Time or temp?


 
S

Stevo (Steve Y)

TVWBB Member
I'm confused... just did an overnight smoke of 6 Boston Butts in my 22.5 WSM. First smoke with my new BBQ Guru DigiQ. I also have the Maverick ET-73, on which I set high and low temp alarms.

Meat went on 6:30pm last night, temp was rock solid at 135 when I went to bed at around 11.

Never heard any alarm over the night, but when I got up at 6:30, all three butts reported being 190 degrees or above (up to 204). That's only 12 hours!

I'm stumpred. they're falling apart, so they seem done, but I was expecting another four hours at least. What do I do now?

Thanks!

Now I'm at a loss...
 
They are done. Do what you were going to do with them (pull them). If you need to hold them, wrap them up tight in foil and towels and put them in a cooler.

Old BBQ saying - "It's done when it's done."

Your temps must have been a little high or possibly these were small butts. 12 hours is a little short for a normal low and slow cook, but to answer the question in your opening title (Time or temp?) - neither. Both are just helpful for planning and monitoring.

How long before you were planning on eating? You should be able to hold them for 4 hours with no problem.
 
Thanks, Jerry... they're resting in foil now in the oven (not turned on). I guess they were on the small side. I bought three duo packs from Safeway (unprocessed, just a whole shoulder split into the two portions).

they were supposed to be for dinner... was expecting them to take until 1pm or so.

Guess I'll be pulling this morning, and breaking out the Foodsaver early.

There is one other variable that I failed to mention. This is my first smoke without Kingsford charcoal. I tried the Cowboy char. Not sure if it just ran hotter than what I usually get, but stayed in the range of 'normal' for the night.

Oh well, as long as it's safe to eat, and the Renowned Mr. Brown pulled pork is good, then I'm happy.
 
no reason I can see for them not to be safe to eat. As you said, pull and foodsaver and you'll just have to reheat what you want for dinner.

I doubt the charcoal had anything to do with it. As you said, probably just rode the high side of your range.
 
It's not just "Time or temp?".

You need to take time, temp, AND weight of each shoulder butt into account, as well as a the fact that your ATC should've reached target temp much quicker than if simply using the conventional Minion method. Also, the temp. of the meat will affect your ATC grate temp measurement if in close proximity to the meat. This is why I prefer to clip my therm on the UNDERside of my wsm grate, as close to grate center as possible but not directly under a piece of meat.

All that said, don't know the weights of your pork butts, but it's not uncommon for 6-7ish lb pork butts to be tender in 12 hours at 235*, no matter how uncommon on the wsm. Thing is though, most wsm users don't use an ATC or measure temp at the grate. Regarding the lump, it should be irrelevant if your ATC is working properly.

Tell you what though, if the butts were tender throughout, falling apart, and you got 200*+ IT readings, you're not doing yourself a favor by wrapping and holding hot. If they're done, they're done, and residual cooking in the foil has been the culprit for many a dry overcooked pork butt. You're gonna reheat to serve anyway, right? I'd pull, bag and cool asap if it was me.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by P. Pruder:
Steve I have kept well wrapped butts in a cooler for up to 8 hours and they were fine. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

8 hours is on the long side for this imo, but probably OK. If you ARE going to plan a long wrapped hold, you don't want to take your butts all the way to shredding done-ness before you rest them, as they will continue to cook significantly while they rest in the cooler.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by P. Pruder:
Steve I have kept well wrapped butts in a cooler for up to 8 hours and they were fine. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

For over a year, that was my EXACT sentiments since so many wsm users said the same thing. However, the memory of my very-short-rested UDS pork butts would haunt me occasionally after opening the foil to my several-hours-rested WSM butts.

Well, one day back in the summer I decided to cook a couple in the wsm all day to reheat for Sunday dinner the next day. Note this was the very first time I had cooked to cool, not to keep hot til supper or lunch. Well, after 16 hours of cooking and tenting for only half an hour while I took a shower, VOILA....as good as ANY bbq as I ever cooked, and CERTAINLY the best that's ever came off my wsm. This is not antedotal. BOTH butts were PERFECT.

Low-n-slow brisket is the only bbq that I see the value in holding hot for any real length of time. No idea why pork shoulder doesn't gain from it like brisket, but it just doesn't in my experience...AS LONG AS YOU ACTUALLY COOKED IT TIL THOROUGHLY TENDER TO BEGIN WITH.
 
Thought I'd throw in my recent experience for the hell of it. It may or may not be helpful.

I just did 4 BB's overnight. Went on at 11pm and in the morning the temp on my ET-732 said 255 at the grate and about 167 internal meat. My coals were nearly exhausted and the temp was dropping, so at Dave's recommendation, I added another 1/2 chimney of lit KB at around 10am or 10:30am. Grate spiked to 268 but then quickly fell back to low 220's. Meat temp got up to 189 and held for 1.5 hours, then dropped to 187. I was stumped.

Finally pulled them at noon, 13 hours after putting them on, and 2 were falling apart, and the other 2 were done, but had a couple of internal spots that were firmer and required a bit more pulling. I dunno if those were done or not?

Have eaten pulled pork for 3 nights in a row now and it's been really good, but I was freaked a bit about the timing/temp issue. I was also a bit concerned about the smell of the meat. It was not rancid, but maybe it was just the first time I had pulled that much pork in my kitchen. The smell got a little nasty to me.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jeff Bryson:
...Finally pulled them at noon, 13 hours after putting them on, and 2 were falling apart, and the other 2 were done, but had a couple of internal spots that were firmer and required a bit more pulling. I dunno if those were done or not? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Jeff, I'd say not, because "Firmer" and "required a bit more pulling" aren't words I've use to characterize perfectly cooked pork butt. It would've been best to have put those two back on til done and even wrap up in foil maybe to speed things up if needed. However, I'd be lying if I didn't confess to ever pulling the cleavers out of the drawer and chopping the shoulder ala North Carolina. Sliced, chopped, pulled....it's all good, but I consider it cooked perfectly when it just about pulls itself but hasn't started drying out.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jeff Bryson:
Have eaten pulled pork for 3 nights in a row now and it's been really good, but I was freaked a bit about the timing/temp issue. I was also a bit concerned about the smell of the meat. It was not rancid, but maybe it was just the first time I had pulled that much pork in my kitchen. The smell got a little nasty to me. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Over-smoked? Just tired of pork? No idea why it would smell "a little nasty".
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Stevo, I can understand where you're coming from. I'm relatively new to the wonderful world of smoking (food
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), only been doing it for about 1 year now. Early on I was totally fixated on times, temps and basically whatever the "book" said. Would totally rack my brain with this stuff and basically making it more complicated to produce good 'que. What I eventually started doing was paying attention to the many great members of this board. You've seen it a dozen times by now: It's done when it's done. Times and temps are strictly guides for me now and I'm so much better off for it. Both mentally and in the final product. When you get there, you'll be much better off as well. Trust me
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Thanks for all of the insight, folks. The verdict is... absolute perfection.

I let them sit for about 2 hours, waiting for y'alls advice. I decided to just pull and see what happened.

The bones slid out clean as could be (a great sign, but disappointed my dog a bit). Pulled with ease, and tasted great.

Dave - you are definitely onto something with the ATC. I did the Minion method, but it did come up to a stable temp far faster than usual. I'll have to keep that in mind with my future timing.

So we had a fantastic dinner of Mr. Brown, and the Best Ribs in the Universe... all courtesy of this site. Our guests were very impressed, and most appreciative of the gift of meat!

I'm totally on board with "it's done when it's done"... this was just such a departure from anything I'd seen before... I wasn't sure what to make of it.

Here's a pic of my Chesapeake Redneck WSM enhancement..

https://lh3.googleusercontent....Y/s640/P75374200.jpg

Thanks again, everyone. I'm definitely an All-Q-holic!!!
 
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