Help! Pork belly reached 160f in 2 hours


 
M

Matt Currie

New member
So with my 22” Weber I’ve made a snake and the thermometer has hit 160f within 2 hours. This is ment to take 6 haha! The grill is upto 280f and I’ve kept the water topped up. I’ve shut the bottom vent in a tad.
I’m hoping I’ve put my thermometer in to high or low into the meat. Any suggestions? Should I take the thermometer out and just let it go the 6 hours anyway?
 
To be clear, are you using the Vortex in a kettle or a Smoker?
Either way shut down the bottom some, I presume you are making Bacon?
Check temperature a couple of places and see if you just have a hot spot.
I don’t think the Vortex has much, if any, bearing on this.
How wide and high is your snake?
 
No I just wanted to make some nice pork belly pieces nice and gooey. I’ve messed up with the vents by leaving them open to far into the cook rather than only having them slightly open and getting a steady temp inside the kettle.
The pork is now 178f shall I wrap it in the foil just now for it to get to 200f or shall i leave it for a bit?
 
So total 4:30 hours.
Took off at 3:30, wrapped and glazed and put back on for another hour until it was 200f. My thermometer is nice and smooth in and out of the meat.
The top isn’t as crispy as I would like but I imagine that’s because I messed up my temps etc. I’ve learnt the hard way but I know next time to sort my vents and get a constant temp before starting.
Here is some pics
https://imgur.com/gallery/Hw73hVk
 
Looks great, Matt. I can't say I've ever cooked one like that. I typically just do a warm smoke on cured slabs. I would think you did the right thing, though. I imagine you want to get some fat rendered and get it good and tender so you can probably take it up to even something like 210, but again I've never done it.
 
Thanks it tastes great. Again just wish it was more crispy.
I’m going to do it again next week and control my temp a lot more so it’s smoking for a good 6 hours until 165f before I have to wrap it up to get to 200f! Thanks again
 
So this is a kettle, one tip I’d recommend is to take a sharpie marker and with the lid off, note where the position of the vents on the ring (I think Chris posted a guide somewhere) at 1/2 and 1/4 open. It just makes adjustment a little easier when things are hot.
When the snow clears in the spring, I should re mark mine, I might use a graver this time, it will be permanent. The marker eventually wears off.
I’ve not done a belly like that either but, it looks good.
I got a “Tip-Top” temperature contraption which might be a good cool for the arsenal. It sits over the top vent it’s a pretty cool gizmo, there is a little bimetallic spring which opens or closes a butterfly on the top. All bottom vents are closed a small pile of charcoal with one or two lit coals set the two on top of the pile and close it all up. The setup is kind of touchy, it deals with a temperature differential between the ambient and internal temp. I’ve only used it a couple of times but, it gave me pretty good results on a butt before I got my WSM.
 
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