Pork butt a bit dry?


 
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jason molinari

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Hey all. LAst weekend i did my first overnight cook, and it went pretty well. The outcome was not the best i've made, it was good but not great. It was a pork butt bought from costco, like my past ones, but this one was quite a bit drier than my past ones.
I have 2 theories, and i'm asking you guys which one is more likely.

1) During the night i woke up every 2 hours to look at the temp. About 5 hours in, the temp at the GRATE was about 265, so i closed all vents except the top, and went back to sleep. 2 Hours later it was still high at 265! so i splashed water on teh coals and it came down to 230 and stayed there. No more spikes after that. Now, based on simple math, the butt could have been at 265 for up to 4 hours.

2) I had a therm. in the meat, and it would not go above 185, it jsut STUCK there. I tried moving the thermometer to other places, and some areas registered at like 192...after a little while i took the butt off (15 hr. cook, 7lb butt), even tho it didnt register 190+ all over.

Upon pulling and refidgerating i found very little fat left..if any.

I'm going for #1 being the likely culprit. What do you guys think?

jason
 
Jason, sure enough, sounds like the butt was overcooked, whether too high a temperature for a while, too long on the cooker, or a combination of both.

I usually twist the butt bone at about 185 or at over 1.5 hours per pound. If it twists in the meat, the butt's done regardless of time and temperature readings.
 
I had the same problem with my last butt. It was a 1/2 butt from Safeway about 3.5 pounds. It took about 3 hours/pound to get up to 195 degrees!! Then it was dry and still a little tough in parts, other parts were moist and tender. I didn't have any prolonged temperature spikes, so I just chauked it up to having the temp probe in the wrong place in the meat resulting in overcooking. I have done butt twice now, both butts came from Safeway and both have taken at least 2-1/2 hours/pound to cook. They both also seem to have had alot of internal fat which is perhaps why my cooks have taken so long. The first butt was perfectly moist, tender and delicious however. The second was very good, just not as moist or tender as the first. I keep my lid temps at between 240-250, letting it rise to 260-270 in the last couple of hours to get it done. I have checked my Polder with the boiling water test and it is only 2 degrees off, so its not my thermometer.
 
Possibility of a third option - your thermometer.

You might want to check the thermometer for accuracy. Place it in boiling water and verify it's registering correclty. I do this from time to time with all my thermometers just to be safe.
 
My thermometer reads fine. its off by 3 degrees...so not much at all....

As far as overcooking, 195 isnt overcooked for pork butt, i thought 190-200 was ideal? hrmmmm well better luck next time i guess/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

jason
 
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