First Butts.....in trouble..


 
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Dupree

TVWBB Fan
So I have been cooking on my new WSM since 8:20 EST this evening. Learning #1, have a Thermometer that you can trust....

Now my concern, I did a minion method fire, kicked off at 8:20 pm EST with 30 coals to start the fire....almost 2 hours later the lid temp is steady at ~204 (been there for about 1.5 hours) according to my grill thermometer (been using it in my old weber kettle for over a year to do poor mans smoking). Does it normally take this long to get to temp? I have a full Weber water pan and about 16lbs off Bone in Butt on the grill which was out of the fridge about 20 minutes before going on the grill.

The only other thermometer we have is a candy thermometer which is reading 70-80 degrees higher....

I am about to fire my thermometer in the oven at 250F to see if it reads right.....
 
Don't trust your oven. The easiest and most accurate way to test a thermometer is in boiling water. Since water boils at 212 deg it should read 212 - plus or minus a few degrees.
 
Hey Dupree. Does sound like your running a little cold, you want to be about 250 at the dome. Adding cold meat should not be a temp issue after almost 2 hours. Did you start with hot water in the pan? That will help you get up to temps faster. I think your main concern is your vents! Where are they set at? Sounds like they are almost all closed? If you need a kick start to higher temps, take off the door for a minute or so and watch your temps climb. Let us know how you do.
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Windy City Smokers
 
Vents were all at 100% open for the entire time.

I have decided to trust the candy thermometer...though I will try the boiling water..thanks for the tip....good thing this was a test run and no-one is coming over for food tomorrow....
 
so the candy thermometer was pretty much dead on 220 in the boiling water so...

so I have got 'er down to 250 and holding steady....any one care to tell my how much damage I did to the Que running at ~275 for a couple hours our the gate?

Hope I don't run out of fuel whilst I sleep (hmm I hope I sleep...)

Thanks for the info!
 
Dupree - 275 isn't gonna hurt a butt one bit (try saying that ten times in a row!)
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If the thermo reads 220 in boiling water then it is 8 deg off - not an issue at all. Since you were cooking at 275 subtract 8 deg which gives you 267 at the dome, which is around 250 grate temp. Nothing wrong here.
 
Dupree,

Did you put the butt on the same time as you started the WSM or did you put the butts on after it came to the 225-250 after 45 minutes to an hour? I would say the temperature knockdown is about right from that 16LB cold thermal mass of the shoulder. I always get frustrated on the temp knockdown of the WSM with big cuts... We need the double sized model weber!
 
I started the fire, assembled the smoker and put the butts on. So there was no "knock-down" but rather the thermo was off so it never read over 190.

By the way the butts cooked in 14 hours and came out a little on the dry side, but had a good flavor. Thanks for all the help folks. This weekend's "experiment" should come out better.
 
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