Never Got To Temp


 
C

Craig Cole

TVWBB Fan
I smoked a Picnic & a Butt yesterday. This was the first time I've smoked two chunks of meat at the same time in my WSM. Average Temp was 250F and I had a digital thermo in both chunks. The Picnic on Teop rack and butt on 2nd rack, and had water in the pan. The highest I could get the temp was 187F and that was after 20 hours of smoke. I pulled the picnic after 187 and the butt after 183. I noticed the picnic actually started to slowly drop in temp from 187.8 to 187.1, and there was no drop in temp on the lid thermo while this was happening. THey both pulled really nice, so that wasn't a problem. Ive never had a problem with reaching a temp,so I'm curious what might have been happening?
 
It could be something simple "thermo check" but you could have finished your cook in your oven. I have done that lots of times. Another thing I have done is to get the smoker hotter at the dome like 270 or so near the end of the cook. That will speed things up.
 
Craig, I don't know if this might be the case but this weekend I cooked some butts and noticed that I got different temps with my thermopen depending which muscle I inserted the probe into.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dale Perry:
It could be something simple "thermo check" but you could have finished your cook in your oven. I have done that lots of times. Another thing I have done is to get the smoker hotter at the dome like 270 or so near the end of the cook. That will speed things up. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I was cooking 300 at the dome.
 
It could be an equipment issue or it could be one of those, "that's the way it was" things. For that reason, when you have a cook that is unusually long, despite reasonable temps, then use other methods of determing doneness, i.e. inserting meat fork and twisting a little to guage firmness, wiggling the bone on bone-in butts etc. Picnics usually have a little less internal fat, so cooking too long can cause a problem with dryness, ime.

Paul
 
Well I have had the WSM full with butts and it took 24 hours before, but I wasnt in any hurry that cook. If I have company coming I do whatever it takes to get r done. 300 at the lid isnt a serious problem if you are careful imho.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I pulled the picnic after 187 and the butt after 183. I noticed the picnic actually started to slowly drop in temp from 187.8 to 187.1, and there was no drop in temp on the lid thermo while this was happening. THey both pulled really nice, so that wasn't a problem. Ive never had a problem with reaching a temp,so I'm curious what might have been happening? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Paul is right. Check with alternative methods when the time drags. 'Done' is not a matter of temp. Temp can correspond to done so it can feel as if this is the case but, really, temp is only a guide, not an indicator.

What happened here is that you reached a secondary plateau. I have never come up with a reason why this occurs at some times but not others but I have had it occur often enough.

(I cook butts routinely at 300 lid unless I need to extend the cook due to scheduling or time-use issues. Then, I cook lower.)
 
I allotted on 15 hour cooked with a 4-5 hour overrun, so I was prepared for it. I'm not sure what happened,but the meat still turned out fabulous. I will definitely do a picnic again, cause it was delicious. I skinned the picnic so I got some good bark. The meat fell off the bone as I picked it up.
 
My WSM runs about 50 degrees cooler on the top rack than the lid, so I figure 300 at lid is 250 at grate. Usually this works produces great results. I'd rather be +/- 250 than +/-200 at the grate.
 
So would I.


Check again at some point using two accurate therms. The standard deviation for a typical set-up (water in the pan) is ~15 degrees hotter at the lid, give or take a few.
 
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