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HELP! 26 hours into a pulled pork at 235

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    HELP! 26 hours into a pulled pork at 235

    So Ive been up for to long and this dang butt still isn't done. Im wondering what I messed up.

    The butt was 9lbs
    gas smoker holding steady at 235
    kept the water pan half full the entire time.

    The internal temp is still 186 with my thermopop.
    I went ahead and tested my calibration to be sure and it was spot on.
    To keep an eye on the smoker I use the smoke rig recommended here but my meat prob was faulty so they are sending me a new one.
    Ive been checking the temp every hour for the past 10 hours and its just not getting to 203 its driving me crazy. The meat was in the preheated smoker at 8 am yesterday now its 10:20 am ugg.

    Any help would be appreciated thanks y'all.

    #2
    How far away is the thermometer from your meat? There is no way a pork butt can cook at 235° for 23 hours and not reach 200+ degrees.

    Comment


    • Jedishark
      Jedishark commented
      Editing a comment
      Im at almost 27 hours now

    • Breadhead
      Breadhead commented
      Editing a comment
      Hmmm... my, my, my.🤔 How many beers does it take to smoke a pork butt for 27 hours?😎
      Keep going you might break the world record.🤗 Just being funny, good luck.

    #3
    That is a long cook. You said you have kept your water pan 1/2 full the whole time. Does re-filling the pan require you to open the door to the smoker? If so, this could be a reason to it not cooking faster. Everytime you open the door, you will lose heat and will take a little bit (depending on what type of smoker you have) to get back to temp.

    9lbs is a nice size butt and that can take a while. You prolly hit a stall for a long time and the meat could still be sweating and causing the meat to keep cooling off causing it to take longer to rise in temp at a faster rate.

    You might want to just crank the heat up on it to finish it off.

    Comment


    • Jedishark
      Jedishark commented
      Editing a comment
      It did stall for a long time at 160-170 that took all night for it to pass. It just got to 180 this morning. I did turn it up to 260 now hoping that speeds things up

    #4
    Do you have a digital grate thermometer or are you relying upon the grill thermometer?

    Oh, and a hearty welcome from northern Illinois.

    Comment


    • Jedishark
      Jedishark commented
      Editing a comment
      Digital grate thermometer, its the Smoke unit by thermo dynamics.

    #5
    Originally posted by Breadhead View Post
    How far away is the thermometer from your meat? There is no way a pork butt can cook at 235° for 23 hours and not reach 200+ degrees.
    I know right!? the thermometer is on the same rack but about 4 inches away from the meat. I have also checked the heat of the unit via the rear vents and the temp is right at 235.

    Comment


      #6
      i cranked it up to 260 for now I can go higher.

      As for thermometers I have 2 my calibrated thermopop and my "smoke" wireless thermometer but the meat probe is bad so I just use the one channel for air temp.

      Comment


        #7
        Welcome to the pit Jedishark ... 26 hours sound way too long for a butt. Are you sure your smoker is running at 235?

        Comment


        • Jedishark
          Jedishark commented
          Editing a comment
          Yes, positively sure measured with multiple devices.

        #8
        Lose the water pan. your steaming the meat more than anything. In any case, take the meat out and finish it in the oven. Wrapped tight in foil.
        Last edited by Spinaker; March 28, 2017, 12:35 PM.

        Comment


          #9
          I'm sure its 235 verified with 2 devices. I also have an infrared no contact thermometer I can verify it with as well.

          I was trying to avoid the texas crutch this time to make nice bark but this cook time is ridiculous. ill go check it and loose the water in the pan but I cant remover it as it is also the drip pan keeping the fire and chip box clean

          Comment


          • Steve Vojtek
            Steve Vojtek commented
            Editing a comment
            Let us know if that helps. What smoker are you using?

          • Jedishark
            Jedishark commented
            Editing a comment
            The smoker is an old outdoor leisure products model. They sell it under smoke vault at academy. it has an upper cabinet with a lower drawer where the drip/water pan goes and under that is the wood chips pan

          #10
          This is what it looks like now. its still only at 187-190 depending on where i probe it.

          Click image for larger version

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          Comment


            #11
            If it really has been cooking at that temp and the internal temp is what you say (I believe based on everything you have said that you are correct because you have checked and cross checked) you have an anomaly. Sometimes, without reason, that happens. With that amount of time at that temp my guess is that you have a tremendous amount of bark and despite not getting to the desired temp, it is likely ready to pull. However I wouldn't risk that assumption. I would do what Spinaker advised with the oven - maybe even put the oven at 235 and don't foil just yet. See if you get a spike at the same oven temp. If you do, you will know that something is going on with your cooker.

            Comment


            • DeusDingo
              DeusDingo commented
              Editing a comment
              it LOOKS like he and i have the same smoker, which is a cheap-o gas smoker and they will do this every time. it would confuse me why everyone says "12 or so hours" for pork butt and it would always take me over 24

            • Jeff_Carley
              Jeff_Carley commented
              Editing a comment
              Ditch the gas smoker and get a PBC! best butts I have smoked. (Shameless plug)

            • Jedishark
              Jedishark commented
              Editing a comment
              Wish I could afford a PBC, I was going to grab a webber soon if possible.

            #12
            i'm assuming you have a similar smoker that i do. i have had the exact same problem. if so here are some thoughts

            1) stop opening the door! if your smoker is as flimsy as mine then you are letting ALL the heat out and there is NOTHING to put it back in. these smokers cool down in minutes, there is nothing absorbing the heat and radiating it to make up for the loss of all the hot air. you are almost starting over from scratch.

            2) keep the water pan with water! the steam is making the heat in the air "thicker" as i like to call it. air alone isn't penetrating the super thick cut of meat very well. the extra particles in the air, the steam, helps make the heat more consistent and all encompassing. i check mine every TWO hours and i have a special door to check it so the food chamber doesn't lose all the heat.

            3) close the vent when you are done smoking! you are just letting the hot air out. the wind is sucking your heat out of your smoker. i know your thermometer says 235 but that is an AVERAGE. there are likely times it is MUCH less than that.

            4) turn your temp up! when i first started with my smoker i tried to be in the 225 - 235 range and it did take me 24+ hours to get a pork butt done and that included me PANICKING and turning up the temps. i have done a BUNCH of cooks afterward with temps at 250-280 and everything turns out just as good if not better. i never got great bark at 230 with my smoker because the temps could not stay high long enough because of how leaky the cooker was

            5) wrap it up! the stall is HARD to get though when it takes this long anyway, and there are 2nd stalls around 180 to 190 which is what i think you are at. if you wrap you bypass the stall. people will say you are ruining the bark but i would prefer to have good pulled pork with soft bark than good pulled pork with inedible bark. after spending that much time in the smoker the outer layers of pork are going to be COOKED. expect your "bark" to be almost inedible pork-jerky

            some homework:

            seal your smoker! buy some high temp silicone and some BBQ/grill gasket material and plug any leaks that aren't intentional. it makes a significant difference

            i hope this helps.

            one thing to note: do a fork test on it. i found that if you cook it for a LONG time, over 24 hours, it is likely done in the 190s and you don't NEED to go to 203 just because the website says so. if you can put a fork in it, and twist with little to no resistance then you might want to take it out.

            Comment


            • Jedishark
              Jedishark commented
              Editing a comment
              ill try the fork method and see what happens. will post in a sec. if it doesn't go nicely ill wrap it up.

            • tbob4
              tbob4 commented
              Editing a comment
              Great write up! Sometimes things don't make sense because we all don't have the same equipment. It's really nice that you saw what he had, experienced the problem and know the issues. Good job.

            #13
            You could wrap it, but you might just check to see if it is prob tender ( your thermop pop going into soft butter)

            Comment


            • Jedishark
              Jedishark commented
              Editing a comment
              The probe is going in nicely in most spots.

            #14
            Ok so I did the fork test, it spun fairly easy so i tasted it and it was a kinda dry, so its been done a long time and just stalled because I cooked it to low is all I can gather. I guess from now on I'm going to cook butt at a higher temp and power through that stall or wrap it at 160 and just power through the stall.

            What a crappy night, dry pork for breakfast and then a nap.

            Comment


            • Jeff_Carley
              Jeff_Carley commented
              Editing a comment
              dry BBQ is saved by some sauce. lather it up. next time will be better, and so on and so on....one day you will laugh about this.

            • tbob4
              tbob4 commented
              Editing a comment
              Put the pork in a crock pot or dutch oven, add some sauce, a little beer or Coke/Pepsi,1/2 an onion, diced and two cloves of garlic. It will reconstitute and all will not be wasted.

            #15
            Here is my smoker just in case anyone wanted to see. I bought it used for like $40 lol. Click image for larger version

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