Flying Blind


 
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Peter Friedrichs

New member
Well, I'm officially "flying blind." My Polder is totally wacked. After getting lid temp readings in the high 200's and low 300's all night, I finally pulled the thermometer from the meat, brought it inside and stuck it in a cold hot dog. It's telling me that the temp of the dog is 245 and the "oven" (sitting on my kitchen counter) is 226. Any advice on how to cook a pork butt on a WSM without a thermometer? I think I may just leave it set where it is (bottoms closed 100%, top vent open 75%), go to bed and hope for the best, relying on the 1 1/2-2 hours per pound estimate, testing for doneness when the meat slides off the bone. I wonder what happened to my thermometer???
Peter
 
Well if you got water in where the wire goes into the probe that will do it. Not sure where you live(you should update your profile) but you can pick up dial thermos at WalMart. They have some cheap dial pocket ones there you could stick in the top vent cause i just saw them there, i just got home from Wally World. I would not go to bed with all the bottom vents closed. No candy or deep fry thermo laying around?
 
Originally posted by Peter Friedrichs:
Well, I'm officially "flying blind." My Polder is totally wacked. After getting lid temp readings in the high 200's and low 300's all night, I finally pulled the thermometer from the meat, brought it inside and stuck it in a cold hot dog. It's telling me that the temp of the dog is 245 and the "oven" (sitting on my kitchen counter) is 226. Any advice on how to cook a pork butt on a WSM without a thermometer? I think I may just leave it set where it is (bottoms closed 100%, top vent open 75%), go to bed and hope for the best, relying on the 1 1/2-2 hours per pound estimate, testing for doneness when the meat slides off the bone. I wonder what happened to my thermometer???
Peter
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Bummer about the thermometer. If the water is simmering in the standard pan you know it's over 200F and probably ok. If it's boiling hard it might be too hot. If it's not simmering at all it's probably too cold. Did you start up with the Minion method?

Like Bryan said, unless your WSM has air leaks leaving the vents the way you mentioned will eventually snuff or nearly snuff your fire.

If it was me I'd leave the top vent open 100% and the bottom vents 1/4 to 1/2 open depending on conditions.

To test for done there are a couple of things you can do in addition to bone jiggling: stick a fork in a meaty section, give a twist then pull. See if the meat feels like it will shred with the fork. Put your gloves on and grab that butt, squeeze and twist a bit. See if it feels like it's just gonna fall apart in your hands.

Good luck Peter.
 
Bryan ans Shawn, you were right about leaving the vents too closed. It's now 5:45 am and the fire is still going, but the water isn't simmering and there's no smoke. I've opened the vents to up the temp. Here's the question: Am I going to poison my guests because it's been cooking way too cool all night? Or am I okay as long as the meat temp eventually makes it up to 190 +/- by the time I take the butt off the grill? I'll hit Wally World as soon as they open here (7 am) to find another thermometer. Lesson learned: Always have a back-up.
Peter
 
I think your meat will be fine. It was plenty hot when you posted last and the fire is still burning. Put your hand on the lid and count how long you can keep it there. Or i would just stick my finger in the water to see how hot it is but that's just me. It'll only hurt for a little bit if it's really hot. That's why we have ice cubes for the stupid things we do, right?
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Headed to the store for a (cheap-o) thermometer. The smoker's smokin' again, so I think this puppy can be salavaged. I guess I just added more time to the cooking. Bryan, don't you ever sleep, or are you cooking too?
 
Peter, No cooking for me. I might put a brisket on here soon but not sure. I don't sleep much but that's another story. Here's a pic of some thermometers. The one on the right is a pocket one. The WalMart that i was at this morning had them. The one on the left is a deep fry thermo and that would be better if they have them. The pocket one will get you by for a minimal amount of $$$$ till you can get a new probe or figure out what's wrong with the Polder.
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I'm wondering what happened to my Polder? It didn't get wet, the wire wasn't kinked. The thing just went haywire on me. I don't know whether I should invest another $15 in a replacement probe, or buy a different brand all together. Is there a consensus on the discussion board on the best thermometer?
 
Originally posted by Peter Friedrichs:
I'm wondering what happened to my Polder? It didn't get wet, the wire wasn't kinked. The thing just went haywire on me. I don't know whether I should invest another $15 in a replacement probe, or buy a different brand all together. Is there a consensus on the discussion board on the best thermometer?
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Why not just return the Polder? It's kind of like the Lump or Kingsford and the water or sand debate. We all have our preference. I like the NU TEMP NU-701. Others like the ET-73 while others like the Polder. There's a deal going on now for the NU-701 Here
 
Peter--

You can get replacement probes for $5-8. (Try Amazon.) I have had Polder probes last for years and have had them fail sooner. Very high heat is not something they can take either.

Many of us here use the Maverick or Nu-Temp remotes. I use a metal candy like the one pictured at left, and have a metal short probe therm from BBQ Guru I like better, and a Thermapen--expensive but very fast and accurate for checking internals.
 
I'm going to have to return the Polder directly to the manufacturer, since Amazon has a 30 day return policy and I'm outside of that. They're charging $15 plus shipping for a replacement probe. Maybe I can find one cheaper locally. I picked up a candy thermometer to use for the rest of this burn.
 
Peter, Good deal on the thermometer. Not sure how long the stem is on it, just make sure it doesn't touch the meat when you put it through the top vent. The one in the pic i posted has a 12" stem on it so......... anyway good luck with the rest of the cook.
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Unless you have a different one than I do, the replacement is $8 at Amazon at the moment.

I'd see if they'll take it back anyway.
 
I use a fryer thermometer as a back up to my maverick. I got a cork a little bigger than the vent hole in the top. I made a hole thru the cork and inserted the shaft. That way when its inserted in the hole the shaft stays away from the hot metal. The nice part is that if I'm cooking something tall, I can back the shaft out of the cork to clear whatever I am cooking.

I use both thermometers at the same time as insurance. They usually are within 10 degrees of each other depending on placement.
 
Well, after all the drama of the overnight smoking, the pork butt hit 190 degrees at just about 1:00 pm, right on the money for 2 hours per pound. It looks like it's got a nice bark on it; hopefully it's still moist. It's sitting in the cooler, wrapped in foil and a towel, waiting for the guests to arrive at 4. I'll report back on taste and reactions later this evening. Thank you to everyone who was there to walk me through my newbie jitters and all the temp/thermometer problems. This forum is a great resource for those of "new to the 'cue!"
Peter
 
Woo Hoo Peter. Butts are a very forgiving piece of meat. I'm sure they will be just fine. Please let us know how they turned out.
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My first probe was a Polder. When I took it out of the box, it registered something like 250 degrees for the room temperature. I returned it to Amazon and received a refund. I would not have bought this probe had I read the Amazon reviews. I wrote my first and only review for Amazon. It was entitled: "Don't buy this probe."

I then bought the Taylor Model 1470. It has been fine, but I wanted some spare probes. Taylor wants a check and they are $5 ea.

I took advantage of the deal Mordechai set up for the Nu-Temp 701 and it is great(Thanks Mordechai). I notice that it is being repeated.
I probably will buy spare probes for it.
 
The reviews are in and my pulled pork was a big hit! Nice bark, great smoke ring, good and moist. All in all, I can't imagine it could have tasted better. Call it beginner's luck, I guess. Thanks again to all you smoking insomniacs who helped keep me sane last night, for your words of encouragement and wisdom. This is a great forum and I'm happy to be part of the barbecue community!
Peter
 
Well I know this post is a little late, but for reference sake, let me say that with the all the vents 100% open and 2 gallons in the Brinkman pan there is no way to get the WSM over 300. Even with the door cracked. I boneheadedly tried to high temp cook chicken and a tri tip with the water pan in and full (force of habit, I guess) and wondered why I couldn't get the temp past the high 290's. Kinda makes me feel better though about a butt cook, because I know now that it isn't going to skyrocket out of control or anything if I'm sleeping. Might get a little low, but the ol' WSM won't burn anything
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