Did I overdo the Butt???


 
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Larry Evers

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I did my first overnighter on a 7.5 lb. Pork Butt last night. Began at 9pm. and when the temp. was stabalized at around 240, went to bed. At 3:34 am. the temp was 225 so I opened the vents a bit and back to bed. At 5:30 a.m. the temp. was 230. Since it was a 7.5 pounder, I thought I'd have it on the cooker for awhile longer. Checked the internal temp. w/ Polder in several diff. locations in the meat and the temp was at 210! It was on the cooker a little over 10 hours. Did I overdo this and did I totally mess up this piece of meat?
Larry
 
I would bet that it's just fine. There's only one way to find out, though. /infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif Each piece of meat is different and cooking conditions are never exactly the same, so it's not unusual for cooking times to vary.

Steve
 
Well it looks fine. In about another 30 min. I'm going to pull it and I'll see for sure then. I know all meant etc. is different but I thought that 210 was just way out there.
Larry
 
Larry, I would suspect it to be just fine. You might like to verify the accuracy of your thermometer with a boiling water bath. Let us know how it turns out.
 
I wish mine finished in 10 hours. My 7 lb butt took 18 hours to hit 199*. I tried to keep my lid temps between 250-260. I did the same thing, put my meat on about 10 pm, got my temps stabilized at 246, went to bed. Woke up at 4:30, temps were 219, opened up the vents went back to bed, except at 7 am my temps went way up to 280 and yours stayed down. Still, it turned out excellent.
 
What does overdone Butt look like? This looks good and the small piece I tore off was excellent. Very moist and easy to pull apart. There wasn't really a lot of excess fat like I expected tho. We got about 3 1/2 lbs. of meat out of the 7.5 pounder. I guess that's about right. Dinner's coming later where I will making my final observations. Tested the Polder in rolling, boiling water and it read 208 which means the meat was really 206. Anyway, I'll see how it tastes, which is really what counts, later.
Larry
 
Confirms my suspicions that the orthodoxy about butt temps is in need of revision. 170-190 is way too low a temp and results in way too much fat and troublesome pulling. I am convinced that a min of 200 and even up to 210 is desirable in a butt in order to get proper tenderness and fat reduction and results in effortless pulling of meat. But I understand that orthodoxies die hard.
 
Jack
Once butt reaches 200? it will normally start to dry out, not saying that will be dry but it is starting to dry out.
Pulling the butts off at 195? internal also makes it better when reheated.
Jim
 
Butt success! Had the Butt for dinner tonight and it was excellent! Thanks to this site and all the wonderful advice for the outcome! I did the exact recipe on the site. I added 1/2 c. Wild Turkey to the Southern Sop; an idea I got from another recipe. Like I mentioned, the Butt took a lot less time than I expected but it was perfectly done. Not one bit dry and in fact extremely moist and full of flavor. I used the Creamy Buttermilk Cole Slaw recipe from Jason M. and added it to the shredded meat sandwiched between two buns like Teddy Bear Haskins suggested. That with the beans on the side and a glass or two of ice cold Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and we had a delightful meal. And I have several more dinners in the freezer.
Larry
 
Jim, there is so much fat in these roasts that I find it hard to believe that dryness would be a concern. In any case, my experience with higher temps is very favorable so far. As I said, I even pulled a butt that read 217 internal temp on a calibrated polder and it was moist and wonderful. I agree that that is a little too high and I would probably strive for no more than about 205 to 210. Getting the fat to melt off is a primary objective with me and it takes the higher temps to do that.
 
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