I've had this happen on occasion and thought I'd ask about it. I cooked 5 P.B's this weekend. 4 of them finished fine except the last one. Half of it passed the poke test and the part near the bone felt not there yet. So I checked again in about an hour. The same thing. Checked again an hour later the same so I decided to pull it off rather than over cook the butt.Let it rest for a couple of hours wrapped in foil and towels.When I started to pull the pork it was just as I suspected a portion of it was still not there yet. What factors would produce something like that?? Part of it done- part not done.Should I have just let it sit on the smoker til it completely fell apart? Thanks
Pork Butt Question
- Thread starter Paul H
- Start date
Craig Castille
TVWBB Wizard
I don't know why that happened.
If it were me, I'd pull it when you think you need to.
You can not leave them on too long (like I did with a 9 lb butt this weekend).
I cooked a near 13 lb and about a 9 lb butt this weekend. The 9 lb'er was my first ever dry butt.....totally my fault.....I got complacent when determining "ready".
In your case, I'd just slice or leave chunky the less rendered parts and pull the rest.
I learned the hard way........
If it were me, I'd pull it when you think you need to.
You can not leave them on too long (like I did with a 9 lb butt this weekend).
I cooked a near 13 lb and about a 9 lb butt this weekend. The 9 lb'er was my first ever dry butt.....totally my fault.....I got complacent when determining "ready".
In your case, I'd just slice or leave chunky the less rendered parts and pull the rest.
I learned the hard way........
Todd Randall
TVWBB Pro
Couldn't you have used an instant read thermo and taken a few readings in different places and just waited until the lowest reading hit at least 190-195?
K Kruger
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
Though it doesn't often occur, doing 5 or 6 butts in the cooker sets up a slight possibility of cooler area should the burn be uneven as the arrangement of this or that butt can affect the heat flow toward this or that part of the cooker. The possibility increases a bit when cooking at lower temps and seems a bit more likely to occur in dry conditions over moist ones, presumably because heat tranfer is less efficient. This reflects my observations anyway.
It's hard to know in advance if this scenario will occur--it doesn't happen often--but, should it, you'll notice at the end as you did. If it doesn't feel like resting/residual cooking phase is likely to finish it, you can put in back in the cooker or, to save time and speed the process by wrapping the butt in foil, returning it to the cooker, then bumping the temp up by 35-50 degrees. Check it in 20-30 min.
It's hard to know in advance if this scenario will occur--it doesn't happen often--but, should it, you'll notice at the end as you did. If it doesn't feel like resting/residual cooking phase is likely to finish it, you can put in back in the cooker or, to save time and speed the process by wrapping the butt in foil, returning it to the cooker, then bumping the temp up by 35-50 degrees. Check it in 20-30 min.