, and the meat starts coming apart when it's handled, they're done to the pullable stage; remove them at that point.

Good luck.
 
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