Overnight temp dropped

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Hello All,

Newbie here from VA attempted overnight pork butt cook uisng Minion method. I woke up this morning @ 8:00 with a kettle top temp of 150. I had all my vents about half way open (or a little less). I added more coals and wood and opened up the top vent. I should be getting more heat soon!

My problem is this: I'm having guests over at 4:00 for my sons 1st birthday and I'm afraid these 2 10 pound butts aren't going to be ready. They have an internal temp of 140. Does anyone have any suggestions? Maybe I should be wrapping these in foil soon?

Regards,
Robb
 
Sorry for the lack of info. I'm a little flustered at this point. I put them on about 11:30 last night. The temp was stable at 260 before leaving it for the night. I have the butts on the bottom grill but plan on moving them to the top one shortly. I still have plenty of water in the pan so I'm just leaving that alone. I'm uisng maple wood chunks. I'm targeting a temp of 190 before pulling them off. I do have a gas grill and a weber 1 touch charcoal to finish them off if needed. I would like to serve them aound 5:00 pm tonight or so. I realize now that I probably didn't leave myself enough time.
 
Lets work backwards. What time do you want to serve? 1 hour to pull. 1 to 2 hours to rest.
To pull your target should be 190 to 195 min.
I have not foiled and finnished in the oven before but to minimize stress this cook may need to go that route. Heavy duty foil and an oven temp of 325 would probably do it.

My guess is that you have enough smoke flavor and the goal is to get it cooked so you can relax... Better to finnish early than stress out on being late.
 
Do the oven not the grill-no temp worries that way.

You will have some liquid gold in that foil after the cook and rest. Add a little to your sauce.
 
I would leave on the top rack, jack up the temp by adding fuel and opening vents, say to 260 or so, then see where my internal is at noon. Then, if needed, foil and put in oven as suggested. What is internal now?
 
I'm in a similar situation. Need to leave in a couple of hours with the Q for a party. Small brisket flat is done, resting in oven foiled. Butt is 171 internal still on the top grate which is around 240. If I foil the butt and put in a preheated cooler for three hours, how much will the temp increase? I can put back in oven at the party in a couple hours.
 
Robb - I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I wouldn't serve them. You mentioned that your butts were only at 145 this morning. That means that they very likely spent far too much time in the danger zone (below 140*).

Unless you know for a fact this isn't the case, don't risk making your family and guests very sick.

Sorry,
John
 
I disagree. It's the surface temp one needs to be concerned with on intact meat cuts not the internal. Though the temp probe might have pushed external bacteria, if present, into the interior a 140 temp would have been sufficient and the time to hit it not long enough to worry about. The actual danger zone high is slightly under 128 (140 is used as a safety measure) which takes care of C. perfringens, but the probe reading of 140 indicates that if bacteria were pushed into the meat when the probe was inserted a sufficient kill-step temp was achieved.
 
Well, I'll admit that I am very cautious about food safety and I am probably a little paranoid. I just don't risk it if there is any doubt whatsoever.

Also, if the butts are boneless they wouldn't be technically "intact". I don't know if Robb's are bone-in or out.

John
 
One should be cautious with food safety. Imo, an adequate kill-step would likely have been achieved in this circumstance even if the butt was boneless. You are correct, however, that a boneless butt can't be considered technically intact. I'm basing my view on the original cook temp, the likelihood that that temp slowly dropped (while the internal increased), and the relatively short period of time in which this occurred.

When cooking intact meat cuts (or boneless cuts boned by the packer or market) I recommend waiting to insert the internal temp probe till some cook time has passed. This significantly decreases the chances of potentially pushing bacteria into the interior of the meat. Though under normal, no-problem cooking circumstances the internal rises with enough speed to eliminate these bacteria it gives one an extra measure of safety should the cook go awry and the cook temps plunge, especially on overnight cooks where one is unable to monitor the cooker.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Robb Williams:

................
I had all my vents about half way open (or a little less). I added more coals and wood and opened up the top vent. I should be getting more heat soon! ...................



Regards,
Robb </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Robb,

Hope everything worked out OK for you. In the future, leave the top vent 100% open unless you absolutely have to choke the fire down. In addition, you didn't say what time you went to bed, but for a "stable" temp I like to see around an hour with very little change.

Keep smokin' and keep reading these forums. You'll be a pro in no time!

JimT
 
I wouldn't sleep well doing an overnight cook without knowing that I have my Maverick remote thermometer monitoring the smoker temperature. Without that peace of mind, I'd be up checking the temp at least a couple times during the night. I'd rather be sleeping and knowing the alarm will sound if the temp drops or spikes for whatever reason.
 
I'd like to thank everyone for thier help. My solution was to transfer the butts to the top rack, add lots of charcoal + more wood, and to crank the vents 100%. I ended up taking the butts off at about 4:30pm (internal 187) and letting them sit warapped for an hour and a half. They ended up tasting delicious! Everyone was impressed. I served them pulled with Big Bob Gibson's red sauce painted over the top.

Warm Regards,
Robb
 
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