now what


 
J

John Heutz

TVWBB Fan
Not sure what to do now. I put 2 pork butts on the smoker last night at 1am....1 on the top rack and the smaller 1 on the bottom Everything was fine until I woke up to find temps at 295 and no water in the pan. Last time I chceked on the smoker was about an hour and half ago. The pan went dry sometime between 8:00 am and 9:30. Any suggestions as to what to do now? Temps are back down to 250. Figures....this was supposed to be for our X-Mass party at work.
 
John - I think you will be okay. I've sweated temperature variations before, but the meat turned out well.

Just run the meat to your target temperature. Remove from WSM, then foil the butts and place them in a cooler. They will hold temperature for several hours.

Jim
 
John, You should still be fine. The higher temps won't hurt anything. What is the internal temp on the butts? You should be getting close. Don't worry about the temps, some people actually prefer cooking at that temp the whole cook. If it stayed at that temp for a few hours the butts may be done now. Check internal temp and that will tell you.

Randy
 
Proceed as normal. Continue cooking to your target internal temp, and rest them foiled in a dry cooler if necessary, depending on your time frame. I routinely let my pan run dry at the end of a butt cook, and temps ramp up to what yours have. It won't affect the outcome adversely.
 
I wouldn't be to worried. Butts tend to be forgiving. I've has similar circumstances, and other than the stink from the burning drippings in the pan, all has been OK. A brief temp spike like this will not wreck your cook. Keep the temps where you have them now and monitor the meat temps. When they get to 190-200, pull the butts off, foil, rest in a cooler for 1-2 hours, then pull. Chances are all will still be just fine.
 
The larger one on top internal is 172 while the slightly smaller one on the bottom internal is 175. Cooker is hanging in there around 258. OK, I've done plenty of cooks but this is only the second time doing butts and the first time running the pan out of water. Thanks for all your help. Guess I won't sweat it then.
 
Clark. Thats what caught my attention. Woke up and went to the porch expecting the sweet smell of Q only to find the stench of burning grease/seasoning. Woke up pretty quick after that!
 
John,

You should try the Piedmont double pan mod and not deal with the water. I did it and will definitely never mess with greasy water again.

Good luck on your Q!
 
John, There are other options that you don't have to worry about running out of water or dealing with the mess of it. I use sand myself mostly but this site has several different options, try them and see what works best for you.

You are fine on the butts. Like other have said pull and wrap them at 195 - 200 in a cooler for a few hours then pull and eat, you will be good.

Randy
 
it's easy to add hot water through the side door with a watering can with a pour spout. Just add enough to finish the cook
 
Please be extremely careful if you add hot water to the water pan after it's run dry. Here's an excerpt from Chris' Tips and Mods section on adding water (it can be found here):


Don't put your face or hands over a hot, empty water pan while adding water.

To avoid serious burns, make sure the water pan is properly seated on the support flanges before placing the middle cooking section over the hot coals, then add water immediately before the pan gets hot.


Your water pan is going to be at least as hot as your grate temperature (250º) and likely hotter than 300º being as it's only a few inches above your hot coals. Even hot water is going to sizzle/splatter and possibly explode if you add it to a hot water pan.

Take care..
 
John,
I was scheduled to work one Saturday and wanted to smoke a brisket on the wsm while I was gone. I set it up with a full water pan and when I got back from work I had a burnt brisket and an empty water pan. I wanted a way to remedy this problem so I filled the water pan about half full of sand, then spread the sand up the sides of the bowl to form a heat shield. I laid foil on top of the sand to hold the sand in place, then added another layer of foil in case there was leakage. It worked out pretty well. I see that sometimes people have a problem with the bottom grate getting too hot. I think this is because they are using too much sand. I was thinking that the sand would be a shield, not a heat sink.
I've read about the Piedmont pan and this sounds like a good idea. Last year I took two pans and cemented them together using refractory fireplace cement. It worked good for a while but the weber pans were too slick and the cement did not hold for long.
Currently I have been laying foil down on the surface of the pan and then I put another layer on top but I leave an inch or two air gap between the two. This works pretty well also.
Hope your pork turned out OK.
db
 
Cook is still progressing. Got 2 stubborn butts...now on hour 17. I'll let you all know how things turn out. They should be ready to pull out of the smoker anytime and will rest for at least 3 hours in a cooler. Supper is at 10p. thanks for everyone's help and suggestions.
 
OK..here's MY assessment. The pork was DRY. I nailed the smoke perfectly though. The bark was WAY too peppery and dried out. A resting period of almost 2 hours didn't soften it up much Overall the flavor was pretty good (to my surprise much better today however!) when made into a sammich with cole slaw and either bone sucking sauce or sweet carolina mustard. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best, I'd give it an overall rating of about 5.5

My co-workers assessment was VERY different. Everyone thought that it was the best BBQ they ever had. Everyone brought in food as well but the bread (some 2 doz rolls for 10 people) for the pulled pork sammiches was gone very soon after taking out the pork. No one could believe that I was unhappy with the results.

On a final note, I find it interesting how we as Q'ers seem to set our atandards so high and are so critical of our handicraft while the regular person who does not eat a whole lot of BBQ is simply amazed at the results no mater how bad we think it turned out. Is it that our product, no matter how poorly we feel it turned out, is far superior to what you can get commercially or is it that their palates have not yet developed to the point of where they can distinguish between good and bad BBQ?

Anyway, sorry for the rambling. Thanks to everyone who jumped in with advice not long after my post. I hope you all have a happy and safe new year.
 
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