Why My First Cook STILL Hasn’t Taken Place AND What I’m now Thinking of Doing for It…

[Nicolaus]

Tell me when you want to serve this and I will suggest what I Think might be the best plan of action. Also, give me your internal meat temp.

My original plan was to have it for a 5:00 p.m. dinner tomorrow.

[jfmorris]

LA Pork Butt and jfmorris, I now realize that I have added 12 hours (in my mind only) to the actual cook time! Hard to believe!!!

This is not what I was intending. My plan was to enjoy the results at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Is there any way I could leave the meat on until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow?

If you make SURE the grate temp is 225 or LESS - say 215F - it will slow the cook down. I've had 8 to 10 pound bone in butts take 14 to 16 hours, but can't say I've gone longer than that. I sure don't see it going until 10am. You also could really dry things out, and wrapping to keep moisture only speeds the cooking up.

I've held meat in a cooler for 4 to 6 hours, and a warm oven (170F), wrapped tightly in foil, for 8-10 hours. My advice is take the butt off when done, wrap tightly in foil, 2 layers, and put in the oven at the lowest setting it will go to, 140 to 170, and pull the pork right before dinner at 5pm.

You other option is pull it off now, wrap in foil and put in the fridge, and restart the cook about 10pm or 11pm tonight. The meat will cool back to fridge temps by then...

I always do butts I want to eat at 5pm by either starting a LOW and SLOW cook at bedtime, and pulling the meat and putting in a cooler or warm oven at 2-3pm, or by doing it hot and fast (300f) starting around 7-8am, ending around 4pm.

Maybe LA Pork Butt has better ideas.

[Nicolaus]

If you make SURE the grate temp is 225 or LESS - say 215F - it will slow the cook down. I've had 8 to 10 pound bone in butts take 14 to 16 hours, but can't say I've gone longer than that. I sure don't see it going until 10am. You also could really dry things out, and wrapping to keep moisture only speeds the cooking up.

I've held meat in a cooler for 4 to 6 hours, and a warm oven (170F), wrapped tightly in foil, for 8-10 hours. My advice is take the butt off when done, wrap tightly in foil, 2 layers, and put in the oven at the lowest setting it will go to, 140 to 170, and pull the pork right before dinner at 5pm.

You other option is pull it off now, wrap in foil and put in the fridge, and restart the cook about 10pm or 11pm tonight. The meat will cool back to fridge temps by then...

I always do butts I want to eat at 5pm by either starting a LOW and SLOW cook at bedtime, and pulling the meat and putting in a cooler or warm oven at 2-3pm, or by doing it hot and fast (300f) starting around 7-8am, ending around 4pm.

Maybe LA Pork Butt has better ideas.

I have reduced the temperature to 215.

Does the meat have to come off as soon as it reaches an internal temperature of 200 for optimal results, or do I have some leeway there?

[LA Pork Butt]

I think Jim’s recommendation will work. I would drop the cooking to 200. You could have pulled pork tacos for breakfast and hold the remaining meat in a crock pot on warm. If you pull some for breakfast leave the butt unpulled in the crock pot.

[Nicolaus]

I think Jim’s recommendation will work. I would drop the cooking to 200. You could have pulled pork tacos for breakfast and hold the remaining meat in a crock pot on warm. If you pull some for breakfast leave the butt unpulled in the crock pot.

I would rather just keep all of the meat for dinner. Should I just remove the bone then and put the rest in a crockpot?

[LA Pork Butt]

Just follow jfmorris plan.

[jfmorris]

And here I was typing to follow your plan! At least the 200F part.

[jfmorris]

Drop the temp to 200 as LA Pork Butt says if you can hold it there, and only consider bumping it back to 225 in the morning, some time around noon, if the meat is not done by then. You can hold from noon to 5 with impunity. Just remember though, the meat will never get hotter than the grill, and if that piece of pork needs 205 to be done, the grill has to be hotter than 205.

The meat will be done somewhere between 195F and 205F in my experience. If it is a commodity butt, my magic number is 203F, but that varies. You have to probe it with an instant read thermometer once it hits 195F, then check it every few degrees after that. You are looking for "probe tender" all over the butt. By tender, I mean the probe sides through the meat like a hot knife through butter.

If the meat is done well before dinner, I still recommend holding in a warm oven, or wrapped in foil and towels, for a couple of hours, then pull the meat and serve. Don't pull the bone until ready to shred the pork.

I've pulled a 203F butt off the grill before, wrapped in two layers of foil and an old towel, and put it in a small cooler and it has been steaming hot 4-5 hours later, many times.

[LA Pork Butt]

You are correct that the meat won’t go above 200. I have never cooked to 205. I have always cooked to 200 and wrapped and held for 2-4 hours. It was always too tender for competition BBQ. If I didn’t hold for at least an hour I was always disappointed.

[Nicolaus]

LA Pork Butt and jfmorris, I have gotten the temperature down to 202 as of now, and I’ll keep trying to lower it and then do my best to hold it at 200.

Assuming I succeed at holding the temperature at 200, do you think I would be able to keep the meat on the grill until mid to late morning? Or do you think it more likely that I’ll have to remove the meat early in the morning and place it in a crockpot?

The internal probes are now reading 138 after 4.5 hours of cook time.

[jfmorris]

Yes you will be fine… once the meat reaches 200 I would likely wrap in foil. And then hold in a cooler wrapped in foil and towels, until about 4pm, then pull the pork and dump into your serving pan or crockpot.

[hoovarmin]

1. Where exactly should I insert my 5 inch food probe(s) into the pork?

Dead center of the meat - the place it will take longest for the heat to penetrate

2. When should I add wood chunks?

Put your wood chunks in the basket first, then pour the charcoal on top of them.

3. Should I use the BJ “Slow Roller” for this cook?

Absolutely. And set up the Divide and Conquer rack so that you put the deflector plates below the grill grates for double-indirect.

4. Once I get the grill to 225, should I add the deflector plates and stainless grill grates (and Slow Roller) immediately and then let the temperature stabilize back to 225 before adding the meat? Or should I put the meat on right after adding the other items?

No, let the BJ heat up until the dome has heat in it to the touch. Then add the slow roller without the top, then add the top when it has had time to absorb heat. Next add the slow roller top (top vent still wide open), then add the deflector plates and grill grates. wait a minute, then close the top vent to the 225-275 position and the bottom vent so that you can only put your index finger in the gap. Wait for the white smoke to disappear before putting on your pork. if you add all of them at once you will starve your fire of oxygen and get dirty smoke.

The nice thing about this cook is that it is a pork shoulder, so it would be super hard to mess it up. Enjoy learning your Big Joe!

[Alan Brice]

As LA P B says, relax n have fun. you are going to love the results. It is BBQ not rocket science. Take some notes to help you on yer next cook. Have fun. This will be exciting once you cross a few barriers and get the familiarity under yer belt.

[mrteddyprincess]

I was ready to type the same thing. Four pages of precursor to a cook indicates you need to do more cooking and less hanging out around here :-) Just cook! If it's bad, you've learned something. But in my experience even bad BBQ is good BBQ. So you literally can't go wrong! Put the meat on there and go for it! Experience is the only way to learn.

And if you want to come hang out over here while I'm cooking, come on over!

Brian

[Nicolaus]

LA Pork Butt, jfmorris et al, Here is an update as of 6:00 a.m.:

Ambient grill probes are reading 198 (left side of grill) and 200 (right side of grill).

Internal meat probes are reading 159 (bigger end of the meat toward the back of the grill) and 161 (smaller end of meat toward the front of the grill).

I’m thinking about raising the temperature a bit so as to remove the meat at noon or at 1:00 p.m. and wrap/place in cooler for dinner at 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. Any thoughts on that?

[LA Pork Butt]

I think you can raise the temp to 225 because it is likely to take another 3-6 hour to get through the stall which generally is moving the internal temperature from 160-180 and another 3 hours to get the internal temp to 200. So, so it just might be ready in time for supper. I am surprise it has hung on for that long. At this point since it isn’t taking on any more smoke, and you might be running out of charcoal, you might want to pull off the grill and it and finish it in your oven at 225.

[Nicolaus]

I think you can raise the temp to 225 because it is likely to take another 3-6 hour to get through the stall which generally is moving the internal temperature from 160-180 and another 3 hours to get the internal temp to 200. So, so it just might be ready in time for supper. I am surprise it has hung on for that long. At this point since it isn’t taking on any more smoke, and you might be running out of charcoal, you might want to pull off the grill and it and finish it in your oven at 225.

LA Pork Butt, Would you pull from the grill right now and place in the oven? Or wait first to see if the grill temperature doesn’t rise to 225/starts to drop?

[LA Pork Butt]

I think I would put it in the oven and relax.

[Nicolaus]

LA Pork Butt and jfmorris, Here is an update as of 8:00 a.m.:

I think you can raise the temp to 225 because it is likely to take another 3-6 hour to get through the stall which generally is moving the internal temperature from 160-180 and another 3 hours to get the internal temp to 200. So, so it just might be ready in time for supper. I am surprise it has hung on for that long. At this point since it isn’t taking on any more smoke, and you might be running out of charcoal, you might want to pull off the grill and it and finish it in your oven at 225.