Help with Minion Method

[Mark Etheridge]

I did 4 Boston Butts this past Friday for a birthday party. Each butt weighed out at about 8lbs. This is my second time cooking pork butt (the first time I did the 'Quick Cook' recipe found on this site) and I wanted to do a long cook to 1)get the chewy bark and 2)try the Minion Method again (first time was so-so).

It's 11:45am and 51 deg with a 7-10mph wind. I've got the WSM on the patio behind my garage where it's shielded from the wind on two sides by the house. I fill the charcoal ring FULL of unlit briqs and dump a chimney full of lit coals on top. I put the meat on and fill the water pan with near-boiling water. All vents are at 100%

An hour later, the temp in the dome is only 207. I close the top vent...nothing significant. I decide to add another chimney of lit coals. The ring is now nearly overfilled with charcoal. The temp climbs to 228 but goes back down to 200 within an hour.

To make a long story somewhat short, all of the vents were wide open the entire 10-hr cook and the temp would not rise. In fact, the only way I was able to get the temps up to 230-250, was to prop the door open a little to give the coals some more oxygen. And even after I put the door back on, the temp would drop from, say, 250 to 222 in 30 minutes.

What am I doing wrong?

The Q still turned out great though and everybody loved it. All's well that end's well, I guess. /infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif
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Mark WAR EAGLE!!

 

[Dale Groetsema]

Mark,
I do not have all the answers, but here are a couple pointers.

Never close the vent on the dome unless you want to cool down the fire. The WSM is not airtight, so even if the bottom vents are closed, air will come in, if it has a place to exit. The dome lid does a very good job of slowing that down if the vent is closed. If no air is coming in, combustion starts to slow down.

4 butts is 32+ pounds of meat. It can take some time to get that up to operating temps. I have squeezed in 8 butts on a WSM and found the temp never goes above 215-225, I suspect because of all the steam generated by the moisture in the meat.

You might try using sand in the waterpan when cooking that much meat as you do not need any more moisture, just a heat sink to lessen temperature spikes. Sand does that real well.

Fill your waterpan with clean sand to about an inch from the top. Cover with foil and you are ready to go. When done cooking, remove the foil and toss it. The sand is reusable.

You may also have a thermometer problem. 10 hours for 8 lb butts is pretty fast. Especially if your readings were low temps. Of course, it depends if you cooked it to slicing tender or pull apart tender. That is a difference of 10-15 degrees in the finished product. I usually allow up to 2 hours per pound and check after 12 hours for the bone to be easily moved and/or removed. When it gets to that point, it is done in my book.

Hope this helps

Dale

 

[Jim Minion]

Sounds like it was the charcoal that may have been the problem, if they have taken on moisture this can happen.
Closing the top vent will not help the pit temps rise, you need air flow to get the temp up so leave the top vent open, open all the bottom vents and lie you found if you open the door the temp will go up.
Jim

 

[Dale Groetsema]

ditto on damp charcoal, especially as we enter the wet winter months--of course, here in Chicago, wet means white wet--as in the couple inches we are getting as I write

Dale

 

[Guest]

I had some problems using walmart charcoal. Would not stay lit and my temps were all down. I chucked it and bought Kingsford like I normally do and I am back to normal. I also store the charcoal inside!

 

[Mark Etheridge]

Thank you all for responding so quickly!!

Damp charcoal is a possibility that I had not considered. I am strictly a Kingsford man and I usually keep it in my shed "unprotected". Unprotected meaning I don't put it in any kind of storage box. It was really cold here on "Thanksgiving Eve." So much so that my oil for frying turkeys had solidified into grease. Lesson learned...I'll go buy me a box.

I do not think my thermometer is a problem. I checked just a couple of weeks ago with boiling water and it was reading 210. It's a Taylor candy thermo. I also checked a new Polder at that same time and it was reading 210 as well.

As far as the 8lb butt cooking in 10 hrs. I agree that is on the fast side but I "helped" it along for about 15 minutes when I propped the door open and it later fell off unbeknownst to me.
I came out to check temps and the dome was 400+ and I had me a really good fire going!! Later on, towards the end of the cook, I was running between 260-270 in the dome.

Now, I ask what do you do when you're in the middle of a cook and you realize your charcoal may be damp. How do you overcome that problem?

Thanks again.
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Mark WAR EAGLE!!