I made another pork butt. I take it up to 180 and then I wrap in peach paper. But for the second time it stalled at 186 and never went higher. It went back down to 185 and then I took it off. It seemed to be done but I wasn't completely sure. I thought it was good but maybe a little dry. Everyone else loved it. But I am trying to make it world class. I guess I am my own worst critic. The same thing happens with briskets thought. It stalls around 186 and doesn't go higher. This is after the regular stall. It was 6 pounds and I had it on for 15 hours. I don't think I should leave it on any longer. Here's what it is. It came apart in two pieces easily. But I wouldn't say the bone twisted out easily to tell when it's done. I'll try again. Any thoughts?
Pork Butt
- Thread starter PaulBz
- Start date
M Morrill
TVWBB Member
Without knowing your cooking temperature I would guess that your biggest issue is cooking temperature. I cook at 275 and a 6lb butt would normally be done around 6.5-7.5 hours maximum. Generally wrap with foil (tightly) and pull between 198-203 depending on the butt. They all cook up a little differently. Pretty hard to mess up a butt especially when serving to friends. One tip I can give you beyond the normal ones - Don't shred the entire butt all at once unless you will be using it all. Break it into larger pieces where the fat separates the muscles and shred as needed. It will stay moist that way. Leave shredded pork out long enough and it's going to dry out regardless.
Dustin Dorsey
TVWBB Hall of Fame
You definitely have something weird going on. My thinking its that eventually it will break through the stall. Make sure and wrap the butt as tightly as butcher paper will allow. If I'm going to wrap I typically wrap much sooner, like in the mid 160's when the bark is set. Butcher paper is kind of a weird animal. I have gotten that weird internal temp drop after wrapping. It may be you moved your thermometer or it just may be that the environment the meat is experiencing has changed. If you reintroduced moisture before wrapping such as by spritzing, that may account for it.
Dan C. FL
TVWBB Pro
I've had the second stall happen a couple of times. The first time I waited for it to break through on it's own. It did, after about an hour after it had that 1 degree drop. The second time, it happened, I just opened the vents up some and let it get to 275-ish and it broke through pretty quickly and still turned out well....err good...whatever. 
(Oh, and I don't wrap...that's just me being lazy. )
(Oh, and I don't wrap...that's just me being lazy. )If you're seeing this problem with multiple hunks and types of meat, I'd have to go with smoker temp being the issue. The closer the smoker temp is to your target meat temp, the longer it's going to take to get there.
I suggest getting a second reading on your pit temp, preferably something digital that has been tested with boiling water. It doesn't have to be dead on as long as you know what the inaccuracy is.
If this second stall continues to be a problem, raise the pit temp toward the end of the cook. Getting to 205F internal is naturally going to take longer if the pit is at 225F than if it's at 275F. When you hit that second stall point, open the bottom vents a bit and let the temp come up. 275-300F toward the end of the cook isn't going to hurt anything.
I would add that paper is a pretty good insulator so wrapping in paper is going to slow down the cook. A hamburger joint I used to frequent would always wrap their burgers in paper. Lots of places do this. I've never much cared for the whole concept. I did find, however, that paper had a really good use. Initially I would remove the paper and just set the burger on the plate. It would always be dead cold before I finished it. At some point I started covering the burger with that paper every time I set it down. Doing that the burger was always still pleasantly warm when I finished it. That paper was a lot thinner than butcher paper.
I suggest getting a second reading on your pit temp, preferably something digital that has been tested with boiling water. It doesn't have to be dead on as long as you know what the inaccuracy is.
If this second stall continues to be a problem, raise the pit temp toward the end of the cook. Getting to 205F internal is naturally going to take longer if the pit is at 225F than if it's at 275F. When you hit that second stall point, open the bottom vents a bit and let the temp come up. 275-300F toward the end of the cook isn't going to hurt anything.
I would add that paper is a pretty good insulator so wrapping in paper is going to slow down the cook. A hamburger joint I used to frequent would always wrap their burgers in paper. Lots of places do this. I've never much cared for the whole concept. I did find, however, that paper had a really good use. Initially I would remove the paper and just set the burger on the plate. It would always be dead cold before I finished it. At some point I started covering the burger with that paper every time I set it down. Doing that the burger was always still pleasantly warm when I finished it. That paper was a lot thinner than butcher paper.
I cooked at 225. The temp never waiver as I have a temp control device that I love. I can't imagine a six pound butt taking more than 15 hours though. But I guess next time, I'll leave it on for longer. And yes I shredded the whole thing at once. That was a mistake I realize now. Thanks for reminding me of that! Yes I think wrapping in paper really slows down the cooking temp and I need to wait through that second stall. I guess more like 20 hours it needs to stay on for. I'll leave it on for longer next time. I pulled it when it moved down to 185 and I thought it was a tad dry and the bone didn't really pull off easily. I guess it wasn't quite done yet. I also try to temp it at a few spots. I did that before wrapper and put the probe back in the spot with the lowest temp. through the paper. Thanks for the responses.
There's been some talk recently about brisket that brought up the idea of there being a balance between rendering collagen and melting fat. The idea in that case was that 275F was the right temp to render the collagen while not melting all the fat within the meat. It was this balance that resulted in extremely tasty brisket.
I have to think the same general concept applies to pork butt. You want most of the collagen rendered but you don't want all the intramuscular fat to melt and drip away. If the cooking temp is too low, too much of the fat will melt and you won't get the right result. If the cooking temp is too high, you'll hit your target internal temp before the collagen has had a chance to render and you'll not get the right result either. The idea of cook at X degrees until an internal temp of Y degrees is probably overly simplistic if you're really searching for perfection. The perfect temp is going to depend on the particular piece of meat you're cooking.
I would also point out that the longer the outer portion of the butt stays above 165F, the more collagen is going to render, until it's all gone and the meat starts to dry out. I made the mistake once of pulling four butts off the smoker, immediately wrapping in foil, and then sticking in a good cooler for five hours. There was more than enough residual heat that they continued to cook well past the point of being "done". When I went to pull them they just fell apart. ALL the collagen had been rendered and there was nothing left to hold the meat together at all. It was mush. You definitely don't want that.
I found this weekend that various spots inside the WSM can have radically different temps. The temp near the grommet on my WSM was often significantly different than that at the dome, and both sensors I used produced very different readings from the included WSM dome thermometer. I think it's probably best to gauge your cooks based on temperature taken at one consistent spot in the cooker, probably at the dome, but it would be a good idea to verify that temp reading is correct. I saw a difference of 40F or more between the WSM dome thermometer and a Smoke probe just inches away. In my case the WSM thermo read lower, but that wouldn't necessarily be the case.
The point here is that you are perhaps maintaining a very steady 225F where you're reading the temp, but that might not be the temp near the meat. When things had stabilized fairly well I saw 20-30F differences between the dome and right under the top grate about six inches in from the side. So if I'm seeing 225F at the dome I might be getting only 200F at the top grate and who knows what at the bottom grate. Something like that would certainly explain why your pork butt resisted going above 185F.
A six pound butt should not take 20 hours. If it does, I have to think the actual cooking temp is far enough below 225F to make a huge difference. As a simple experiment, I would suggest trying to cook at 240F next time, leaving everything else the same.
I have to think the same general concept applies to pork butt. You want most of the collagen rendered but you don't want all the intramuscular fat to melt and drip away. If the cooking temp is too low, too much of the fat will melt and you won't get the right result. If the cooking temp is too high, you'll hit your target internal temp before the collagen has had a chance to render and you'll not get the right result either. The idea of cook at X degrees until an internal temp of Y degrees is probably overly simplistic if you're really searching for perfection. The perfect temp is going to depend on the particular piece of meat you're cooking.
I would also point out that the longer the outer portion of the butt stays above 165F, the more collagen is going to render, until it's all gone and the meat starts to dry out. I made the mistake once of pulling four butts off the smoker, immediately wrapping in foil, and then sticking in a good cooler for five hours. There was more than enough residual heat that they continued to cook well past the point of being "done". When I went to pull them they just fell apart. ALL the collagen had been rendered and there was nothing left to hold the meat together at all. It was mush. You definitely don't want that.
I found this weekend that various spots inside the WSM can have radically different temps. The temp near the grommet on my WSM was often significantly different than that at the dome, and both sensors I used produced very different readings from the included WSM dome thermometer. I think it's probably best to gauge your cooks based on temperature taken at one consistent spot in the cooker, probably at the dome, but it would be a good idea to verify that temp reading is correct. I saw a difference of 40F or more between the WSM dome thermometer and a Smoke probe just inches away. In my case the WSM thermo read lower, but that wouldn't necessarily be the case.
The point here is that you are perhaps maintaining a very steady 225F where you're reading the temp, but that might not be the temp near the meat. When things had stabilized fairly well I saw 20-30F differences between the dome and right under the top grate about six inches in from the side. So if I'm seeing 225F at the dome I might be getting only 200F at the top grate and who knows what at the bottom grate. Something like that would certainly explain why your pork butt resisted going above 185F.
A six pound butt should not take 20 hours. If it does, I have to think the actual cooking temp is far enough below 225F to make a huge difference. As a simple experiment, I would suggest trying to cook at 240F next time, leaving everything else the same.
ChuckO
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
These are my thoughts for you to do with as you see fit as YMMV
The stall often happens more than once during a cook. A stall is nothing more than the meat sweating. You will remain in the stall until there's nothing more to sweat. That's not to say there isn't moisture still in the meat, all I'm saying is it comes out of the stall when it's done sweating.
The time it takes to complete a typical pork butt cook is determined by the pit temp. The lower the pit temp, the longer the cook. For excessively long cooks the first question you need to address is: What is my temp pit? It's entirely possible it's not what you think. Your dome thermometer could say 250 but your pit temp might only be 200. Since 200 is pretty close to what pork butt pulls at, achieving a 200 internal temp is not easily done with a 200 pit temp. Your minimum pit temp should be no less that 225. For me, my ideal pork butt pit temp is between 250 & 275
There are numerous way to determine doneness: If the bone jiggles, if the meat is wiggly, if it probes effortlessly, these are all on the money ways to determine if you have hit the right temp for your pork butt. I have personally passed all these doneness tests, and still not been done to "my" satisfaction. It isn't until the pork putt can't be picked up is when I'm satisfied with mine. Meaning if you can get it off the grate with anything but a large spatula, it's not done to my liking.
Those are my thoughts, offered freely any day ending in Y
I have done a lot of research and tests. I am pretty sure my temp controller when it says 225 means that's where it's at. I don't pay attention to the thermometer at the top. That's always low. I have the probe on the top grate in the middle. I haven't noticed any big swings in temp on the lower grate either. But I think I am going to do my next cook with brisket or pork butt at 240 and see how that goes. I think that is a good idea. And don't slice or pull butt or brisket until you are serving it.
Bob Correll
R.I.P. 3/31/2022
I've cooked them low, for me that's around 240, and I've cooked them medium at 260/285. and I've cooked them high heat at 300 or more. Vent control only, nothing automated.
I settled on running around 240 for maybe 3 hours, then bumping up to about 270/280 until done, with no fear of foiling if otherwise dinner is going to run late.
This is what works very well for me.
side note, a local store has butts this week for 89 cents per pound.
I settled on running around 240 for maybe 3 hours, then bumping up to about 270/280 until done, with no fear of foiling if otherwise dinner is going to run late.
This is what works very well for me.
side note, a local store has butts this week for 89 cents per pound.