1st smoke jitters come true....

If butt has bone in it twist to see if it feels like it is loose, if not put back in and try later. Don't sweat it will probably turn out OK.

Too many people depend too much on thermometers.

cal mentions the bone twist. but that can be hard.

Take the probe and push it into the pork in a couple of placed. How easy does it go in. You should meet little/no resistence.

Then pull.

A LOT of therms come off the line damaged. I check my frequently just to check them. I don't trust electronics.

What kind of unit do you have?

I have a Smokette 009. The results were poor, but edible. I think I overcooked the meat. My thermo didn't work and I focused on that vs. the weight/time calculation. Having never smoked a single thing before, I had zero expectations of the how the meat should come out. Since I started this before I went to bed, I had no time to check if the meat temp was rising. Therefore I was thown for a loop when I woke up to see it reading at 300+. I found a cheapo stick thermometer and the meat read 140. So being utterly confused, I put it back in for a few more hours. Between openings of the door, taking the meat out, I lost control of the situation. I obviously knew my meat wasn't 300, but I didn't want to eat it at 140. I thought the best thing to do was keep cooking and learn what overcooked pulled pork tastes like.

What temp was you useing??? If you was around 225* it would take 20-24 hrs or more before you would over cook and that is without opening the door. LISTEN to Smokin,learn how to cook without probe,it is for getting you close.You will have to learn when it is done, thats why we come here. To ask what we did wrong and try to make our Q the best we can.Good luck on the next one and please keep us informed on how it goes.

I guess you understand the need to keep good notes for reference not all was lost on your 1st experence.

Thanks Cal. That's why I'm here. Never ate pork butt, much less made it. Therefore, I have no clue as to doneness. I cooked at 225.

That being said, I used the formula of food weight x recommended cooking time per specific meat. Simply put, the food just didn't seem to be done and the probe was throwing me off. When I said over done, the meat was somewhat dry and didn't fall apart. I didn't wow me nor my wife. So I know I did something wrong. I was afraid I was eating undercooked meat. I'll try again and see how it goes. Thanks for listening.

I just cooked 2 pbs about same size 7.5lbs at 18 hrs one was 193* the other 203*. It is hard to tell on time.Only use it as a guide tell you can poke most places with probe and it feels like entering butter. Then I grab the bone if there is one and turn. Well done it almost falls out.If it has just a little give it will be the way I like mine. Don't let probe fool you by just reading the temp.Might be by bone,in pocket fat(don't ask how I know this).

I always put bone where I can give it a tug.If you probe is in fat just reprobe.

The KEY to not drying out is leave the door shut as much as possible.My last time was no peak, it was really hard to do, but well rewarded.

If you get dry next time try a little of smokins' finishing sauce.

Unfortunately your Lesson Learned won't help you this time, but will help others.

TOO MANY times, folks use only the temp probe, and if something goes wrong, they wonder why?

The best thing to do is use it as a guide, on just one tool, and learn how to manually confirm doneness.

Many a time a probe tells me one temp, but my checking says different.

Get used to doing this and you'll also learn how to do it if the therm dies (which they do).

After all, plenty of us learned to Q without a therm.