First pork butt cook underway - temperature concerns

[JWorden]

Are you wrapping it? You are at the stall so be prepared to wait awhile. I wrap mine at 165.

You can check on the charcoal to see how much is left. If you're careful you can knock off the charred bits to expose fresh coals. Don't do this too much or you may extinguish the lit coals with ash. You could just knock on the bowl a little. If the temperature is dropping open one vent a little.

Another option is to put it in a 250-300 oven until it's done.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

What it the butt temp?
From what I see on the graph, I wouldn’t do anything, just wait.
“It will be done when it’s finished, there is no rushing good barbecue!” Someone wiser than I.

 

[JWorden]

His graphic shows about 155

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Just went back and checked that, thanks, I knew he had posted that but, I wasn’t necessary paying much attention. I’m betting he’s going into ”Stall” territory, three hours or so left to go from my experience. then a three hour rest, looks like breakfast to me!

 

[JWorden]

If the temperature continues to trend down I would open one vent until it gets back up to about 240.

Based off the OP's location I suspect his outdoor temperature is getting cold.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Go full open, let it hit 250, back down the windward vents to 50% and have a cocktail.

 

[DanHoo]

don't peek at least not for a while....

Once it reaches the stall, getting the pit temp up a little isn't a bad thing.

Also, my MeaterPlus meat probe is 5 to 10 degrees less than my other thermometers.

edit: My point with this comment is you have the target temp set to 203 with the meater. If the meater is reading low, that might be too high of a target temp. You may want to test with an instant read when the meater sez it is 195.

Are you planning to wrap? or are you going all the way unwrapped?

 

[DanHoo]

and have a cocktail.

I need to remember to suggest that more often, and I need to follow my own advice. edit: Tim's advice, that I am passing along.

 

[Steve Tiilikainen]

I went ahead and wrapped it after pouring a half cup of my injection marinade onto it. From what I’m reading, not wrapping increases the cooking time but preserves the hardness of the bark?

The bark is firm enough to tap with the fingernail. It’s right at 160 right now. Smoker is at 220 and there doesn’t appear to be a lot of fuel left. I am pre-heating the oven to 240, thinking I might transfer it over. It looks gridded because I’ve tied it.

 

[JWorden]

Looks good. Was this boneless,

 

[Steve Tiilikainen]

Looks good. Was this boneless,

Yes. It was definitely floppy after trimming.

I’m looking forward to trying a bone-in shoulder just to see how different the experience is.

 

[Brett-EDH]

have a cocktail.

why cheat yourself and stop at one? bbq takes a long time. so enjoy the long ride, responsibly.

 

[Michael Richards]

Steve and everyone who has added to this post, thanks for a great ride through a pork shoulder cook! Great thread and great advice!

 

[Steve Tiilikainen]

It’s been great so far. I’m gonna go ahead and finish this off in the oven at 250, I think, since I’ve wrapped it and fuel is low.

Thanks everyone for all the great advice and the multiple times you talked me off the ledge.

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

The ledge will be farther away next time. I would have been inclined to just add a few shovels of charcoal but, that’s just me.
you are having a stylishly late dinner right? Please, please give it at least an hour rest before you pull it! Your results will be more succulent. I’ve become a three to four hour rest guy lately. Better final product.

 

[Dwain Pannell]

Hi folks. Currently 20 minutes into a cook of a 7 pound pork butt. Lid temperature measures right around 225º, Meater probe is reporting ~200º ambient temperature. It's a nice day outside; 45º, with the WSM in the shade and little to no wind. Lit about 30 briquettes and used the minion method with 3 chunks of smoking wood. All four vents are fully open at this point.

My previous experience with ribs taught me a hard lesson in overreacting to low temperatures. Right now I'm (correctly, I think) taking no action. At what point should I be concerned that the temperature of the cooker is too low? And if that gets to be the case, what should I do about it?

I imagine you are measuring temp in two different locations and of course with two different devices; one analog thermometer and one digital thermometer. A man with two watches never knows what time it is. Pick one and ignore the other. Temps to the Nth level of accuracy aren’t critical.

what is critical is time. Give the piece of meat enough time to go past done and into tender. Lower temps take more time than higher temps. Stands to reason. So, unless you want to have this cook take double digit hours to cook, I recommend raising the temp to get this butt across the finish line (literally and figuratively).

 

[Steve Tiilikainen]

Final update with photos:

Removed it from the oven at 203 and checked it for done-ness using my thermapen.

Had to hold it overnight. To do this, I transferred the shoulder, still wrapped, to the crock pot on its “warm” setting which is 170. The temperature peaked at 204 and gradually fell overnight to 170.

After 12 hours, I unwrapped it shortly before lunch. It pulled very easily. It seemed just a little dry to me. I kind of wonder if that is the result of holding it overnight, or the result of what I think of now as pretty aggressive trimming, because when I pulled it there was nothing that I needed to discard besides the kitchen twine.

It also seemed a little salty. My wife suggested that it might be because I used granulated sea salt instead of kosher salt in the injection (which was 2 cups of turkey stock, four tbsp raw sugar and 2 tbsp salt. I think she’s probably right.

We tried some plain and with some sauce pretty thoroughly incorporated. We both agreed that we liked it better with the sauce, which seemed to cut some of the saltiness and added some sweetness.

We ate it on sweet rolls with some homemade sweet pickles and coleslaw. It was delicious.

All in all, this was a great first outing for me. I learned a lot and I have some things I’m going to do differently next time! Please enjoy the pics.

And thanks again for all the patient assistance!

 

[Timothy F. Lewis]

Nice work, the next one will be easier, fewer things to worry about. I don’t tend to trim very aggressively, I figure it’s natural basting, see how lazy I am!?

 

[JWorden]

Looks good!

I just looked up turkey stock and the brand I looked at had 990 mg of salt per serving. That's a lot of salt already.

I suggest you keep a journal of each cook. Write down everything you did from what you cooked and size, weather conditions, type of charcoal, wood, water pan, etc. Keep track of your vent settings, times you made and adjustment, wrapping or not, thermometer placement/temperatures.

This will give you a record of what went well or didn't. I teach chemistry at a local community college so this is natural for me but I refer to my notes before each cook.

 

[Jim C in Denver]

Steve.

Did you use water in the cooker?

Water is there mostly to depress temps; not really that much about moisture. That could have been keeping the temps down.

I never use water. Given how my 18 wsm runs, my problem is temps too low. Almost never temps too high.