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    In need of an immediate opinion, or 3!

    I am cooking a 3 and 4 pound pork butt. They went in at 6 AM and at 3:50 PM they hit 180. It is now 4:15 and they are at 183. The butts will come out at 6:00 and will go cambro for 1 hour and then pulled for sandwiches. I was thinking about wrapping at 5 and having the last hour of the cook be wrapped. But is that necessary, at this point? If I stay unwrapped I may still hit the magical threshold of 195 and won't have to lift the lid and will further develop bark. On the other hand, if I wrap at 5:00 surely within an hour I'll drive the temp up to 200+ and it will be basting the entire time. Part of my motivation is laziness - I don't like removing the lid unless absolutely necessary.

    Thoughts/suggestions?

    Notes: the first 6 hours of the cook was in the 225-235 range and I had water in the bowl of my WSM 14.5. After 6 hours the temp began to climb and I mostly closed the top vent and it has been cooking at 250 (now dropped to 240 over the last 30 minutes with a front moving through) since then.

    5:00 is when I have to decide.
    Last edited by JeffJ; July 31, 2015, 02:28 PM.

    #2
    I think you will hit it, the last 10 degrees or so come up fast. I will say that you should keep on longer than 195 if they are not probe tender yet. The cambro will help a lot, so I probably wouldn't cut into that time, but I think you will be over 200 by 6 if your fire is still going hot.

    Edit: As far as the wrap piece, I wouldn't worry about it, you have already lost about all the moisture you are going to lose, but you might put a quarter cup of something in there when you wrap it for the cambro. Try to warm that something up a little first, dumping cold liquid on your hot butt is not gonna help things.
    Last edited by _John_; July 31, 2015, 02:29 PM.

    Comment


    • JeffJ
      JeffJ commented
      Editing a comment
      So, leave it unwrapped - it seems stuck at 183 but the cooker temp is now at 239 so I am going to open the top vent a bit (it is barely open right now).

      Just let it ride through 6 and heat up a little Q sauce to toss in with the foil and then go cambro for an hour?

      Sounds like a great plan.

      Thanks for the advice, _John_.

    #3
    Sounds good. I said it never happened to me and then it did, but not long ago I hit the infamous second stall at around 181, it wasn't as long as the first but it was definitely there. Give it a bit and see if it moves, if it is a stall it will take a while but then it will move very fast. If you think it is stalling get the heat up, the closer to 300 you are the faster it should be done. A lot of the tenderness comes down to how long it sits at high heat, taking a while at 180 isn't a problem in my book except from a timing perspective.

    Comment


    • JeffJ
      JeffJ commented
      Editing a comment
      I hit a bit of a second stall at 180-183. But once I embraced your strategy I opened the top vent to about 2/3 - 3/4 and the cooker jumped to 275 and stuck there. The meat has been a slow climb since doing that until the last few minutes. I am now at 189. I am hoping to hit 200 by 6:00 when I remove the meat and go to cambro.

      Man, this little 14.5 WSM can cook! I purchased a 7.5 pound bag of charcoal, didn't even use all of it and this thing is still going strong 11 hours and 20 minutes later. Using some techniques I've been developing I have yet to lift the lid since the meat has gone in and have only fiddled with the top vent a few times (bottom vents started 3/4 open and haven't been touched at all) at key moments.

      I'll do a full write up with pics in the 'showing what you are cooking thread' most likely tomorrow or Sunday. We are vacationing 'up north' and brought this cooker with us, hence the purchase of the small bag of charcoal - I keep big bags at home.

      Update: it's now 5:32 and the meat is at 192. The coals are running out. I just opened the vent up even more as the temp dropped to 266 and it jumped to 269 for a few minutes and is now back down to 266. For the last half hour of the cook this should be perfect.
      Last edited by JeffJ; July 31, 2015, 03:34 PM.

    #4
    Awesome, it is great getting to where you can smoke so long and efficiently. PBC fires up tonight and I should get 10 hours on 8 pounds. My shoulders will take about 10 hours, so not a lot of room for error.

    Comment


    • JeffJ
      JeffJ commented
      Editing a comment
      Sounds like great fun! I am about to go to cambro now. I hit 196 for the meat. I won't do a write up until Monday or Tuesday at the latest. MUCH easier to do the write up on the Mac. I plan on giving all sorts of attributions to this site and the Pit Master Club just to illustrated how valuable this place can be.

      Thanks for the input. Your suggestions seem to have worked perfectly. Good luck and enjoy your PBC cook!

      Best regards.

      Jeff

    #5
    Good, hope it's great! Looks like you are done in plenty of time to rest, unless you are in a different time zone.

    Comment


    • JeffJ
      JeffJ commented
      Editing a comment
      It came out fantastic. Best I've ever done by a considerable margin.
      I am so pleased! My mom is having some leftover right now and she says it tastes just as good as it did yesterday.

    #6
    Awesome, you'll be a master in no time!

    Comment


      #7
      JeffJ did you find the problem with the gasser?

      Comment


      • JeffJ
        JeffJ commented
        Editing a comment
        Yep. User error. I fired it up and it worked perfectly. I cooked corn on the cob in it to accompany our pulled pork sammies. All is well.

      #8
      Glad to hear things worked out.

      Comment

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