First cook, need some advice

[lcdearman]

First cook in my #2 analog. I'm doing the DM pork butt, 7 lb, brined for 12 hours, 6.2 oz hickory and cherry, set smoker to 225. Watched my ambient thermometer and it was swinging about 40 degrees, centered closer to 240 than 225. Adjusted the temp control and got it swinging between 207 - 247, then re-calibrated the knob. 14 hours in, and this 7lb butt is still sitting at 180. It seemed to stall at 156, holding there for a long time, but now it seems to have stalled again. I checked my probes a couple of weeks ago, they were right on with ice water and boiling water. I have 2 probes in the butt, and they are about 3* different, dropped another ambient probe through the exhaust hole and it is within 5* of the initial probe. Any ideas? Maybe both probes hit a fat pocket?

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[lcdearman]

I probed the butt with my instant read thermometer and it agreed with my other probes. I let it go to 190 and removed it. 15 hours and 15 minutes. I am guessing the issue was that the location of my ambient probe caused me to turn the temp down too far. The butt was on the next to top rack and I had the ambient probe clipped to the back of that rack. Maybe that caused it to read high compared to the temp the butt was seeing?

In any case, I am resting it now and will pull in just a little bit.

[old sarge]

Tough getting answers to posts late in the day.  Butts can be reliability stinkers in that you can have two at same weight and smoke on two different days and their finish time can vary by a couple of hours.  Having an instant read is always a good idea just for peace of mind as well as not ruining a hunk of goodness.  I have had a butt finish in just under 12 hours and another around 17 hours.  And the time can also vary with the density of the pork.  Hope it all turns out well.

[Pork Belly]

Worry less about temp and more about texture. Closely watching box temp will drive you nuts. The box goes up and down much like your kitchen oven.

[lcdearman]

Sometimes being an engineer is a curse. I was watching the box temp mainly because I had read that the temperature knob often needs to be calibrated. I bet if I had left it alone things would have cooked more in the time I expected. I did put the knob back to where it was from the factory. I used 3 2oz chunks of wood from Smokinlicious, 2 cherry and 1 hickory, on the chip screen. The front and back ones were charcoal, the middle was ashes. I can’t remember if the middle was the hickory.

The meat was good though. The bark was a little tough and chewy, but tasty. The meat was moist but a little bland to me. Of course, I am from Texas and don’t eat much pulled pork. My eating experience is brisket and ribs. I will definitely try again, but I will allow more time. I thought 4:00 AM was early enough to start, but I guess not!

[barelfly]

Glad it worked out for you in the end. Like David mentions, pork butts are all over the place with time. I think the longest I’ve had one go is 18 hours, many go 2 hours/lb. So the nice thing to be able to do, is cook leaving plenty of time and then double foil wrapping, then double towel wrap and letting it rest in an ice chest for a few hours. At least, that’s what my process has come down to over the years.

I’ve also started smoking hotter, at 250F but I have a digital model, I don’t remember what the analog models upper limit is. But, the good thing, you got it and are ready for the next cook!

Out of curiosity - what did you rub with?

[lcdearman]

Thanks all. I made the pork dry rub found in Tony’s Lazy Q Guide. I also made this Eastern Carolina sauce: https://www.smokinitforums.com/index.php?topic=6122.0

I wanted to do something different from the typical Texas BBQ sauce. I picked up some Cattleman’s “Carolina Tangy Gold” mustard sauce too. It was all good!