first overnight - saturday night


 
Benji,

My cook is at the same point as yours. Started 1 7.5 butt at 5:30 p.m. Saturday night. Found temp this morning at 175 (lid), meat 160. Just added another chimney full of well lit charcoal on top of 20 briquettes (sp). Now temp up to 325. I have a couple hours to go or less. I will be taking more frequent readings. I definitely need to invest in a probe therm. I have an anolog only. Keep us posted on your cook. I got to be out of here by 9:30 for church as well. So I don't mind that my temp is a little high. I need results in the next 1.5 hours.
 
It's good to know that someone else out there is facing the same challenge at the same time to achieve bbq greatness.

Since I have to leave at 9:30 a.m., I am going to pull it off the wsm, foil it, and throw it in the oven with a timer, for let's say .5 to 1 hour. I'll have my wife check it as she is staying home today.
 
i might be staying home til it's done, then throwing it in a cooler and heading out the door. we're eating at my parent's house after church.
 
Mike--you can always lower your temp, leave the butt alone and leave; foil the butt, lower the temp and leave; or if it's close but not quite there yet, foil the butt doubly, shut all vents to the cooker and leave it there. It will cook a while as the temps drop then rest.

Get a digital tip-sensitive therm. Analogs shouldn't be used on thin meats though they're fine for butt.

Benji--What stage are you?
 
kevin,
i'm at 15:15, the temps were 170 in one butt, 180 in the other, lid is 260. i'm pulling it off at 10:00 at whatever stage it's at, putting it in a cooler, and taking it to my parent's house, then going to church. if it's done at that point, i'll let it rest. if not, i'll put it in their oven till it's ready.
any tips on that? i can't mess with the oven or check temps again from 10:45 - 12:15??
 
Both will be sliceable done by 10 but not likely pullable done. Call your parents and have them pre-heat the oven to 250-275. Double-wrap the butts, bring them in a cooler to your parents, then put them on a pan--still wrapped in foil--and let them finish in the oven. Don't worry about not being able to check the butt's temps for a couple hours.
 
it turned out great. i pulled it and put it in a cooler at 10, then took it to my parent's house. it went in the oven there at 250* while we were at church, then i pulled it at 12:30. we ate almost one whole butt. i pulled the other one and put it in bags in the fridge. i'm going to take some to work and give some away. i have before pics and setup pics, but not pics of the results because i was so rushed.

i don't think my thermometers work very well. i've tested them in boiling water, and they seemed accurate. nothing i've cooked has ever come up to the required temp. these butts measured 170 - 180 when i pulled them off the smoker, and i could barely get them off in one piece, they were totally falling apart. the same thing happened on the chickens i did a couple of weeks ago. i have 2 instant read analog thermometers. one is a taylor, the other has steven raichlen's face on it. they both give the same readings, but i don't think something's right.
 
Terrific Benji. Glad that it all worked out.

On the therm front: Most analogs are bi-metal and hence the reading you get is an average temp betwwen the tip of the therm and a spot usually 2-2.5" up from the tip. If calibrated correctly these therms work fine when immersed (like in boiling or iced water) or when stuck far enough into something but placement is critical. They shouldn't be used at all on thin items like chicken breasts, steaks, burgers, etc., especially if cooking to minimum safe temps, as they are often wildly inaccurate in these circumstances because not enough of the therm stem is buried.

In your situation it was also possible that the meats simply plateaued a second time. This is not all that uncommon with butts; I've had them pullable-done in the 180s after stalling there for some time, the temps never rising.

Many of us use a Super-fast Thermapen. It's a very fast thermocouple therm but spendy at $85. Two much less expensive thermistor therms worth looking at are the RT-301 ($14; also from Thermoworks) and the PDT 300 ($18).
 
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