Current Cook - Timing Dilemma


 
J

James Harvey

TVWBB Pro
Hi All,

I'm on the morning side of an overnight butt cook and have a little challenge. It's now 7:30am and the butt is at 184F, smoker around 240F.
My anticipated completion time was around noon as the butt went on at midnight @ 7+lbs. My serving time (for a party) is around 4pm. I'm ahead of schedule.
Even though I'm at 184F I expect I can carry the cook for a few more hours as there was still a little resistance when checking internal temp. This means I hope to be taking it off around 10am.
I'll foil and put into a warmed cooler but I don't know if I can carry it until 3:30pm (that's almost 6 hours in the cooler).

I can leave the therm in and watch the temp while in the cooler and ensure it stays above 140 before I pull it and see how long I can last. Or, should I just pull it earlier and reheat for serving (this is exactly what I was trying to avoid)?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

JDH
 
I would drop the temp to 225 in the smoker...And then i would keep it warm untill dinner time. With the cooler method.

No problem.
 
I agree drop the smoker temp and keep it on as long as you can. At 184 you probable still have a couple more hours on the smoker. Plus it will stay hot in the cooler for a while. I have had butts packed in a cooler on a warm day go 4-5 hours and they were still to hot to pick up with your bare hands. I think you are doing just fine
 
I third dropping the temp to 225*. You want that butt to get to 195* so even though your only 9* away, drop the smoker temp and it will take a few hours to get there. And if you go over 195* to say 200*, it's ok!
 
Thanks all. I hit 192F just before 10am with dead fuel. I pre-heated my cooler with hot water an hour prior. Wrapped the butt in HD foil and a towel, put thick towels on the bottom and top and left the cooler in the sun. Used my ET to monitor internal meat temp as the hours passed. At 3pm, I was at 147F and started to pull. Still had to use gloves as the meat was too hot to handle. The bark was soft but I expected that. The meat was extremely moist with almost no large connective tissue left. I used the No. 5 sauce lightly to finish as my crowd were kids and spice averse adults. I put hot sauce and additional No. 5 on the side. All in all, possibly one of the best butts I've done.

Biggest problem, my wife and I only got to sample as I was pulling it as the guests gobbled it up on sesame seed buns. Not even a sandwich left for us to share. Best part, my wife made oven fried chicken that killed and I have 10+ pieces left.

All in all, I have to call it a success.

Thanks,

JDH
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top